Benjamin Cho

Deer headpiece MERYL SMITH for BENJAMIN CHO

interview by OLIVIER ZAHM
photographs HANNA LIDEN
fashion editor NATASHA ROYT

 

One of the few young designers to survive the washout of the 1990s, BENJAMIN CHO hung on to his uncompromising thinking and his independence from the market.
Still at the core of New York’s alternative scene, every season he continues to turn out fantasmagoric collections and emotionally stimulating shows that no one dares to miss.

OLIVIER ZAHM — You’re from California, right?
BENJAMIN CHO — Kind of. I was born in Massachusetts, but my family moved to Virginia, then Ohio, and then to California. I’ve been all over the United States.

OLIVIER ZAHM — Because of your father’s job?
BENJAMIN CHO — Yeah. When I used to do a lot of hair and make-up, a photographer I knew who liked to shoot in different places…