We have been heavily preparing, shooting, and putting together something pretty big. It has already required a great deal of time and energy, and just one part of our project is finished. As part of testing the waters, obviously, you — our readers — are our most loyal base, but also our most honest critics. So we want you to imagine…
Imagine there was a coffee table-sized photo/art book, one was filled with large, colorful, and provocative pictures, as well as original photo stories, interviews, and essays. Supposed it was thick and had real heft to it, with large pages that folded out to reveal some pictures you’d seen before, and some you hadn’t — on the printed page and detailed in a way that the computer screen doesn’t allow.
Imagine it had fresh, art book-style images of Korean runway and street fashion, a “lookbook” of the major shows at Seoul Fashion Week and other venues, along with street photography, a digest of pictures and stories that appeared on the site over the present season, and even had a sense of humor.
Imagine this heavy art book was quite literally a style diary of the city, of Korean fashion, of a mode of being on the streets of Seoul.
Imagine all of our best style and fashion content, both new and digested, written and shot from a provocative and edgy point-of-view — imagine it was available to put in your hands for $50. Say it was called the “Seoul Fashion Report F/W 2009″ and was literally a “lookbook” for not just that season’s runway fashion, but the styles of the streets, how people moved, trends that came and went, the way people lived. Say it came out once a season (twice a year) and was designed not to be just a magazine that tracks things fleeting, but was a work of art unto itself.
Do you think you, as our reader, would buy one? Would you PayPal us to have it shipped to you? If it were as cool as we swear it will be, would you think Koreans would buy one? Would you buy it if there were certain conditions?
Is this something you think us worth doing?
This is a little marketing research, starting with our home base. Step up and give us a bit of feedback, please!
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new trend?
But yeah. Another “Oh, Korea” moment. ><
this makes me want it.. now~~ haha
only one problem.. and this is just me.. the price
i’m a student without a job, the the price might be a proplem D:
but considering its HUGE, idk
for sure would buy.
This sounds like something I’d love to buy.
And it’d make a great conversation piece too.
But would it also have things like fashion tips, or just pictures?
It’d be cool either way, I’m just wondering.
The description alone is enticing enough. Even better if the book’s layout is nice + the book’s paper, etc.
I would buy it (best if PayPal is accepted).
This is very exciting news! I do hope this all ends up happening, I’m totally picking up a copy.
Since you are doing marketing-type research, I will give you a little info about myself. American born and raised Korean. 26 years old. Living here in Jersey. Letting me pay by Paypal and shipping it to here would be the easiest and most convenient option for me. Don’t have any Korean peers so quite unsure what sort of response it would get from the Korean community per se.
I’m kinda unsure how the pricing would work. Would it be 2 books (once per season) for $50? Or would each book that came out be $50 each (meaning I would have to spend $100)? I do have a limited budget and latter would make my wallet very, very sad I have to admit.
Anyways, hope this helps you out! Keep up the fantastic work!
a book description that would make want to buy the book.
not too sure whether the koreans would buy ‘em…..
I think this an excellent idea and honestly it sounds pretty exciting. The only thing stopping me would be the fact I’m 16 and my dad probably wouldn’t agree with me spending £25 on a book (and I myself don’t have that money anyway) Also- would $50 include shipping? And Like Sandra said- would that be both books? Also minor things like how many pages and would it be hardback? Basically I’d have to decide after hearing more information ^_^
I would love to- i would use it to show foreigners how AMAZING korea is contrary to their stereotypical beliefs
but, Im a teen and while i could afford $50, i dont have a paypal or anything like that…
but my situation is probably that of a very small percentage of your readers, so maybe you can disregard that
i think if it was to be a staple at bookstore it would sell awesomely!
I totally love your website~!! the photos are soooo good
and the info you offer is really interesting and helpful. I definitely would buy an FMS art book ^^
You should do it.
To answer some questions:
Bekah: It wouldn’t be like a fashion magazine, with specific tips or content that would be more temporary. We want all the content to be something that would be still interesting 1, 10, or 50 years from now. So, pictures of a tattoo trend in 2008 would still be interesting 50 years from now, as a record and an interesting piece, but where to find colored stockings and a list of stores would be something more for a fashion magazine and too temporary-style content. Know what I mean?
Sandra: We’d make one per season, meaning a copy could come out twice a year. Like fashion weeks. So, even though this is S/S 2009 for fashion (which looks ahead), our book would be F/W 2008 because it would cover the previous 6 months and the most recent fashion week. It’s partially a digest of stuff from the site, along with brand-new material for the book, plus coverage of the most recent fashion week. We think it would be photographically stunning, given all the material we ALREADY produce here, combined with all the major shooting we do in the one week of Seoul Fashion Week.
Catherine: Don’t know exactly how many pages, but it would hefty. Thick. And since it’d be on good paper, you would feel sturdy. We’re leaning towards very thick softcover instead of hardback since we want a photo book that is high quality, but easy to look through again and again, as well as easy to lay flat on a table. We have a couple photo books we’re looking at as a model for the cover quality, size, and thickness. We are sure if we had something similar out, it would be well-received.
Haj: The price is indeed not the same as many other books you might have purchased at such a young age (but considering the price of textbooks these days and the fact that you’re getting near college age, THAT’S gonna change soon!) but art and photo books generally range from $50-150, so ours would be on the lower end of that range, and even judged against normal books, you’d instantly see the quality difference and wouldn’t hesitate to buy it once we had samples of it up. We’re sure of that!
Thanks for the expressions of interest. Any more questions? Anyone else want to chime in about whether you’d buy, what you’d like to see, etc?
Sounds great!
I would totally buy one.
The photos on FMS are incredibly inspiring
Not to mention, it shows the fashions in Korea
to foreigner.
I totally think you should go for it.
I’m left more inspired by random pictures of street fashion and stories from people just like myself because it’s way more personal and interesting and fun…. If all the photos and stories were new then, yes, I would buy but since it is otherwise, I will pass.
sounds like a hit.. i will support this ^^
For $50????? Yes, I sure would buy it! $50 is a good price!
$50 seems a bit steep. A little lower, and I’d definitely go for it.
For bonus, will you have some postcards/posters or a coupon for having you shoot stylized photos on the shinchon streets in the same line with LSK? I’d love those! well if these sound unfeasible/badly unprofitable, nvm! haha
As a photographer, I would love to have this look book. It would be a great way to remember Korea. When will this be available?
I would totes buy it! <3
I’d get one! In my opinion, the price is reasonable. =)
I would definitely buy it. I love those large lookbooks they sell; it gives me great ideas on styling for the current season. I’d rather have all the looks in one book as opposed to buying 10 magazines at once to get me inspiration. Plus with the mix of street fashion, how can you go wrong? Good luck!
id buy it if it had mostly street fashion
i loveeee those shots the most.
good for coffee tables.
I understand
Are you going to be making anything else,
Like maybe a calendar? It’d look good and keep track of my days, lol.
I think that books such as these have a bigger fanbase in other countries (especially the Western ones) rather than in the country that it is based upon. In fact, since I look at Asian fashion magazines and books a lot, I’m glad that you’re thinking about coming up with such a book due to the fact that Korean fashions are HARD to find published and even then, Korean magazines aren’t that famous in other Asian countries. When I go back to Hong Kong in the summer, I have to travel to other parts of town just to get my hands on Korean magazines and considering that I live in the middle of HK, that tells me something. >___<
I live in the United States at the moment and I would definitely want to order one! However, the best way to market this would be to work something out with Amazon.com to make purchasing it easier (or at least another shopping website). If not, you should at least try to contact forums pertaining to Korean entertainment and culture (ex. Soompi, BoAjjang) and try to spread the word about it there. And of course, last but not least, there’s always word-by-mouth publicity through Facebook, MySpace, etc.
I’m looking forward to seeing more of this project of yours, and keep up the good work! I admire your articles and coverages of the fashion week, as well as the superb photography.
Those are good ideas, and we’re gonna look into them. Amazon.com versus PayPal is also something to research. We also hope that this will be a hot ticket item overseas (and here, too!) and will spread by word-of-mouth. It might seem more “special” that way, and we’re not looking to sell a million copies. Just a couple, a few thousand to the right people.
Keep the feedback coming! It’s appreciated!
Personally I thing the street fashion photography is great. The writing and the fashion week stuff? Maybe.
There is a book (by Phaidon?) on Japanese street fashion. No words at all. Just photos of kids on the street. Very popular here in the US, I see it everywhere.
Your project sounds ambitious, and you can do what you want, but my advice is stick to the pictures. They will knock people out.
If you’re going to self-publish, take a look at Createspace, which is owned by Amazon. That’s where you’re going to sell the most copies, and if you go with Createspace the book will automatically get listed there.
I like the idea, but I bet you would have a hard time selling 1000 copies without it being on Amazon. Especially at that price. Sorry, that’s just the way it goes. I have some experience in this arena.
You have my email address. Email me if you want to talk about it more.
I’d most definitely buy one and hopefully it becomes widely available like Fruits of Japan is.
As an aspiring designer, there clearly isn’t enough published information about Korean fashion, which really hinders the growth of the industry and general awareness of Korean fashion.
When the book gets published I’ll recommend my university library to stock up on it as an academic reference for Korean fashion. As currently despite the university offering a course in fashion design, there aren’t any books about Korean fashion in the library system
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