#whysocerealz! designer uses unconventional methods to show love is always the answer

Fashion designer Lee Sung-bin wants to talk about love. But not in a serious, contemplative manner. Rather, he playfully urges his audience to be “cerealz.” “It’s the opposite of being serious – I came up with the word cerealz to use as a pun,”...

A model dressed as the Joker at #whysocerealz!'s Seoul Fashion Week 2023 Fall/Winter show last month. The Joker is a recurring character in the brand's shows. [#WHYSOCEREALZ!]

Fashion designer Lee Sung-bin wants to talk about love.

But not in a serious, contemplative manner. Rather, he playfully urges his audience to be “cerealz.”

“It’s the opposite of being serious – I came up with the word cerealz to use as a pun,” said 29-year-old Lee, who also goes by the name Steve Lee. “It basically means that we shouldn’t be so serious.”

His clothing brand, #whysocerealz!, a tongue-in-cheek parody of the Joker’s catchphrase “Why so serious?” from “The Dark Knight” (2008) film, explores the concept of love based on Bible verses.

In his first Seoul Fashion Week show in mid-March, where he showcased his 2023 Fall/Winter (F/W) collection, the #whysocerealz! show was based on a slight modification of 1 Corinthians 13: “If I can speak all the languages in the world, yet do not have love, I am only a clanging cymbal.”

His version added two more verses: “If I can solve every mathematical equation in the world, yet do not have love, I am only an awesome calculator. If I give all I possess to the poor, yet do not have love, I gain nothing.”

It was more than a regular fashion show that would typically see models walking the runway.

Instead, it was a series of skits in which he had models, musical performers and dancers wear his clothes and act — or dance — out scenes with no dialogue for a total of 20 minutes.

Though each episode explored different themes that visualized the aforementioned Corinthians version, like samulnori (traditional Korean percussion performance), schools and money, they all summed up the message that “love is always the best choice.”

“I read the Bible every day,” Lee said.

“Every morning, I read two chapters and on days when I miss those chapters, the whole day kind of sucks, so it’s really like my spiritual food.”

Fashion designer Lee Sung-bin of #whysocerealz!. [#WHYSOCEREALZ!]

The Korea JoongAng Daily met with Lee at his studio in Jongno District, central Seoul, on March 22, for an interview. He recalled Seoul Fashion Week as “the best show” he has ever had since launching the brand in 2018.

“No one works like me on the show; I was really proud of myself and I was very satisfied with the outcome,” Lee said. “I felt like I had put not 100, but 125 percent into the show. My only disappointment was that the cameras were unable to capture everything that was happening in the moment in the video. But then I realized that it was inevitable: It was a show that could only provide the perfect experience to those who were present.”

He wasn’t wrong. To first-time audience members, it was a mind-boggling spectacle. It appeared more like an art performance rather than a fashion show. Everything and anything, was happening all at once, so much so that it was difficult to focus.

A scene from #whysocerealz!'s Seoul Fashion Week 2023 Fall/Winter show last month. Here shows samulnori, a traditional Korean percussion performance. [#WHYSOCEREALZ!]

The first skit in the show involved two models appearing on the catwalk wearing gray tracksuits, each striking a pair of cymbals and a kkwaenggwari (small gong). Then three actual samulnori performers came out with more instruments, like janggu (an hourglass-shaped drum), leading the audience to immediately shift their eyes from the clothes to the traditional folk music performance.

“It’s more fun, unless you’re a fashion designer, because I don’t think [the audience would] want to watch clothes over and over like 30 or 50 times, and [the regular fashion show format] was actually boring for me,” he said. “That’s why I put a lot of performance into the show. At the end of the day, if the show is good, and you like that brand, I think you will look into the clothes too.”

Despite being a fashion designer, Lee didn’t want the focus of the show to be on the clothes, because he didn’t want people to criticize the outfits. Lee not only designs his clothes, he writes the script and plans the entire show. His priority is always on the performance and persuading the audience to understand his emphasis on the significance of love.

But that didn’t mean that he put less effort into his designs; he made sure to add related imagery. For instance, in all of Lee’s shows he makes sure to feature a model dressed as the Joker, a villainous character that “represents evil,” Lee said.

In the 2023 F/W collection the Joker was dressed in a black-and-white dress shirt and pants with detailed money patterns that symbolize corruption. This connects to his performance from the show, in which the Joker kicks a beggar who had been eagerly picking up cash scattered all over the floor.

A scene from #whysocerealz!'s Seoul Fashion Week 2023 Fall/Winter show last month. Here shows two models sitting in front of a chalkboard that is covered with equations, appearing stumped. [#WHYSOCEREALZ!]

Lee’s brand is part of Seoul Fashion Week’s Generation Next, a selection of up-and-coming local designer brands that are provided with financial and coordination assistance. After undergoing evaluation by the Seoul Metropolitan Government officials, #whysocerealz! made the list for this season.

He attributed the success of his show to Chung So-mi, CEO of The Models, a local fashion production agency, whom he says helped a lot with direction and planning.

“I have a lot of ideas and I want to do a lot of things, but I’ve always felt that they were kind of immature,” Lee said.

“But with her [Chung's] experience, she made my crazy ideas reach perfection and come to life.”

The brand has previously participated in Vancouver Fashion Week twice, and is preparing for an upcoming show for New York Fashion Week.

“Hopefully I’ll return to Seoul Fashion Week soon,” Lee said. “I’m thinking of dividing a show in the future into parts one and two.”

The main aim of Lee’s show was conveying that love is capable of being in any kind of form. In one part of the show, two models sit in front of a chalkboard that is covered with equations, appearing stumped.

“A super nerd comes and writes a heart on top of the question mark in the 'x = ?' equation,” Lee explained. “I was trying to portray that the answer to everything is love. Even when you are angry, you can either choose to act based on your anger, or you can simply choose love.”

Designer Lee Sung-bin, right, and his daughter Luna at the ending of #whysocerealz!'s Seoul Fashion Week show last month. [#WHYSOCEREALZ!]

When asked what his biggest inspiration for his designs is, Lee mentioned his nine-year-old daughter, Luna.

“Since she’s a child, I ask for a lot of her advice,” he said. “Sometimes I would ask her, ‘isn’t this a bit too childish?’ and she would say that that’s what makes it even better. And there were times when her advice actually brought about better results, like the heart balloons [that the models carry] for this show’s ending. She gave me the courage to move along with that idea.”

At the end of the show, Lee and his daughter appeared both wearing paper bag masks with the #whysocerealz! logo, a cartoon frowny face. Then they both took the masks off and took a big bow.

“In the finale I tried to portray that love is different to everyone. For me, it’s my daughter,” he said. “For others, it may be their girlfriend or God. The bow at the end was my definition of love, that love is always the best choice.”

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]