I received a request to style the New Jeans members' dormitory. It was from CEO Min Hee-jin.
The contact itself was surprising, but what particularly caught me off guard was that the space to be styled was the members' dormitory. Although I've styled various artists' spaces before, I've never had the experience of incorporating original design pieces into an idol dormitory. The fact that the agency CEO wanted to decorate the idol members' dormitory with designer furniture was a fresh shock.
It was the first meeting with Min Hee-jin and the five New Jeans members. "Hey guys, show them you the furniture you like," said Min Hee-jin, as each member showed photos of furniture they had collected on their phones. Despite their young age, each of the five members had their own furniture preferences, and it was interesting to see that they all had different tastes. What was especially impressive was that the photos they showed were not online reference images but ones they had personally taken with their phones. Seeing the members, who are always busy, diligently browsing and studying furniture with Min Hee-jin over several days was quite a sight.
The situation here is the members were about to move to a new dormitory with each member having their own space. In the midst of their busy domestic and international activities, there could have been an option to entrust the space to a professional. However, Min Hee-jin allowed the members to personally select and purchase the furniture for their rooms, even if it took time. They spent three hours going around the showroom, looking at, touching, experiencing, and discussing furniture. It wasn't just a casual glance; seeing them asking questions and carefully examining everything made me feel like they weren't shopping but attending a class.
While each member decorated their own room, Min Hee-jin was responsible for selecting the furniture for the shared living room and dining area. Some members preferred a wood feel with signs of age, some liked a pop and metallic feel, some prioritized the functionality of comfortable furniture, some preferred the artistic elements of furniture, and some preferred witty and transformable furniture. Reflecting these diverse tastes to select furniture for the living room and dining area was undoubtedly a challenging task.
Min Hee-jin took on the task easily. Instead of grasping the common denominator of the five tastes and finding furniture that incorporated them well, her focus was on having furniture in the living room and dining area that reflected each member's taste 'beautifully.' If each charm exists individually and those charms harmonize without conflicting, the mixture can be more attractive than a state where everything is organized around a single theme. Rather than harmonizing tastes like chemical compounds, harmonizing them like mixtures, and finding beauty and order in that mixture. I couldn't help but think, 'Perhaps that's the way New Jeans exists.'
She was like a mother to New Jeans who showed New Things. One day, she spent an hour and a half carefully selecting the fabric for the sofa and dining chair, which the members would sit on every day. Decorating the dormitory where the members live with such care and quality... It would be impossible without a sincere desire for the members to learn and grow. Living with original furniture, the members will consciously or unconsciously realize the powerful influence that great design has on life and rest.
Watching Min Hee-jin cherish and nurture the New Jeans members made me rethink how to cherish and nurture Anderson's team members. CEO, thank you sincerely for contemplating and decorating precious spaces with Anderson, I am truly grateful.
+ Before that, Daniel's room was revealed.
