On May 1, Gold House unveiled its annual A100 List, recognizing the 100 most impactful Asian Pacific leaders across industries. See the full list here.
Sohee Park—also known as Miss Sohee—grew up in a creative family. Her mother is a children’s book illustrator, and her grandmother practiced traditional embroidery. Park originally thought about being a painter, or even an illustrator like her mother. Then, like many budding fashion enthusiasts before and after her, she came across a singular fashion show that altered her perspective: Karl Lagerfeld’s Spring 2012 collection for Chanel.
Before watching the under-the-sea collection walk the runway online, Park saw creative expression as two-dimensional. “It was on paper or on canvas, where you paint or you embroider,” she says. Fashion, she realized, brings it to life.
“The fashion shows, with the set design, the music, the models, and the beautiful gowns, it was more than just art,” she explains. “People could live in it, and it was inspiring people to dream.”
Now a London-based designer, Park was born and raised in Seoul, where she became a voracious consumer of fashion, reading interviews with designers, poring over past collections, and seeking out any runway videos she could find. She also started seriously considering a future in the industry, which led her to Central Saint Martins in London. The legendary fashion school has introduced the world to talent like Alexander McQueen, Stella McCartney, and many others. She was drawn to the challenging nature of the program, which encourages “students to be the most extreme versions of themselves,” she says. While there, she not only got her first taste of the runway by taking a gap year to work at Marc Jacobs, but also started developing an interest in sustainable production, which would lay the groundwork for her eventual made-to-order business.
Park graduated in 2020—meaning she wasn’t able to participate in Central Saint Martins’ well-known graduation show. The show’s rich history includes Isabella Blow buying the entirety of McQueen’s collection and McCartney having friends like Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, and Yasmin Le Bon model for her. Instead of sharing her work on the runway, Park shared her debut collection, “The Girl in Full Bloom,” on Instagram in July 2020.
She wasn’t expecting it to be the start of her brand. She wasn’t even planning on calling it Miss Sohee. “I had quite humble ambitions—I just wanted to get a job after graduating and sort out my visa,” she says. “It was a dream of mine to do that a few years after gaining experience… Couture is the last thing you need when the world has shut down, but I still believed in myself and my vision. I posted on social media, and, back then, my Instagram account was called ‘Miss Sohee.’ And it stuck. Everyone identified me and my work as Miss Sohee.”
The milestones came fast, all in 2020: the first magazine cover to feature her designs (Love in August), her first collaboration (with Christian Cowan on select looks of his Spring 2021 collection in September), her first celebrity placement (Miley Cyrus for an appearance on The Graham Norton Show in October), and her first celebrity cover (Cardi B for Billboard in December).
“Everyone was asking for more and asking if there was another collection coming up,” she remembers.
At that point, it was still just her, hand-sewing all of the pieces in her apartment, with no real capital to properly set up a business. The media placements were a boon for building brand recognition, but magazines and celebrities typically borrow, rather than purchase, items for press moments. Park’s first real commission, from a member of Dubai’s royal family, came right on time, allowing her to open a studio, buy machinery, and hire people to help her. Soon after, Katie Grand, the renowned British fashion editor and stylist who founded Love and Perfect, got in touch, wanting to make an introduction to Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana.
“I met them in Milan, and they opened up their Alta Moda premises to me,” she says, referring to Dolce and Gabbana’s highest-caliber offering. In addition to getting to see the archive up close, Park was able to connect with the CEO of the Alta Moda business, who became not only a mentor, but also an instrumental resource for the brand as it built out its private client business, advising on how to structure the design process for clients, how to price gowns, and how to meet client expectations.
Dolce and Gabbana would later sponsor Miss Sohee’s fashion week debut in Milan. For that February 2022 show, the brand upcycled Alta Moda fabrics to create a collection inspired by minhwa, an expressive genre of Korean folk art that captures the quotidian in bright, joyful colors. Park had always incorporated her heritage into her work—her sophomore offering was titled “Haenyeo,” drawing from the female free divers of Jeju Island. The visibility of the partnership with Dolce and Gabbana just gave her a bigger microphone.
For that collection with Dolce and Gabbana, Miss Sohee sourced Hansan Mosi, a fine ramie woven fabric that’s been designated by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage. The brand has also commissioned artisans working in najeonchilgi (mother-of-pearl inlays), creating cheopji (silver hair pins), and making buchae (traditional fans). These collaborators “are really authentic,” she says. “It’s even hard to get in touch with them because they don't have social media. I need assistance from my parents, who are local, to go visit them and talk to them.”
She describes working with Korean artisans as a “very crucial element to the brand DNA” of Miss Sohee. “There are so many beautiful elements that I could look into, and there are so many artisans in Korea that have not been discovered yet by the world. I'm in a very amazing situation where I'm getting a lot of attention—for me to look into these artisans and collaborate with them every season, it's a beautiful process.”
Though she’s long identified as a couturier, Park was officially recognized as one in January when she was invited to be a guest designer on the official Haute Couture Week schedule in Paris. (“Haute couture” is a protected term in France, and can only be used by brands that have been found to meet certain criteria as determined by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode.) The collection she showed imagined a noblewoman from the Chosun dynasty in the modern day, marrying elements of traditional Korean garments with more Western fabrications and silhouettes. Lisa of Blackpink wore a customized version of the first look to the Vanity Fair Oscars party a few weeks later.
“It was a huge honor for the brand,” Park says. “It opened new doors. There's a new dynamic within the clients as well, because it's an official recognition… A lot of collaborations and opportunities have come since, from the show.”
Right now, Miss Sohee’s business—which the Financial Times reported made $3 million in 2024—is primarily made-to-order, with most of her revenue coming from private clients located mainly in the Middle East. There are 30 employees working across PR, client relations, operations, and the atelier. It’s a far cry from the one-person operation out of a London flat she was running less than five years ago.
“It’s a meaningful part of being Miss Sohee and doing what I do, seeing people in my creations, really enjoy wearing them, and feel confident,” she says. “These projects are very private, but I find them so beautiful. It's different to ready-to-wear, where you mass produce and don't really know or have control over where it’s ending up. With couture, you really get to meet the client, talk to them, and build this relationship. It's a very intimate process, and it's a really beautiful collaboration. That’s what really drives Miss Sohee currently.”