We live in a world where every stimulus, every data point, arrives in the same relentless high definition. Chase what the algorithm puts in front of you closely enough and there’s no room left to look inward. SAN SAN Gear‘s Spring/Summer 2027 collection starts from that exact tension. While everyone else races toward higher resolution, the Seoul-based label is doing the opposite: it’s calling this season “Soft Focus,” a study in deliberately blurring the picture.

Since launching out of a small Seoul studio in 2019, SAN SAN Gear has expanded into Paris, Tokyo, and London without bending to whatever’s trending — building a point of view through clothing rather than chasing shapes or graphics, an approach that’s landed well on the global stage. At its dedicated showroom during Paris Fashion Week, the brand made its case for the new season through reversed fabric detailing and analog automata sculptures placed throughout the space. We sat down with Director Lee Sang-yeop, who treats hype as beside the point and every season like the first one.

You started out of a small studio in Seoul in 2019, and since January 2024 you’ve shown a collection in Paris every season. Facing global buyers and media now, how does that feel?
When we started in 2019, there was no grand goal — the only real question was how to make it to the next season. We just kept making clothes we believed in and putting them out into the world, and somehow that’s what brought us here. I come to Paris every season, but honestly, it’s never gotten familiar. This is a place where brands from everywhere get judged on the same terms, so spectacle or buzz alone won’t keep you standing for long. In the end, all that’s left is the clothing itself and whatever originality the brand actually has. So for me, Paris isn’t a place to celebrate — it’s a cold, clear-eyed test of whether the sensibility we built season after season in Seoul actually holds up once you cross languages and borders. I can feel more people picking up on what we’re doing each season, which is a relief, but I’m trying not to get carried away by it. Every season still feels like a first step to me, and I believe the moment we lose that edge is the moment SAN SAN Gear’s identity starts to blur too.

You’re stocked at stores like GR8 in Japan and GOODHOOD in the UK. What do you think international buyers find fresh about SAN SAN Gear that domestic fans already love?
Buyers keep telling me the same thing: it’s functional without feeling cold, and it’s street without feeling lightweight. Honestly, I don’t think graphic tees or hoodie silhouettes are what define a street brand. To me, “street” has less to do with the shape of the clothes and more to do with a distinct way of seeing the world. Instead of following the standard playbook, we treat clothing as an archive within a worldview we’ve defined ourselves, and I think that approach itself is what’s resonating overseas. The best compliment we get is when someone finds a detail inside a familiar category that they’ve genuinely never seen before.

This season’s theme is “Soft Focus.” The line about “a world that demands sharp resolution for everything” stands out. Was there a personal moment that led you to this concept?
People today live through more information and stimulation than they can really handle, every waking hour. What we’re supposed to watch, react to, prove with numbers — it all shows up in front of us in the same sharp resolution. The algorithm keeps pushing new things at us, and we end up spending all our focus keeping up with it, with nothing left over to look at ourselves. But I’ve noticed that the harder you try to hold everything in sharp focus, the blurrier it actually gets on what matters. So I started thinking we need to keep everything in view but deliberately leave some of it out of focus — basically, decide for ourselves what deserves clarity and what doesn’t. It’s not about shutting the world out. It’s closer to keeping something clearly in your field of vision and still choosing to let it stay blurred and pass by. Once you take some of that focus away, that’s where room to breathe, and room for your actual self, finally opens up. “Soft Focus” is what happens when we translate that idea into clothing.

You’ve set this season’s persona as someone who reads a book on public transit during their commute home, or goes out to catch a live show. What kind of day do you picture this person having in SAN SAN GEAR?
I pictured someone who holds onto their own pace and taste inside a city that feels cold and repetitive day after day. Someone who opens a book even in a packed subway car full of nonstop noise, or who goes to catch a favorite artist’s show after work and gives themselves fully to that time. Instead of absorbing every bit of stimulus coming at them, they deliberately let some of it pass by without focus, so they can keep their attention on what actually matters to them. I wanted SAN SAN GEAR to be the flexible, dependable shield that protects that person from outside noise in exactly that moment. It doesn’t need to be some dramatic day — it’s enough that the clothes protect an ordinary day that person is living on their own terms.

This collection’s reversed front-and-back fabric detail is striking. What conversations did you have with the design team while developing it?
When we were figuring out how to translate “Soft Focus” into an actual product, we landed on the idea that the theme only works if a single piece holds both a crisp outer surface and a blurred, rougher essence hidden inside. That’s where the idea of flipping and mixing the front and back of the fabric came from. As we kept talking, it evolved into printing graphics on the inside of a T-shirt so the design shows through the outside only as a deliberately hazy trace. Instead of the usual move of putting a sharp graphic front and center, the clean image stays hidden inside while only an afterimage shows on the outside. It’s almost like something only the wearer knows about — or something someone passing by might notice only after the fact. That’s the piece of this theme I think the clothes capture best: nothing reads all at once.

You collaborated with German artist Clemens Fischer, showing analog automata pieces in the showroom. What led to that, and what effect were you going for?
I’ve always been drawn to the blunt, mechanical movement that analog systems have and digital just can’t replicate. When I saw Clemens Fischer’s work, I was sure it lined up with the analog mood we were going for. I reached out cold, shared our philosophy and this season’s idea of “intentional blur,” and he connected with it enough that the collaboration came together. In the middle of a sleek, modern Paris showroom, having gears and springs turning in this clunky, mechanical way works almost like a small brake on a high-resolution world. Surrounded by cold, functional clothing, it introduces some human warmth and a visual crack — slowing the collection’s message down by a beat.

In balancing functionality and casualness, what’s the one line SAN SAN Gear won’t cross?
It’s less that we have a fixed rule and more that holding onto our own way of seeing the world is the standard. We won’t suddenly start designing like a hiking brand because gorpcore is trending, and we won’t drop our identity just because a trend cools off. Even the functional-versus-casual balance isn’t really about ratio — it comes down to whether we keep our own perspective intact. We can make something as plain as a hoodie and still see it, and twist it, differently. Not getting too serious, but not getting careless either — staying in that space between ease and tension is really the only line we’re protecting.

Last question: what would you say to global audiences discovering SAN SAN Gear for the first time through the Paris showroom, and to the domestic fans who are always waiting for what’s next?
To the global audiences meeting us for the first time in Paris, I hope SAN SAN Gear is remembered as a brand that represents Korean fashion, read through its own perspective and culture. And to our fans back home who’ve given us more support than we probably deserve — even as we expand into Tokyo, Shanghai, Paris, and beyond, the authenticity at our roots, in fashion and in culture, isn’t going to change. I hope you’ll keep watching with interest as that worldview keeps expanding.