Jihu Lee

Essemelexel is a research-driven fashion project that explores the intersection of architecture and clothing through structural experimentation, spatial layering, and programmatic design. Inspired by the theoretical frameworks of Rem Koolhaas—particularly S,M,L,XL and Delirious New York—the collection interprets garments as wearable infrastructures that respond to the rhythm, decay, and density of contemporary cities.

Using modular silhouettes, engineered zipper systems, and advanced textile treatments such as oil staining, garment dyeing, and abrasion, the project embodies the tension between uniformity and rupture.

By referencing urban ruins, military surplus, and motorcycle wear, Essemelexel constructs a wardrobe that reimagines the body as a mobile architectural unit—one that moves through space, carries memory, and opens and closes like a building.

This portfolio unfolds as a speculative dialogue between the designer and Rem Koolhaas, situating clothing not only as aesthetic object, but as an agent of spatial thought.