BEFORE HE WAS JOHN

ISABELLA SONG - AW 2024/2025

This is the story of a man named Song Jong Kook. Jong Kook was born in 1928 in Pyongyang, Korea, the now capital of North Korea. Born into a world recovering from the devastating effects of the first World War, witnessing the horrors of World War II as a youth, he would then face a war which would split his own home. At the age of 20, he would gather his entire family and flee south of the 38th parallel before the onset of the Korean War in 1950. Upon arriving in the south, he would immediately enlist into the army, where he would serve for seven years, eventually becoming an army captain and serving as a translator between the South Korean and American forces. This man would see action in some of the Korean Wars deadliest of battles between 1950 and 1953.

To me, this man was Grandpa John.

This collection is meant to serve as an exploration of the man that I will never truly know, the man before he was John. This is a collection about balance: yin and yang, life and death, hope and hardships. Inspired by his life in Korea and our Korean heritage, the Korean War and his military service, and his life well-lived.