2025-08-25
Daniel Hartman
Design Dispatch, New York
In a fashion landscape often chasing spectacle, kubeko takes a slower, more deliberate path—one where emotion is stitched into every seam. Founded in New York by Heewon Lee and Keon Jung, the brand’s debut collection, Crying Boy, transforms vulnerability, memory, and transformation into garments designed to be both worn and felt.
At the heart is Crying Boy—a fictional character who has lived his entire life inside a single room. He embodies fragility, hope, and the desire for self-reinvention. The collection follows his first steps into the outside world, told through symbolic props, nuanced design gestures, and meticulous craft.
Kubeko didn’t leave its muse in the realm of metaphor. Instead, they CAD-designed and 3D-printed an art toy version entirely in-house, hand-finishing each detail themselves. This object is more than a design experiment—it’s a tangible embodiment of the brand’s philosophy: design as narrative, story as something you can hold. The toy mirrors the emotional depth of the garments, acting as a totem of the founders’ shared backstories, aspirations, and evolving vision.
The same symbolic language flows through the clothing. In the lookbook, a white flower bulb with exposed roots speaks of beginnings; a towering fish suggests the vast unknown; paper cranes hold the potential of fragile flight; a white door stands ajar—an invitation to step into the new. These metaphors are echoed in design details: shaped notches and concealed prints on the undercollar and inner cuffs subtly disrupt traditional silhouettes, rewarding those who look closer.
Kubeko calls this approach a “shy rebellion”—garments that appear understated at a glance but reveal unexpected personality in wear. Familiar silhouettes are reimagined with unique cuffs, elongated ties, and contrasting fabrics that unfold with quiet surprise. Free from gender or age restrictions, the pieces invite a diverse community to connect through shared experiences, hybrid identities, and emotional landscapes.
Looking ahead, kubeko plans to grow its in-house 3D printing capabilities, developing custom accessories as extensions of Crying Boy’s world and integrating them seamlessly into future collections. This multidisciplinary approach—melding digital design with handcraft—allows the brand to tell stories not only in fabric, but in the objects and symbols that surround it.
Crying Boy may be the first chapter, but kubeko’s narrative is designed to evolve—always balancing tenderness with the courage to dream aloud.
