Seunghee Park: The personal as a creative language
Seunghee Park’s graduate collection ‘Diasporic Gaze’ grounds her practice in exploring personal history, cultural identity, and displacement. Inspired by heritage and subcultural silhouettes, Seunghee looks beyond conventional tailoring to establish a thoughtful dialogue between the body, worn garments, and the emotional realities of navigating multiple worlds.
Identity is a fluid landscape shaped by migration, memory, and sense of place. The external environment dictates how we move through daily life, while the internal self holds the inherited roots, stories, and traditions carried from afar. These dualities continuously shape and reshape who we are.
Through layered silhouettes, rich textures, and materials, ‘Diasporic Gaze’ translates the nuanced experience of dual heritage, exploring an emotive designer language to articulate the tension of belonging everywhere and nowhere at once.
Seunghee graduated with a Bachelor of Design in fashion design in 2025. Originally from Korea, she moved to Aotearoa New Zealand in 2017 and began high school in Auckland.
A longstanding interest in making clothes, along with her enjoyment of textiles at school, led Seunghee towards fashion design. Wanting to experience life beyond Auckland and with her sister already living in Wellington, she chose to study at Massey.
The programme’s practical and technical approach became one of the most valuable aspects of her education. Seunghee believes that developing strong hands-on skills is essential preparation for entering the fashion industry.
Her classmates were also important to the experience. Sharing ideas and receiving constant feedback allowed the group to develop together while giving each person space to discover and deepen their individual practice.
“Everything creative is about finding what you want to do and learning more about that specific thing. It was really fun to indulge in the one thing that I wanted to do.”
The intensity of a fashion degree also made that community essential. With multiple projects to complete each semester, Seunghee and her friends relied on one another for practical help, encouragement and honest feedback.
“We were all in it together. That’s how we grew as designers.”
Showing at New Zealand Fashion Week gives Seunghee a rare opportunity to place her work in front of people who may know nothing about her personal experiences. Allowing the garments to communicate independently makes the occasion particularly meaningful.
“It’s definitely special. It’s about having my work shown to the public and reaching more people.”
Seunghee’s creative process is guided by honesty. She believes that drawing from lived experience produces work capable of forming a genuine connection with others.
“Everything I make is personal. Being personal is the most genuine form of creative art, in my opinion.”
Seunghee is currently working as a studio assistant for an independent Wellington designer while also working in retail. Looking ahead, she hopes to move overseas and gain experience in a larger international fashion centre.