Models' first 10 seconds on runway make or break the show

Fashion designer Grace Moon, right, and her son Joshua pose in western Seoul last Monday. / Korea Times

Son walks for mom's shows in Big 3 fashion weeks

By Kang Hyun-kyung

Designers and models are in the same boat.

Models are required to present their designers' collections well enough to appeal to buyers and the media. Models are not supposed to steal the show, because if they do, the focus will be on them, not the clothes they are presenting.

As always in every business partnership, however, risks lurk.

A conflict of interest between the two can happen. Models have to brand themselves in order to succeed in their modeling careers, so some may be tempted to be faithful to their personal gain more than presenting their designers' collections.

Once this happens, Korean-American designer Grace Moon said designers suffer enormously, noting each model's catwalk is an approximately $8,000 project.

“I mean the total value of the dress worn by each model is $8,000,” she said during a recent Korea Times interview at a cafe in western Seoul. Her son Joshua, an actor and model, joined the interview. “All the money you put into the show for each piece of clothing is approximately that amount… (This is why) designers want to have good models who can best present their fashion to the audience.”

Moon, a Hollywood-based fashion designer, arrived in Seoul in later April for the 2018 Asia Beauty Festival and Asia Model Awards held on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

She was invited to the opening show of the annual model awards to select top Asian models among the representatives from 27 countries in the region.

Joshua Moon walks for his mother Grace Moon's show, Friday. / Courtesy of Korea Model Association

Josua said catwalks are a 10-second game and each model's first 10 seconds on the runway can make or break the show.

“On the runway, you have 20 seconds. At the end of the catwalk you have maybe one or two seconds and you got to go back. Once you turn around, the focus is on the next person, so technically only 10 seconds,” he said. “Within the 10 or 11 seconds, you have to express the clothes. You have to make sure the clothes stand out. But as a model you also have to make sure you brand yourself.”

Joshua said models must bear in mind that they are walking for their designers' shows, not theirs, noting being a model is a huge responsibility.

“The whole purpose of the fashion show is to brand and to market,” he said. “If your model doesn't present the clothes in the right way, those clothes are done. You can't use the photos and videos and you can't market those clothes. If you think about it, it's a very huge responsibility.”

Joshua said his acting experiences helped him a lot on the runway.

He said he acts on the stage. “That's what I was doing. I take it as an acting job. The difference between acting and modeling is as a model I think clothes are the most important. It's the designer's show, not my show,” he said.

For Grace Moon, Joshua is much more than her first son. He is her business partner responsible for planning and organizing all events for her shows.

He has been modeling for his mother's shows and walked on the runways during the 2017 New York Fashion Week and 2017 London Fashion Week. He is scheduled to walk the runway during the forthcoming Paris Fashion Week in later September. New York, London and Paris are part of the Big 4 fashion weeks. The other is Milan.

At her shows on Friday and Saturday during the 2018 Asia Beauty Festival and Asia Model Awards, Grace Moon showcased her collections which were based on her reinterpretation of traditional Korean costume hanbok. She said she chose to feature the traditional Korean clothes in order to highlight the excellence of Korean textiles.

The mother-son partnership was forged three years ago when Grace Moon launched her own brand JM Inspired Design Corporation in Hollywood, decades after she had worked in California's fashion industry in various capacities. She first worked with celebrities there as a stylist after she went to California in 1983, following her completion of fashion school in London. Then she worked as a shop master for several years before working with big companies, including Guess and Zara.

Joshua joined her company after graduating from the University of Southern California as a business major.

“So far, so good,” Grace Moon said when asked to comment on her partnership with her son.

“I have not found anything negative about teaming up with my son because he is very helpful. In fact, he works much harder than I because he is responsible for so many things behind the scene.”

She said her son is much more than a model. “He helps me out a lot to move my project forward,” she said. “We designers are stressed out when our shows are nearing because we have so many things to take care of. Whenever I struggle under pressure, Joshua helps me out.”

In the fashion industry, Yang Eui-sig, president of Korea Model Association which hosted the Asia Model Awards and other events on the sidelines, said designers can benefit if they partner with their children.

“As a model, I think Joshua is flawless,” Yang said. “Unlike Korean models who are thinner and taller than him, Joshua is manly. I think Joshua fits well for his mother's shows. And I think Grace Moon would benefit a lot from her partnership with her talented son because he would understand his mother's fashion better than anyone else, so he can present her collections on the runway better than other models.”

Since he debuted as a model in 2015 for designer Antonella Commatteo's show in Beverley Hills, Joshua walked in plenty of fashion shows and private shows in Hollywood and other parts of the United States.

Joshua's walk for designer Honee's show in 2017 New York Fashion Week featured in Elle magazine's Europe edition.

“Whenever I went out in the United States or whatever, people there received me a lot better than I received myself,” he said, adding he had never dreamed of being a model.

Since elementary school, Joshua said he has been an aspiring singer and actor and had prepared to record an album. But it didn't happen. The opportunity for modeling came to him first. “I still don't know anything about modeling,” he said.

The Moons aim to achieve something more than success in their fashion brand. Joshua said he and his mother shared a goal to launch Grace Moon as a “platform” through which Korean beauty and fashion products can benefit. He said Korean products are good in general but it was difficult to brand and market them in the United States. Once a highly effective platform is in place, he said quality Korean products will be able to appeal to U.S. consumers.