As we grow older, we gain a stronger sense of reality. Yet, in return, we lose any excitement or expectations of the present and future. Try to recall your dream job. Does it have the same effect to your heart that it had in the past? We lose the romance that it gave us, and we lose track of what we wanted to have. However, fashion blogger, Park Eunhea (ENE), hasn’t stopped searching for her dream job even after graduation, and so the Sookmyung Times (SMT) sought out to learn about her passionate and enthusiastic attitude toward life.
SMT From last year’s TV program Sweetroom Season 2, you were introduced as many job titles including fashion blogger and designer. Exactly what kind of work are you currently doing?
ENE Operating my fashion blog is what I mainly do, and I’ve been casted for other jobs under the title of a fashion blogger. I’ve been introduced as a custom designer, which is customizing and reforming fashion items, but this is more of a hobby that I’ve enjoyed since I was little. Designers are people who do business related works, but I either wear or keep what I design. Although currently a collaboration work amongst Korean designer brands is being discussed. I also model for clients who deal with more of a pure creative art than commercial brands. I am a freelancer stylist for advertisements and film making areas, and also teach lectures at malls where I recently taught a class about the many ways to use scarves. After the Sweetroom program was broadcasted, several other TV programs have made inquiries, but I’ve politely declined their offers, thinking that it is too early to be exposed yet. I plan to work more actively after my job profession becomes more specific.
SMT Amongst your many job titles, there was something called a “shopping supporter.” Can you explain more about this unfamiliar career?
ENE Blogs are where you can provide an infinite amount of information to unknown individuals without any screening process, and thus it has the potential of great influence. Blog marketing is one of the popular rising promotion methods to corporations. How it works is that companies offer us bloggers a sort of credits that we can use to shop. With some of the credits, we buy and try out the company’s products, post a realistic review on our blogs, and in this way advertise their brands to the public. Of course, if the style of the corporation doesn’t match with mine, I turn down
the offer no matter how big the offer is.
SMT “Fashion is a luxury.” What are your opinions about this phrase? ENE Fashion is not a luxury. It is one of the primary desires that we are born with. In the past, food, clothing, and shelter were the basic necessities of life, but now, times have changed and clothing has developed into fashion. People don’t wear clothes to protect themselves anymore, but to express what kind of person they are and show to others. Fashion is not a luxury, but those who spend more than their budget allow them to in order to buy designer labels can be seen as indulgent people.
SMT Blogging is perceived as an everyday hobby without any financial profit. What does blogging mean to you? ENE Fashion blogging in foreign countries is different from our country in the sense that their profit structure is so that they can live on being a fashion blogger as their main job. However, this isn’t the case in Korea. Even for me, it is hard to keep blogging for a long time just for the reason that it’s what I like to do. All the bloggers including myself need to have some productive work alongside blogging. These days, where everything is solved by a single smart phone and people maintain human relationships upon social networks, the atmosphere of the society is towards trusting the information that blogs offer. Its influence and informative strength amounts to any other infrastructure, and many media outlets are starting to take interest in fashion bloggers. It’s expected that there will come a time where fashion bloggers become an important title and play as important a role as they do in other countries in the near future, and for this to come true, I’m planning to develop my own fashion style ahead at the front line.
SMT Working for multiple jobs at a young age shows how diligent you are. Could you tell us your own work ethic that makes it possible to manage all that you have to do?
ENE My greedy desire to enjoy every moment of my life creatively is stronger than most others. When I think of something I want to do, I don’t adjust it according to the surrounding limitations, but just simply believe that I can accomplish it. My excessive confidence makes some people frown with disdain, but why should I be tied down to them? I haven’t yet found a real job. I did have a chance right when I graduated from SMU. I worked for a year at one of the best fashion companies in Korea, but I had a bigger dream than that, so I decided not to stay. Today, I’m living an enjoyable life as a freelancer. Getting to learn firsthand on the field is the best experience, and is helping me develop my path towards branding Enemood and to become a fashion icon myself. To say a few words to the juniors at SMU, each of you probably have your own goal, but I hope you don’t obsess too much about your grades or certificates. For example, try signing up for classes that are helpful to you rather than classes that give you good grades. When youlive a life that is dependent on what others think, you get tired easily and would quickly want to give up. When you live a life for yourself, an infinite amount of energy will accompany your many possible paths in front of you.