Do Won Chang: The 21 St Century Dream

“For me family is the most important… When people talk about the American Dream, they are talking about a better life. However, if the business is doing well but your family is broken, that isn’t quite success to me.”

- Jordan Low

Clothing and textiles are truly a unique form of art with great historical value. The wearing of clothes is an exclusively human characteristic and is a feature in most human societies, though it is not known for certain when humans began wearing clothing.

Based on what we know about history and anthropology, humans around the world most likely began using clothes as a means to defend themselves from changing weather as people migrated to new climates. The earliest of these clothes were made by adapting animal skins and vegetation into coverings.

Eventually, as humans evolved, each and every civilisation developed different styles of clothing to reflect the materials and technology available to them. The variety and distribution of clothing and textiles within a society also reveals social customs and culture.

Pretty much every civilisation in history adopted a class system in one way or another. As such, the practice of using clothes as a symbol of status became commonplace throughout the globe. Nobles and aristocrats would often try to outdo one another by commissioning even more lavish and grand attires, while the working class and peasantry would use simple and functional garments.

While today, strict class systems have, for the most part, been abolished throughout the globe; the idea of flaunting ones wealth, status, or style through clothing is still very much alive and kicking. It is this urge to satisfy our human ego that drives the massive multi-billion dollar machine that is the fashion industry.

In this edition of SME, we will be following the rags-to-riches story of Do Won Chang and his wife and business partner, Jin Sook Chang; who both came to the United States with nothing, and now owns an apparel empire that spans the globe: Forever 21.

CHASING THE DREAM