Chad Burton, featured in last month's Nylon, has sent a reform guide to Nylon Guys.
translation by Burger Kim
We met Chad Burton at his place near Itaewon where we could see his unique taste in things. A stuffed pheasant was standing guard on the A/C and his closet and bedroom were filled with clothes and accessories he had reformed himself. This tall modelesque guy from Canada first came to South Korea to teach English almost 4 years ago. Quite unexpectedly he started modelling, blogging, taking street fashion snaps and sometimes styling and now he is a man of many fashion talents. So it's only natural he met Nylon. Not so long ago his blog thexoxokids.com was featured in Nylon USA and Nylon first met him during last Seoul Fashion Week. Since then he was shown in Nylon's fashion column wearing clothes he reformed and we thought it'd be a shame to leave his reforming talent with just a snap, so we decided to feature him in Nylon Guys as a factory boy.
Chad started styling with reformed clothes to have an original party look. Now his reformed items are popular among not only his friends, but others. He started selling a few of his reformed items at a flea market he goes to and said a lot of people are now coming to the market to buy his pieces. He said "I used to sell just vintage clothes at the market, but I started adding decorations on a few of them as an experiment and they sold better. I think people are attracted to them because they are unique. A lot of Korean people dress very similar to each other, but I'm glad more and more people are looking for something original and unique."
When asked what's his favourite party look, he answered "A friend of mine (CORY!) hosted a Reform School themed party, so I added sharpened pencils on shoulders and put calculators on my shoes to complete a 'stationary look'. It was so awesome." (here is a link to that party called X-Rated: http://bit.ly/ea4cEd )
His favourite items to reform are denim jackets. He usually buys them at Dongmyo market for a couple of bucks, then rips off the sleeves and add tassels, fringe or feathers to make a cool denim vest. So with no hesitation he picked a denim jacket as his subject for this project with Nylon Guys. This is how he makes a denim vest. To add to the vintage feel, cut a small hole in the arm hole and rip the sleeves off by hand then sew ivory fringe, easily found in Dongdaemun fabric market, on to the vest. After piercing through the jacket with an awl and screwing in the studs with a driver, you have a denim vest Chad Burton style.
As we were leaving he added "I always get my inspiration from flea markets and Dongdaemun fabric market because what someone throws out can be useful to me. This discarded toy dinosaur turned into a great necklace. I just try. There's no harm in trying something new and interesting." Each day is filled with confidence and challenges for him and we think he is a real Nylon guy.
/ find Nylon Guys on newstands in Korea, sold together with Nylon.
ps. scan the QR code to see me on Nylon TV soon!
xoxochadchad
CHADCHAD, you're blowing up! Andrea and I were homegirls in Lawrence, Kansas -back in the undergrad days. How I wish she wasn't leaving! I would love to do a little shopping with ya'll, Dongmyo market, you say?
ReplyDelete