Personal Touch

Fashion designer Jeanie Chun creates unique attire for individual clients

Jeanie Chun's design career has been unusual in that it runs counter to the usual experience. Where most designers start with the labor-intensive work of designing for individuals, branching out to manufacturing for the masses once they've established their name, or start and finish as manufacturers, Chun started as a manufacturer and wholesaler who now spends most of her time focusing on individual clients.

'Le Grande Tradition' Hui Makaala 37th annual scholarship luncheon and fashion show: Time: Lunch at noon Sunday, followed by 1 p.m. show Place: Sheraton Waikiki Hotel, Hawaii Ballroom Tickets: $50 Call: 395-7229 or 551-7868

Beyond the sophisticated women's sports and resort wear she creates as director of design for Jean Michel USA, Chun is known for dressing business professionals, brides and their parents, who all want something special. Chun will be showing examples of her upscale day and evening creations during "Le Grande Tradition," a fashion show Sunday to benefit Hui Makaala's scholarship fund.

Her gowns tend to be lavish, embellished with embroidery, crystals, hand beadwork and feathers. The feathers, which came attached to the fabric, required removal before sewing and hand-stitching to put back.

"This is not easy sewing," she said as she pulled a black feathered cape from a rack, one of several loaded with the 300 pieces to be featured in the 150 ensembles to be shown.

Chun's always been a hands-on kind of person anyway.

"My mother always said I never leave things right. I always break things apart and make something else," said Chun, who was raised in Seoul, Korea. "I'm never happy when I buy things. I always think something's missing, but I can change it. No problem."

In creating the jewelry to match her outfits, she'll crush large rough, semi-precious stones to get smaller stones that will fit bronze belt buckles re-imagined as necklaces. Unwanted necklaces are also reworked to create something that works with current trends.

Along with mainstays of Asian brocade jackets, and elegant mother-of-the-bride dresses, a highlight of the show will be easy-to-wear Victorian blouses of sheer lace, layered to prevent any full-frontal peep show.

"Sophisticated women don't want to show anything," Chun said.

"It's funny because I don't wear all these feminine, elegant, romantic ones. I'm much more a classic, sporty person, but I love to design so others look very romantic."

CHUN, WHOSE designs are in the permanent collections of her alma mater, Je Fashion Academy of Korea, and the Korea Museum of Modern Costume, learned a lot about what women want to wear in the 16 years since she started working with individual clients. But as a wholesale designer, her business took off 30 years ago when she was selling nationwide to department stores such as Nordstrom, I. Magnin and Robinson's, as well as boutiques in Canada, Paris and Japan.

If she were living in any other city, she might have continued on that singular path, but dressing up in Hawaii can be a tricky proposition, and people started flocking to Chun for a solution.

"Hawaii is actually a small town with a lot of formal events; more functions than a lot of bigger cities, with a very small group attending, and they each want to wear something different from everyone else."

With the limited number of boutiques here at the time she started, it was all too easy for women to see their dress-alike "twins" at events all around town. The problem isn't as acute on the mainland, where party-goers could easily expand their search for a special outfit to nearby cities and states.

In spite of the greater amount of time it takes to work with individuals, Chun said she enjoys it.

"When I finish they're happy and I'm happy because they're happy. I enjoy designing. Even now I can shut myself in the room and stay two whole days without eating and going out, although my family doesn't like it.

"I think it's the same with painters and artists. They can stay one whole week without going out. If you're doing something only for money, that's what makes you tired."