Moon Jung Chang

Specialized in Fashion Design.

Moon Jung Chang

About Moon Jung Chang

Moon Jung Chang earned her master of fine art degree at Fashion Institute of Technology of school of grad study (2017-2019), as a first cohort. When she graduated, she won the first prize from the department due to the excellent works.When she graduated, she won the first prize medal from the department due to the excellent works. She earned her BFA fashion design from Pratt Institute in New York (2016). When Moon entered Pratt, she received $96,000 scholarship, and awarded as Seemann-Burse Fund scholarship recipient because she placed in the President list annually, and she has graduated from Pratt with honors and received Pratt Circle Award. Moon’s aesthetic focus on the dichotomy between beauty and ugliness is an invaluable asset of her own visual vocabulary as a designer. The massive size and weight of black with cute elements such as a flowers, bows, and ruffles create the tensions of contrasts and emphasize the aesthetic of massive minimalism as well as the cuteness in ugly ways.

  • Winner of the A' Design Award.
  • Specialized in Fashion Design.
  • Original Design.
  • Creative, Diligent and Innovative.
  • All Designs
  • Fashion
Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection

Hybrid Beauty Womenswear Collection

Fashion Design

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Interview with Moon Jung Chang

Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
When I was young, I wanted to become a painter because I love art and painting. But I wanted to communicate and interact with people more through what I create, so I chose to become a designer, especially a fashion designer because we cannot live without fashion. I had always admired New York City for being one of the most influential fashion capitals in the world. When I was 19, I finally moved here to study fashion, and that’s how my journey started.
Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
Moon Chang is the brand which promotes hybrid couture, which means wearable couture in modern and future days, we also have a second brand named, VENUS IN BLACK, a life style brand, which promotes wearable couture in sustainability.
What is "design" for you?
Design for me is, it can be anything with conception and functionality.
What kinds of works do you like designing most?
I like to design "experience", such as PTSD, something I or other people experience, it can be personal, and I love to extend it as a social, and test it out with garments. I use fashion as a visual language and tool.
What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
I love all of my collection, especially, the aesthetically techniques I developed and cooperated them into my designs.
What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
I fall in love with Traditional millinery, and couture techniques, with traditional velvet, silk, satin, and organza. As a contrast, I combined these fabrics with functional materials, like waterproof nylon, and heat-sealed rubber.
Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
I focus on aesthetic with functionality, to make people want that design.
What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
Love and Hate. I am inspired by my PTSD experience, the mental health, and want to express the hardness and beauty of it, and overcome the trauma with fashion.
What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
I feel more challengeable and hopeful to move on to next experiment.
What makes a design successful?
Play, Research, Making and Testing are the key success of my design process.
When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
I follow my instinct and senses to define good or bad first, and try to figure out why this become good or bad, is there story behind.
From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
I wish my brand to be sustainable in the design and production process because this will lead to my brand to be prolonged in a healthy way. I want my brand to be sustainable and ethical in both the design and production process. This is the duty of a creator.
How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
Hybrid will be the future! The mix of new combinations of unusual, oddity and difference will create new aesthetic and future.
When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
My last exhibition and show were in NYC, and I am planning to hold upcoming exhibition in Asia regions.
Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
I can be inspired by everything, even food, like vegetables. However, my favorite inspiration is my own personal story and experience. I believe there is power in a human’s story.​ I am always inspired by personal stories and stretch this to social movement to validity.​
How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
I focus on the dichotomy between beauty and ugliness is an invaluable asset of my own visual vocabulary as a designer. The massive size and weight of black with cute elements such as flowers, bows, and ruffles create the tensions of contrasts and emphasize the aesthetic of massive minimalism as well as the cuteness in ugly ways.
Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
I am from South Korea, but living in NYC for 10years. I can see my design is conversion of eastern and western cultural heritage. In my collection, I reinterpreted couture techniques, which is from Europe. I followed European techniques, but in the meantime, my background as a Korea, definitely would have an impacts on this process, and this creates something aesthetically unusual and different.
How do you work with companies?
I do many meetings to communicate with companies. I think verbal and visual presentation is very important to convey the idea of design and also listen and reflect what they want.
Can you talk a little about your design process?
I read and research a lot first, academically study. I imagine how this can be visual and narrative into design, something you can touch, feel, and wear, so I make many testing samples in 3D to see how it looks in real. I repeat this process many times to make the real happen.
Can you describe a day in your life?
I love to play with my French bulldog, Venus, who is my muse for our brand, VENUS IN BLACK.
Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
I want to say "play and experiment a lot in the design process".
From your perspective, what would you say are some positives and negatives of being a designer?
The positive is mentally, I can stay young to keep my imagination and fantasy to design, and being proud when I see people wearing my collection, which I design. The negative is physically so tired and too much stress to get a new idea and inspiration to create something new.
What skills are most important for a designer?
Making skill is the most important, especially in fashion. Many people can imagine, design in 2D, but if you do not have a power to make in 3D, which is real, design will lose the power of function, I believe function is the key of differencing art and design.
Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
Adobe Creative Clouds are my best friends. Sources are unlimited, even I look up from science, medical book, to cooking and gardening book.
Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
I always write the design planners, which contains from the process to outcomes, which is production. However, it always delays or running out of times, due to many works, but still I do planners, and can estimate my times and schedules based on the experiences.
What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
Why do you choose to become a fashion designer? Where do you get inspirations? When you are being proud to become a designer? Who is your favorite designer?
What was your most important job experience?
I think my internships, which I did early age of 20s. At that time, I did not know much about fashion and industry, and I could learn very fast and see the distinct of the academic and industrial fields.
What are your future plans? What is next for you?
I have upcoming major department stores' stocks in this Summer and Fall.
Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
For design, I do it by myself, and for production, I have a team.
Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
VENUS IN BLACK, my second lifestyle brand, will be launched soon. VIB is ready to wear and product-based, that customers can wear it while walking with their dogs.
How can people contact you?
Please find me at my website, moon-chang.com or my instagram, @moonchangny

Designer of the Day Interview with Moon Jung Chang

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?
I did my bachelor degree for 4 years, and master's 2 years in fashion design. While studying, I did my internships at luxury NYC brands, from small to big ones, and also industrial design company. I fully dedicated 2 years of industrial experiences of my Design Studio, Moon Chang. In between, I have done clients based design works as well.
How did you become a designer?
When I was young, I wanted to become a painter because I have done fine art, especially paintings, for a long time. But, I wished my ability of art to be more functional and useful, which can help people, and found out fashion design is one of the most valuable areas for human beings.
What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?
Conception, Aesthetic, and technique are my priorities when designing. The conception is the starting point of the process, which makes the design special, based on my experience and research. The aesthetic is also important because it tells me who am I as a designer, it is like an identity and style, and accelerates the value and touch. The technique is a tool, skill and science, which makes the conception and aesthetic breathe in a real life. I create 5D sketchbook, which is the journal of 5 senses, so that it contains the values I need, such as photos, sketches, colors, scents, techniques, videos, sounds, flavors, materials, etc. Therefore, it is a full book of both classic process journal and also latest technology.
Which emotions do you feel when designing?
I am full of curiosity and excitement when doing design, especially I love the beginning and middle of process. In the beginning, it is the idea and concept research, and I am happy to imagine that there are many possibilities of designs. In the mid process, which is the making and sampling parts, I always make the fabrications, first samples and outcomes myself, while making, I love to see how the collection being developed.
What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?
My parents are from the academic backgrounds, and let me to read books, and study a lot, especially english, literature, science and maths. When doing my design process, I include a lot of readings and writings on my process in many different genres and many experiments, especially sciences and philosophy. I love to make my theory valid by the facts, and calculate the research as numbers. Those processes make me more academic in artistic ways, so it makes my design research and outcomes more special. I can say this is not just a beautiful design, it is coming from the researches I did from academic fields.
What is your growth path? What are your future plans? What is your dream design project?
My dream is very simple, but hard. I wish many people's love on my brands and designs.
What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?
Young designers should experience as many as they can, challenge a lot, also fail a lot! They should not fear of failing, it would cause hesitation. Good design always comes from the creative and brave challenge!
You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?
The key of success is the honesty, especially in a professional industry. Be true and honest to your designs and relationships. I saw some designers who try to hide their weakness behind, but leads to negative results. If you have a weak point, don't hide it, confront directly and overcome it! Then opportunity will follow naturally!
What is your day to day look like?
I work Monday till weekends. Especially on weekdays, I start my days with checking my business emails first. After that, I start my design works at the studio. Most days, I do researches, pattern makings, and fabrications, and also the digital works. However, I take a coffee break with my french bulldog, Venus! He is always at a sofa which is right next to my pattern desks.
How do you keep up with latest design trends? To what extent do design trends matter?
I believe there is no season and trends nowadays, what designer or artist suggests are the unique and own trends and styles. I follow my own ways all the time, my preset plans. The positive thing is WGSN trends' forecasts always highlight my collection as future trends, and I am happy that I am ahead of the trends.
How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?
I think a really good design must satisfy people's senses and needs. It is hard to satisfy every single criteria, but must need the strongest strengths to attract people.
How do you decide if your design is ready?
There are a moment I feel, this is it. I am a minimalist who loves maximalism, so I combines the contrasts of those two aesthetics. However, I find the right moment to stop it, and not do overly design. Designs are ready made, but I believe they also need the moment of feeling natural. If I feel something is not complete or missing, I take a break from it and come back later to figure them out, while working on others, and I find the way to solve the incomplete designs.
What is your biggest design work?
The biggest design work was my first thesis collection from my BFA. At that time, I was working on the theme of Fashion Victim, especially about PTSD, and I was too nervous and did not know how to describe it into the garments. However, I firstly confront myself, and also the society, and made this topic broader, shared with people, to make the burden lighter, and confronted it as the perspective of an artist and designer. I successfully completed so well, the outcome was amazing, and received the highest compliments and spotlights. It was the hardest project I did, but it turned out the sweetest at the end.
Who is your favourite designer?
Alexander McQueen and Martin Margiela are my favorite designers, both of them have created the magic in different ways. McQueen creates the full of imaginations and dark fantasy of art and fashion. Margiela also breaks all the rules of fashion industry, which flipped the existing rules and systems, but his garments are perfectly deconstructed and tailored.
Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?
I have been NYC almost 8 years now, and it is much more comfortable than my hometown, Korea. I think culture effects on my design for sure because my lifestyle changed a lot when I moved to NYC to study fashion design. The city was full of freedom and expression, and no regulations and limits on art and design educations.
Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?
I only work alone because I need to focus alone and can work fast. I do have interns for shows or productions, as well as production managers. But for design process, I do work alone. However, that does not mean I am not doing interactions. My business philosophy is to have a communication with people through my design. I do interact with people and friends from industry, and do collaborations and give feedbacks to each other.
What are your philanthropic contributions to society as a designer, artist and architect?
I am the designer who seek sustainable lifestyle, so I promote better conditions on design process, production places, workers, and also for environment. I abandon toxic materials and animal furs, and always try to use the recycled fabrics. Moreover, I attend the critiques and symposium for young designers to give them tips for their portfolio.
What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?
I am so happy that I won the Golden Award, which is the highest in a fashion category. As the most famous design competition, I received many spotlights, greeting letters, and contacts rom many people, and again, it becomes the connections and relations widely. Thank you to A' Design Award.

Extended Interview with Moon Jung Chang

Could you please tell us about your experience as a designer, artist, architect or creator?
I had my degrees from traditional design schools in New York City. My Bachelor of Fine Art Degree at Pratt Institute, School of Design, Fashion Design. MY Master of Fine Art Degree at Fashion Institute of Technology.
How did you become a designer?
Firstly, I believes the fine art motivates art and design aesthetically, and then the functionality. I wished my ability of art to be more functional and useful, which can help people, and found out fashion design is one of the most valuable areas for human beings.
What are your priorities, technique and style when designing?
I wanted to become a painter because I have done fine art, especially paintings, for a long time. But, as I grew up, I realized I wish to design timeless artworks which can be used by people, so I decided to become a designer, instead of a painter.
Which emotions do you feel when designing?
I can design Fashion and apparel as well as product, from industrial design. I thought I love all the genre of designs but I realized I love fashion more, so nowadays, I only focus on fashion and garments design, which can be used as products too!
What particular aspects of your background shaped you as a designer?
Young designers should experience as many as they can, challenge a lot, also fail a lot! They should not fear of failing, it would cause hesitation. Good design always comes from the creative and brave challenge!
What are your advices to designers who are at the beginning of their career?
I think a really good design must satisfy people's senses and needs.
You are truly successful as a designer, what do you suggest to fellow designers, artists and architects?
The value of good design can't be calculated, it is something transcends the time and place, and contains the value. Everyone needs a right to enjoy the value of designs to enhance the quality of life.
How do you know if a product or project is well designed? How do you define good design?
Experiences! I made and design many things, and know what are my strengths, and developed my aesthetic, style, and techniques. As a designer, we need our own strengths, it is the best ingredient of the design success.
Who is your favourite designer?
The greatest design is the design we can see the concept, process, and outcomes in pleasant ways. In design, everything is connected in details, there are no good design without the foundations.
Would you tell us a bit about your lifestyle and culture?
I researched a lot, and made the knowledge into mine, which means I reinterpreted myself, and applied it into my design process. For example, Darwin's evolution theory, it said every life has a survival mechanism to survive, survival of the fittest. And I applied that idea into fashion and garments, what makes certain techniques survived and inherited till present days.
Would you tell us more about your work culture and business philosophy?
I would become a veterinarian or lawyer. The aptitude test I did in my high school, it suggested both lawyer or artist, which was a very opposite and rare result.
What positive experiences you had when you attend the A’ Design Award?
I want to say thank you to my professors, who taught me to build strong foundations and also made me to grow more creative and stronger. Also many people and friends from industry, who support and trust me all the time!

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