A feminine touch for men's shirts

Ahn Eun-jin, the creative director and owner of
Steady-state, says designing men's shirts is all about details.

By Bahk Eun-ji

A designer bets that shirts for men could turn more stylish and appealing to women with a feminine touch.

"Some people say it's difficult for women to make men's suits, and I partly agree with it. However, a shirt is different," said Ahn Eun-jin, 30, the creative director and owner of Steady-state.

Steady-state only makes men's shirts.

Although she has difficulty perfectly understanding male customers' preference as a woman, Ahn believes that she has to make a shirt that looks beautiful when a woman sees it.

Steady-state is all about details on shirts, Ahn says.

"Unlike women's apparel that requires a single dominant criterion of whether or not it is pretty, men's clothing is obviously limited in design. Thus, details are so important," Ahn said.

According to her, that is why she is an advantageous position in the market as a female designer.

"From the number of stitches on an inch of fabric to the shape of collars, customers can order exactly what they want," Ahn said.

She said she is more excited when she meets customers who have their own taste, although it takes 40 minutes to an hour to take an order for a shirt.

Ahn said she realized her passion for men's attire when she was a child.

"My grandfather and uncles had senses of fashion and styles. They were very sensitive to style and used to dress elegantly. My uncles worked for a foreign fashion company. You could say the family culture affected my decision to become a designer," Ahn said.

But she eventually discovered her talent for designing shirts when she was studying men's attire at Esmod Paris.

After graduation, she returned to Korea and worked for Brioni, a world famous Italian high-end tailored clothing company.

"While I worked as a buying merchandiser at Brioni for three years, I had lots of opportunities to manage high-quality attire. I enjoyed working there, but the products from Brioni are only for a limited number of people. I wanted to make more people wear clothes I made," Ahn said that's why she decided to open her own shop in 2011.

In response to the question of why she chose to name her shop Steady-state, Ahn said she wants to maintain the same passion for shirt quality that first inspired her to open the shop.

"Every shirt is hand-made, so I can only make around 10 shirts at the most in a day," Ahn said the efficiency is not high, but she always tries to make sturdy products that satisfy customers.

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