For years Yoon Ahn, a founder and the creative director of the fashion label Ambush, had resisted the idea of creating a book about the brand.
But now she and her co-founder, Verbal, born as Ryu Yeong-gi, are awaiting the March 4 global debut of their 255-page book, “Ambush,” published by Rizzoli ($65). Ms. Ahn, 48, said she changed her mind, starting to work on the volume 18 months ago because, in the age of the internet, “you have to own your narrative and what you do.”
The book charts the duo’s unconventional hip-hop designs, from the brand’s debut as a unisex jewelry line in 2008 to its 2016 addition of clothes and accessories. It showcases a comprehensive gallery of advertising photos and product and look-book images, as well as a short conversation between Ms. Ahn and Verbal about the evolution of the brand. Comments from their friends and associates, including G-Dragon, the Korean rapper and singer-songwriter, and Chitose Abe, the designer behind Sacai, are scattered through the book. (Ms. Abe is quoted as saying she was “touched by their unique creativity and originality in their craftsmanship, so I initially placed an order for their jewelry myself.”)
Jewelry in the book includes their neon knuckle-duster Pow! rings in tin alloy, silver padlock earrings and a crown headpiece in bronze accented with crystals, as well as headphones accented with cats’ ears.
Ms. Ahn, born in Seoul, spearheads the brand’s designs, while Verbal, 49, born in Tokyo, is its chief executive. He renamed himself Verbal in the late 1990s when he became a rapper with the group m-flo, as “that’s how I convey my creativity, through words,” he said. (The two married in 2004 and are based, along with the brand, in Tokyo).
The pair say that collaboration has been key to Ambush’s success, and the book lists 47 collaborators, including Bulgari, Off-White and Coca-Cola. Ambush has collaborated with Nike since 2018, most recently on an eight-piece clothing collection released in August, and Ms. Ahn was the costume jewelry director for Dior Men from 2018 to 2023.
Last month they both got on a video call to discuss the brand, the book and some dreams — with Ms. Ahn dialing in from Paris, where she was at the men’s wear shows, and Verbal, from his office in Tokyo. The interview has been edited and condensed.
Why did you decide to start the company together?
YOON AHN We were making things — in the process of, you know, dabbling in different things — and then when you make things you have to call it something, right? And then Verbal named it Ambush because he thought it would be good to just surprise people when we feel like meeting. And we just make, and show people whenever we feel like it.
VERBAL To create a platform for Yoon to take on, like she said, apparel jobs or design jobs and me, like I was thinking you know, I’ll curate and do sales — like I’ll be on the back end.
How do you work together now?
AHN I’m a big-picture person so I like coming up with concepts, ideas and putting dots together in some ways.
It takes practice which means you work things out, you learn, you make mistakes, but as long as the vision is looking in the same direction you work toward it and you work things out throughout years. We’re able to read each other and then synchronize.
VERBAL I always make sure there’s a structure to what we do. My family instilled in me that doing creative work like music or fashion or art is not realistic. And you can’t eat. So I’m always trying to be two or three or five steps ahead to make sure we’re good.
And how did you collaborate on the book?
AHN I put the concept together and talked to Rizzoli. A lot of pulling archive images and all that stuff, I did that with the team. And also Verbal worked on getting quotes from our friends.
How do you choose your collaborators?
AHN For me, I take collaboration as an opportunity to learn from the best in their own category or industry, so usually I accept the ones that I have respect for and I feel like I can learn something from.
Which collaborator has taught you the most?
AHN Dior is a heritage brand that you know is couture, top of the top luxury brands, which is a completely different atmosphere than where we come from. We’re more close to street side. So just being there and learning how they put things together and this is how they pick up their heritage story and bring it into right now and make it more modern by bringing in different ideas. For me, that also put things into perspective of trying to think even longer term and not to just think of the next thing.
VERBAL I kind of learn with her. What was interesting about Dior, is that she would work alongside Kim Jones [Dior Men’s artistic director at the time] and I got to visit how they work. It’s so crazy, it’s almost like you throw parts of a watch onto the ground and it magically becomes one.
Who would you like to collaborate with?
AHN I would like to work on a movie. I think that’s where fashion and jewelry is. It would be beautiful to see all these different things come together — working with an amazing director, and character building through their clothes and jewelry could be part of that, and there’s storytelling. But it’s hard to say which director.
VERBAL Jacob Arabo, because of his links to the music world. He’s done it all — jewelry, watches. He made the celebrity jewelry scene first. He worked with Nigo, Pharrell Williams and created colorful pieces using different technology.
He first started with a little booth in New York, making custom jewelry for artists and then he ventured into watches, which just blew up. So, everyone knows him for all these watch complications, but he started with jewelry, so that’s why it’s very inspirational.
You’re into NFTs, so what are you doing with artificial intelligence?
VERBAL A.I. is something that we use to accelerate whatever we are doing and simplify processes that are otherwise cumbersome. So we’re using it heavily.
We’re rebuilding our website right now, so it’s going to help facilitate finding products and searching. It’s very back-end stuff. It’s not like you drag and drop your photo and, boom, it’s wearing the clothes.
AHN I would love to just have an A.I. design assistant that I can work with. No, I don’t use it right now, but I would do as it’s a tool at the end of the day. Like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. If you are creative, you can use those tools to draw and enhance your photos but that doesn’t take away your creativity from you as a photographer or illustrator.
What’s next for Ambush?
AHN We are expanding in Japan — a lot of shop-in-shops in department stores to have more direct contact with our customers.
VERBAL We’ve been looking to see how we can create our own rendition of an experience through the sake, so that’s something we’re very interested in, as I was born and raised in Japan. But it’s a very untapped market and not like Champagne, tequila or wine which is very, very mature and international. Sake is still very niche in terms of market size and there are a lot of famous brands, but we’re looking to create our own brand.
The post Putting an Edgy Fashion Brand Between Covers appeared first on New York Times.
