About SEPTNY

Jeju → New York

Growing up on Jeju

Haryn and Naryn Kim grew up on Jeju, where rope, foam, and bottles return with the tide. With environmental educator Jihwan Kim of Badasseugi, they learned by handling those materials—driftwood became a lamp; waste became a design problem they could touch.

“Nobody sat us down and taught us about the environment. We just had our hands in it.”

Moving to New York during the pandemic revealed another contradiction: a world fashion capital producing immense textile waste. The sisters built youth environmental programs, then added a Korean-heritage track because cultural memory can disappear just as quietly as material value.

“Heritage disappears the same way materials do—quietly, when nobody decides it’s worth keeping.”