Andre Kim, longtime emblem of Korean high fashion and easily Korea’s most famous fashion designer, is dead at the age of 75. I feel lucky to have been able to have attended one of his over-the-top shows, as well as to have bumped into him from time to time.

Known in recent years for his signature “spacesuit” outfit of white clothes and eccentric, spray-on hair antics, it is unfortunate that he wasn’t more revered for having pioneered Korean fashion overseas, bringing western mode to the Korean masses, and for being Korea’s most well-known designer overseas. Michael Jackson asked him to become his personal designer, an offer Designer Kim declined, and he has designed everything from the recent sky blue stewardess uniforms for KAL to his own lines of wedding gowns and dresses — for better or for worse, and no matter what was said about him, Kim was Korea’s premier fashion designer. No Korean designer is or was better known than Andre Kim.

For a more complete picture of Mr. Kim’s life and accomplishments, I direct you to his Wikipedia entry, and encourage you to read the English-language article I wrote up on him after attending one of his fashion shows. Which were, by the way, simply stunning.

I just wanted to put up a quick post to announce the sad news, and to wish Designer Kim a safe journey, wherever he may be going. There is a lot more information on Andre Kim if you Google him — and I trust his true importance to Korean fashion will be emphasized much more in the memorializing coverage that will be coming out over the next few days.

RIP, Andre Kim!