The creative force behind Samsung Fashion’s Derercuny line is 36 year old, Mina Lee. Her Fall/Winter 2006-07 marks her fifth collection at the helm of the Derercuny line. Mina first studied Fashion Design in Seoul before travelling to Europe, where she attended the Instituto Europeo di Design and the Domus Academy in Milan. From 1998 to 2003, Mina’s singular talent and innate passion for fashion and art ensured her diverse experiences with designer labels the calibre of Fiorucci, Escada, and Luisa Beccaria, with whom she collaborated on trend research and design.

In 2003, Samsung Fashion, the clothing arm of the Korean electronics colossus, launched a fashion project with aesthetic roots in Europe: Mina Lee, Korean-born, with experience of European living and a designer track record was the ideal choice. Her collections are often inspired by art, in which colour in all its guises is the lead player. Some of Mina’s favourite artists, such as Egon Schiele, Hundertwasser and Klimt, are a constant source of chromatic inspiration for her creations. Contemporary art also exercises a great pull on Mina Lee – from Sarah Lucas to Hong Seong Hae.

Mina epitomises the calm and collected grace typical of the Orient, reflected in both her gestures and her soft hint of a smile, veiling all. While she does not talk about her work much, she prefers to communicate through her highly sophisticated, elaborate and chic creations, which she loves to construct and design as if they were jewels. Like an inescapable stylistic counterpoint, she loves to create smaller, highly decorative items and accessories: an embroidered top, a crystal belt, a small fur scarf. Mina Lee is looks to the masters of design, whom she loves for their myriad qualities: Moschino for his irony and freedom of thought, Coco Chanel for her timeless style and Rei Kawakubo, the creator of the Comme des Garçons line, instinctively… elective affinities.

The woman she designs for is aristocratic, with a double-faceted soul, who loves the antique and the classical, but has an ultra-modern lifestyle. Derercuny embodies understated luxury; sensitive and delicate, striking and strong-willed. Mina is shy when it comes to talking about herself or her private life. She passionately describes the woman she creates for, then falls silent, smiling softly. Her new collection is ready to speak for her.