The Korean-American designer Yoon Ahn belongs to an ascendant group of Asian women in today’s fashion industry, joining the likes of Sacai’s Chitose Abe and following in the footsteps of pioneering female designers such as Anna Sui, Vera Wang and Kimora Lee Simmons. Based in Tokyo, her streetwear label Ambush often collaborates with top fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton, Off-White, Sacai and Rimowa. She has also been commissioned by the Museum of Modern Art to exhibit in a fashion retrospective alongside historic brands such as Nike, Chanel and Cartier — the last of which Ahn partnered with to reimagine its iconic Love bracelet. In 2018, she was appointed by the creative director Kim Jones to lead jewellery design for Dior Men.
Now, the 42-year-old is adding more shine to her portfolio as the latest designer tapped by Bulgari for its “Serpenti Through the Eyes of” collaborative series, which reimagines its signature Serpenti bag. Creative alumni of the project include Alexander Wang and Nicholas Kirkwood, who each had reinterpreted the bag through their individual visions while retaining the distinct serpent head emblematic of the Italian house. “I’ve never really designed bags before, so this was a new experience for me,” she tells me via a Zoom session one August evening, as she comes off a day spent getting ready for a release in September for her own brand. “It was interesting to learn about Bulgari and see how I could bring a new story while respecting its heritage and DNA.”
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