Yewon Choi

About

Yewon Choi is a designer from Seoul, South Korea. Her work investigates pragmatic design responses to the social and personal challenges faced by contemporary women, drawing from Korea’s cultural mindset of frugality and efficiency that emerged in the aftermath of the Korean War. Through the creation of purpose-driven, functional womenswear, she approaches sustainability not as an aesthetic choice but as a practical necessity rooted in resilience and adaptability.

Her MA project [Hide and Heal], is set in a speculative near-future dystopia between the 2030s and 2050s. Prompted by current global news, she reflects on the traumas experienced by her grandparents’ generation during the Korean War and questions how those historical patterns might repeat—this time, through the scale and influence of artificial intelligence (AI).

In this imagined future, following a global conflict, governments worldwide use AI as a tool of mass surveillance and behavioural control. Since AI lacks a physical body, it relies on motion-capture clothing embedded with infrared cameras and biometric sensors to track human movement, emotion, and biological data. Wearing such garments becomes mandatory, reducing individuals to highly predictable and controllable data subjects.

As a form of biomimetic resistance, she has designed survival wear for urban women, inspired by the camouflage strategies of three animals known for their advanced concealment abilities. These garments embody a form of defensive design, offering strategies for coexistence within AI-dominated regimes.

Her work is both a critique of uncritical technological acceptance and a defence of human agency. The garments enable the wearer to tactically navigate between visibility and invisibility—choosing when and how to be seen.

Supported by YKK Showroom London

Instagram: @noweych