Kiminte Kimhekim

Kiminte Kimhekim is a South Korean fashion designer and the founder of KIMHĒKIM, established in August 2016. He studied fashion in Seoul and Paris before spending four seasons as an intern in Nicolas Ghesquière’s studio at Balenciaga. Observing the house’s specialist ateliers encouraged his ambition to build an independent workshop capable of couture-level construction. The label’s name combines his given name with Kimhae Kim, the Korean clan from which he traces his family lineage.

KIMHĒKIM developed through collections shown between Seoul and Paris. By 2019 the label was presenting during Paris Fashion Week, and it appeared on the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode calendar for Autumn/Winter 2026. Kimhekim remains the company’s designer and chief executive, with its registered business base in Seoul. His career continues through the development of his own house and its atelier practice.

Kimhekim pairs disciplined tailoring and relatively clean silhouettes with one emphatic motif pushed beyond ordinary scale. Bows, pearls, hair, shirt collars and denim recur as obsessions, enlarged, repeated or displaced until familiar details become surreal. Restraint in the base garment gives the theatrical element greater force, while his experience around the Balenciaga ateliers informs the finish, pattern cutting and construction.

Personal memory anchors the work. Kimhekim has linked sewing to childhood time with his grandmother, hair-based collections to the women around him, and the house name to family lineage. Romantic codes are treated with humour and precision: pearls cover faces, hair becomes fringe or textile, and bows alter proportion as well as decorate. Across these variations, couture-level craft supports contemporary clothing shaped by family memory, altered scale and visual wit.