Though David Chum’s professional career is still in a fledgling stage, his articulate designs express the skill of a more seasoned designer, one who has matured with the passing seasons of his collections, and who willfully abandons inhibiting notions that may have constrained him at the start of his career. With Selah D’or, Chum aims to translate a “subdued form of assertion” through his elegantly crafted pieces, and produce high-quality garments that are “extremely feminine and classic,” and that strive to coexist “with the silhouette of a woman's body...”
During one of his first shows at iMan Fashion Group’s Fashion Evolution: Forever during Boston Fashion Week ’09, Chum premiered some of his most stylistically demonstrative pieces, three of which included: “Sara,” a teal fitted gabardine dress with a plunging, oblong-shaped neck-line, and front-hip pockets; “Amy,” a geometric empire waist baby-doll dress made from 4-ply silk crepe construction; and “Lisa,” an eight gored, knee-length, high-waist, full skirt with deep inseam pockets. The showing was a beautiful one and it introduced audiences to Chum’s unfailing adherence to, and love for, the feminine form, in addition to the perceived ingénue aligned with it (many models wrapped their fingers around thin ribbons attached to bouncing helium balloons).
Without question, Chum’s constructions breathe a life of their own, delivering an indisputable charge of arresting beauty that, in themselves, seem to capture the essence of the goal he is striving to achieve. There exists an ostensible simplicity in each of his designs, one that produces a sense of gravity by which all other mechanisms in the piece appear to arch. Only by examining each one closely can one remark on the fine details (the structured pleating along the waistline, the mid-thigh hitting hems, the geometric princess darts, and the brass buttons covered in leather) that heighten it to sophisticated craftsmanship.
Chum recently showcased pieces at a Calico pop-up trunk show in Providence where he displayed his entire Autumn/Winter 2009 collection along with five pieces from his Spring/Summer 2010 collection. When asked what he hoped to accomplish with the showing, Chum remarked, "None of my pieces are carried in any physical stores right now…We wanted to give women the chance to actually touch them and try them on.”
The show at Calico also gave Chum the opportunity to work with friend and owner of Calico, Elissa Paquette, who Chum says, “has an amazing eye…The trunk show was her idea…We felt that there was an audience [in Providence] for me.”
2010 will be invigorating for Chum and in addition to plans with Paquette to open a pop-up shop in Boston during the spring, and creating new look-books, Chum will be working on a commission for his first wedding dress design. Chum will also continue, “working with Cara Elizabeth of BornAgainPop, an artist group/movement based out of L.A. who are seeking to reconstruct popular culture.” Together, Chum and Elizabeth have been “working on some video art which will be featured on my site this spring…[and] She also wrote the music which I will be using for my show during StyleWeek Providence.”
Chum's next official fashion show will take place during StyleWeek Providence in June where he will showcase his Spring/Summer 2010 collection for "the first time in its entirety and probably the last time ever," and debut pieces from his Autumn/Winter 2010 collection. In terms of what to expect from his Autumn/Winter 2010 collection, Chum stated that while he has "always avoided the color black in my designs...For Autumn/Winter 2010, I'm going to actually embrace it.” And we're excited to see you do so.
For more information on David Chum and Selah D’or, please visit www.selahdor.com.
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