Spanish Coup For Kim

New Zealand fashion designer Jaeha-Alex Kim, 23, was one of 10 finalists at the second El Boton-MANGO Fashion Awards held in Barcelona and though not the winner, Kim’s collection has been selected to be produced alongside the winner’s and distributed in MANGO’s 1250 stores throughout Spain. Called “playfully quirky, yet darkly feminine”, the JAEHA collection for MANGO Winter ’09/10 is based upon ideas taken from his Air New Zealand Fashion Week 2008 collection “Call me princess, my daddy said so” which have been expanded and tweaked for an international audience. “Just to be named as one of their top 10 international finalists was amazing,” says the young designer. “When I got home and they called to ask if they could produce my collection for their stores anyway, I was just speechless … It is an amazing honour and a huge step for me as a designer.” Kim graduated from Auckland’s University of Technology in 26. He has featured in Asian Fashion Designers by Daab Publishing, Germany.