A brief conversation with J.L-A.L on his new collaboration with Kolon Sport.

It all started when I came across a post by Jean Luc on Instagram featuring several technical pieces, including a jacket that immediately caught my eye.

The post was captioned ‘K : FW25,’ and to be honest, I didn’t really understand what it referred to, so I asked Jean Luc directly and that’s how this exchange happened…

JL : "So K : is a new line under KOLON Sport China. It's run by my studio -Velle-a studio."

If you didn’t know, Kolon Sport is the first outdoor brand in South Korea, and it was founded in 1973.

JL : "Some of the best product I've seen in terms of fabrication abilities." "Not gassing myself up (they just have insane developers and factories)"

JL : "We handle design and creative direction." "Currently it's exclusive to China so there's no presence on western media plaforms but I'm hoping to change it soon."

Kolroy : How and when did the connection with Kolon Sport happen ? JL : "I think the connection came about around 2 years ago. I'd been speaking with some people that work with them for some time and eventually aligned on a project. I’d been aware of them through a Hussein Chalayan collaboration and some other projects people I know had worked on."

Kolroy : I can see the outdoor utilitarian side from your early collections how does it feel to dive back into that universe ?

JL : "With J.L-A.L I always intended for the brand to grow beyond my initial interests and begin expanding with my taste and how we decide to push ourselves as a studio - which has lead to the brand evolving quite substantially every season.

So It’s really enjoyable to be back in this universe. I still spend as much time as possible within nature and It’s such a joy to be designing clothes that can protect me and augment my experience of it. Especially with such incredible production capabilities from the team and factories we work with."

Kolroy : Are you still able to manage your time between your own brand and the work you do at Kolon Sport ? JL : "Aha yes, I just have an extremely strict calendar and working day now - But it’s great to be working across such varied projects, they always feel like the enrich each other in one way or another. There is also a lot of learning when you’re not silo’d to one brand or company which allows myself and the studio to adopt new ways of approaching projects and general company/ studio management."

As you’ve probably understood, the new Kolon Sport ‘K’ line with the JLAL studio is unfortunately only available in China for now. Hopefully it will be released in other regions in the future. Thank you Jean-Luc.