Hi Huneybees,
Youk Shim Won, Korea’s best known whimsical fashion and accessories brand, has chosen Singapore as the location to open its first store in Southeast Asia.
Located at Great World City, the store opened its doors early April. Youk Shim Won was first launched in Korea by Gallery AM in 2005 and is based on the work of acclaimed Korean artist Youk Shim-won, a painter who draws “happiness”. She believes that every woman possesses a hidden beauty and dreams of happiness.
Under the brand Youk Shim Won, the artist launched a collection of bags, fashion and lifestyle accessories featuring her signature paintings of beautiful girls projecting playful and happy personality. In addition, the brand carries household items, and has garnered a huge fan-base for its quirky and ‘princess’ designs that appeal to women of all ages who have a ‘princess’ side to them.
The 39-year old artist is best known for the animated facial expressions of women delicately transcribed on canvas. The muse for her paintings are women from all walks of life, and the concept of both the inner and outer beauty of her subjects, through her medium. Youk Shim Won’s works encourage women to dream, and show them that their individual nature can be beautiful in themselves.
Women are happy because they are women. Every woman is a princess in Youk Shim Won’s world, believes Youk Shim-won. This is the spirit behind all her artwork and the merchandise bearing her art.
The store carries a core selection of Youk Shim Won’s merchandise from bags, wallets, diaries to cushion covers. Each piece features one of the many character paintings created by Youk Shim-won herself. Each of the bags tastefully matches the spirit and fashion of the characters it features. Prices start from $15 for a spring note book to $699 for a soft carrier bag.
Youk Shim-won, the painter who draws the happiness and dreams of all women
Youk Shim-Won showcases her works with delicate and rich colour. She does not just draw a pretty girl but draws the inner beauty and dream of every woman. Even grandmothers and aunties are able to relate to her paintings as she believes all women are entitled to dream and thus she wants to express this through her works, which are known to be “filled with happiness”. She hopes everyone can be happier just by looking at her creations.
The artist’s paintings have been featured in various solo and group exhibitions held in Korea. The artist herself has been interviewed by most key Korean news channels and variety shows. Her painting and fashion accessories can also be seen in popular Korean dramas such as Boy’s Over Flowers, The Witch and Three are stand-alone stores. Due to its popularity amongst women in Korea, Youk Shim Won has also teamed up with Hana Bank to create a series of credit cards and bank books especially for women, featuring her iconic paintings.
Youk Shim-won uses a technique featuring traditional materials such as Jangji (thick traditional Korean paper) and Bunche (solid paint, to be used by grinding it into flour) to effectively spread the colours delicately on the canvas. She first mixes the paste by grinding Jangji and Bunche together, and slowly adjusting the thickness of the paste with water. The paste is then layered several times on Jangji. This procedure expresses delicate intensity and simplicity as opposed to oil painting techniques. She insists on using oriental techniques to create her paintings as she believes this presents a new paradigm of Korean painting. The softness and radiance of oil painting is reflected with the unique colours of her traditional painting techniques with are merged with the natural texture of paper. The result is a deep and rich colour created that makes the characters in her works lively and expressive.
Youk Shim Won is exclusively available at Great World City #03-19A.
