Tough, highly functional and, above all, visually distinctive. Blankof, the Seoul-based brand that has consistently made such bags, continues its joint work with Graphpaper for Autumn & Winter 2025, following on from the SS season.
Based in Seoul with its own factory, Blankof is led by Duk Hyun Won. In Tokyo, Graphpaper is led by Takayuki Minami.
We sit down with both to hear the story of how these two, who share a common language in making things that transcends both physical distance and language barriers, brought a new product into being.
Interview & Text by Rui Konno
―Thank you both for joining. I think it might be good to start by talking about the relationship between you, Mr. Won and Mr. Minami.
(Interpreter translates into Korean)
Duk Hyun Won (Won below): (In Japanese) Yes. That sounds good!
Takayuki Minami (Minami below): (Laughs)
―I wasn't expecting Japanese. Thank you.
Minami: When we had done a few Graphpaper collections and were preparing for another exhibition, one of my staff said, "We've had a message from a Korean store that wants to carry the brand." At the time, I honestly wasn't that interested in wholesaling overseas, so my reaction was basically, "Oh, I see."
―You've said that before - that you weren't especially focused on overseas at first. And that first contact was from Mr. Won?
Minami: Yes. But they also said, "He wants to come in person," so I replied, "Then tell him to come." He came to that exhibition and brought a handwritten letter in Japanese, and read it out to me.
Won: That's right (laughs).
Minami: I was really moved by that. From that point on he felt like family. I heard he was making bags, so whenever I went to Korea I would go and visit his store. And before we knew it, we formed a relationship that has lasted for years.
―At the time of that letter, had you already started Blankof, Won?
Won: Yes. The brand started in 2011, and the store opened in 2014. When I discovered Graphpaper, it really got me thinking. I had a mix of emotions like respect, admiration - and I tried to express what I was feeling at that time in the letter.
Minami: I wonder about that (laughs). I've never really felt like anyone "respects" me.
Won: No, really (laughs). When I first saw Graphpaper I thought it was innovative and cool, and after I read articles about it I really wanted to see the clothes in person. I've always been a bit of a geek since I was a student, so I researched all kinds of things (laughs).
―So you're also the type of guy who's often digging.
Won: Right. That geeky side of me came out, and as I looked into vintage and functional clothing etc, I gathered information bit by bit. There is still a lot I'm studying now - I feel like I'm still in the middle of that process.
―I see. When you met Minami for the first time, was he as you had imagined?
Won: I tried not to build up any preconceptions like "He's probably like this" or "Maybe like that", and to come without bias, but he was physically bigger than I expected (laughs).
Minami: So he thought I was large…
Won: (Laughs) But even with the language differences and various inconveniences, it really came across that he was trying to communicate and think seriously with me. He is as important as family in my life, and that will never change.
―Wow, what a beautiful story. …Minami, please stop playing with your phone and pay attention.
Minami: Hm? Ah, sorry (laughs). Anyway, I knew already that Won was making bags himself, and that he had his own factory, so we went to see the factory together as well. To be honest, I didn't have a very clear image of what "Korean manufacturing" was like, so I was curious. But Blankof is in control of the whole process themselves and really making things properly. Seeing that for myself felt worthwhile.
―From there, did things immediately move into "Let's make something together"?
Minami: No, at the time we weren't yet in a mindset of "Let's make bags." But we did talk about wanting to do something together at some point. After some time passed, during last year's Spring & Summer "Sumi" collection, we decided to actually try it. I sent Won some rough sketches I had drawn - triangles and rectangles, like quick doodles - and said, "Could we think about making a bag like this?" He worked incredibly hard to turn that into physical products. That became the first collaboration. I think it must have been so difficult. The drawings were so rough.
Won: When I first received those sketches, our communication wasn't as smooth as it is now, so I thought I was supposed to make a bag out of each of the three drawings. But when I asked later, it turned out we only needed to make one (laughs).
Minami: I had sent three drawings with the feeling of "Something like this, or something like this", thinking he would choose one. But then Won turned up with all three made as samples, so I said, "Well then, let's do all three" (laughs).
2024SS BLANKOF for Graphpaper From left: SQUARE / TRAPEZOID / TRIANGLE
―So it was kind of like, "well as you made them for us..." (laughs). In the end, it turned out well.
Minami: From our side, we thought it might be too much to ask him to make several, so we were trying to be considerate. But all three were great, so we went with them. My drawings themselves were very abstract.
Won: They were like geometric shapes, but they did at least look vaguely like bags (laughs).
Minami: The collection theme at the time came from seeing a calligrapher draw circles and triangles with a brush. I felt a strong link between that inspiration and the idea of containing and storing objects. At first, our design team was going to clean up my messy sketch into a proper technical drawing before sending it to Won, but I stopped them.
―Why was that?
Minami: Because then it would just be OEM. It would leave no room for Won to think. What mattered was how he would respond to the idea I had thrown at him and what he would make from it. So I said to the team, "Definitely don't write down our request in a lot of detail."
―So the way of thinking is a bit different from designing pieces from the main line. It is also a bag rather than clothing, of course.
Minami: For the past few seasons I've been thinking a lot about what bags should be within Graphpaper. I haven't reached a conclusion yet, but since Graphpaper started from my extremely personal way of thinking, first I wanted to simply make the bags that I myself genuinely want. From there, I think about what kind of universality they can have to continue, and what functions would make sense for present-day city life. I travel a lot for work, so for me it's important that a bag can properly hold luggage and be a bit larger, which is why I felt it would be good to have two sizes.
BLANKOF for Graphpaper Crescent Bag "Small" / "Large"
―How did you feel while working on this collaboration, Won?
Won: Collaborating and making something together with a brand I'm keen on has been a dream since I was a student, so it was incredibly rewarding. I was happy that I could pack in functional aspects and my own preferences, and then actually turn that into reality.
―That's wonderful, but we didn't come here just to listen to nice stories. I'm sure there must have been difficulties as well.
Won: (Laughs) But honestly, I only have good memories. I was visiting the factory more frequently than usual, and my connection with the staff there became stronger too. They did tell me they pulled quite a few all-nighters (laughs).
Minami: I'm sorry about that (laughs).
Won: But we have that kind of thing regularly anyway. Like I said, it feels like we're moving toward a dream, so I see it positively.
―Won, that's very admirable. From there, could you tell us about the product you created for this current season?
Won: This bag first appeared in black for Spring & Summer, and the shape evolved from the image of a crescent moon. I wanted to give it three-dimensional volume, but keep it as simple as possible. While thinking about that, I tried to consider how to combine Graphpaper's clothes with the image of Blankof and my own ideas. The thing I put most importance on was proportion. I wanted to create a bag that would sit right with any outfit.
Minami: We had already been talking for some time about wanting to make a crossbody bag, and among the ideas Won shared, this shape appeared.
―So that was the background. The finished version also has a very distinctive material feel.
Minami: This is a nylon that Blankof developed, right?
Won: Yes. We call it "Kim". In Japanese it would be "nori" - the kim in "kimbap". I was inspired by the crisp, thin, stiff texture of Korean seaweed. A lot of nylon materials have a strong sheen, but personally, with those fabrics I often feel the grain of the fibers doesn't look very neat. I wanted to improve on that, and the result was this Kim fabric.
―It's matte, with a slight pebbled texture. Is that expression created through finishing?
Won: Yes. We use compression finishing and a water-repellent treatment, and apply quite a lot of pressure during compression. We also twist the yarn again and again at the weaving stage, which makes the weave tighter.
Minami: It's an original fabric with a great ability to hold shape, and the hardness and overall feel are very interesting. Once I saw it, I suggested that we should use it for this.
―The combination of that surface and the padded volume works very well.
Won: Thank you. The padding is of course for maintaining the shape, but I also considered that it helps the bag hold its form when you put things inside, and acts as cushioning to protect the contents. Actually, this is not just for this project - it is the same thinking we apply to the helmet bags we've been making for some time.
Minami: I also asked Won if he could make the trim and hardware as close in color as possible so it wouldn't look noisy. The zips are water-resistant.
Won: Yes. At first I thought about using ordinary zippers, but I felt something was missing. Water-resistant zips suit the matte Kim fabric, and for everyday life they are more practical too.
―Considering how much care went into the fabrics and materials, I was a little surprised by how reasonable the retail price is.
Minami: Likewise.
Won: I think that is largely because I personally handle everything and we make it in our own factory. There are no extra steps in between. When we first contracted with the factory, I discussed at length with the factory manager how we could operate in a way that they would only be making Blankof products and keep production running throughout the year. I said, "We'll do our very best so the factory never has to stop."
―That's another kind of effort behind the brand. It really shows how seriously you take manufacturing.
Won: The black bags we released for S/S were sampled last summer, and once they were completed I was so pleased I wanted to show them as soon as possible. When I happened to contact Minami, he told me he was going to Okinawa, so I took the samples all the way there.
Minami: It was my summer holiday, but he said, "I'll bring them", so I replied, "Okay then" (laughs). Since he had gone to the trouble of bringing them, I decided to use the bag while I was in Okinawa, so I was the only one walking around with a bag that hadn't been released yet. In the end we just hung out together in Okinawa.
Won: We were drinking in the car while we moved around too. It was my first time drinking awamori in a car. Ah, but of course the driver wasn't drinking.
―Right, that's a relief (laughs).
Minami: It ended up like, "Come on, you have a drink too" (laughs).
―Even with the language barrier, you have a very tightly knit collaborative relationship. I mean that in the best way.
Minami: Yes. Everything runs very smoothly. I think the biggest factor is that Won understands my tastes extremely well. Even without me saying that much, he returns with something good.
Won: The idea of giving this kind of rounded shape to a bag wasn't something I originally had. It was when I received the image from Minami that I was inspired to do that. That may be one of the reasons why this ended up feeling very much like a true collaboration between the two brands. For us, it was also a chance to try something for the first time. Usually when we produce things, there are a lot of times when we feel something is missing, or we want to remake it, but this time, when the sample was finished, I thought, "This is fine. This is going to work."
―So you felt that it had really come together. By the way, do you come to Japan often, Won? You are going home once and then coming back again next week for the exhibition, right?
Won: Yes. There are a lot of fabrics in Korea too, and if you go to Dongdaemun, most things are gathered there. But when it comes to the fabrics I personally want, they can be quite hard to find. That is why we have been developing our own fabrics from scratch. Japan, on the other hand, has so many good fabrics that it makes you wonder how to use them all. I look forward to seeing them every time. I can easily spend a whole day just looking at what the fabric suppliers have.
―You really love fabrics. This is a silly question, but do you also like seaweed?
Minami: That really is a silly question (laughs).
Won: I do (laughs). Japanese nori is different from Korean seaweed, and even among Korean seaweed there are some I particularly recommend with rice, so I'd love you to try them sometime.
Minami: (Laughs) Actually, we're already working on the next bag. That one will be leather. I was excited thinking we might be able to see the sample today.
Won: I'll bring it next week when I come again. Along with some canned seaweed (laughs).
Duk Hyun Won
Born in 1985 in Sanbon, Gunpo, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. After immersing himself in vintage and military wear, he founded BLANKOF in 2011 under the philosophy of "designing function". In 2017 he launched the clothing brand NEITHERS, and now serves as director of both brands.