Ader Error was launched in December 2014 by a team from diverse fields who gathered to make something creative and fun. We created the brand to communicate with people through our contemporary, minimal, but easy contents based on cool fashion. Our brand slogan is ‘But near missed things’ because our main inspiration is based on normal, everyday things; we look around and get inspired by them.
We believe in the importance of editing oneself. We usually make normal things abnormal; we turn complex things into something easy and friendly because we want people to experience art, fashion and culture. Basically, we wanted to share all the things we did, do and will keep doing. The first category of it was fashion. What’s next? Who knows?
About the name of our brand, here’s the explanation: A is for aesthetic; D is for drawing; er is for people (who do something). So the result is ‘people who do something aesthetic’. ‘Error’ means something negative such as a failure, a mistake. Nothing and no one can be perfect. At this point, we reinterpret ‘error’ as an expression of imperfection. We think there is an absolutely attractive point in there, so we take it as the second name for the brand.

Comparing nowadays with the past, we can see that there are many more channels through which a brand can show and communicate itself; there were a lot of limitations before. Nevertheless, some South Korean labels have strengthened and hardened their foundation during the past few years, and they take the opportunity to rise, mostly thanks to the rise of K-Culture as well as the development of social network services and new technologies – which Koreans are very good at.

As well as by the change of gender roles, we’re inspired by the development of new technologies and social network services. This kind of cultural flow makes people pay more attention to the cut, the silhouette, the colour and the material instead of gender-specific categorizations, also because it makes people think objectively and unglues them from binary and vertical thinking. But, of course, we mainly focus on unisex characteristics more than on gender issues.
We have a plan to refine and subdivide our designs through Ader DNA. As everyone knows, inspiration comes from what we see and experience. That is to say everything around us: food, furniture, art, people and culture (and all the different ones). We focus on making these things minimal and different to show people something interesting.

We mainly make unisex clothes. If we had to say who’s a perfect wearer for our brand, it’s maybe artists because they can express their thoughts more freely.

Every day, week, and month, we have a short debate to make, collect and edit all ideas for the ongoing projects at that time. It can include an idea for the main collection as well as a very tiny agenda. Every crew can talk about anything, from design, sales and customer service. It’s a totally open system because if we set limitations and just consider reality as a priority above all else we can’t work and imagine.
The most important point is that when we design, we also focus on the marketing and the styling from our own sensibility at the same time. The first step consists of gathering everyone’s inspiration for the new collection or some creative project and do brainstorming. If the concept is set, we think and experiment more with it – and with other concepts related to the main one. Next, we communicate with our inner selves and connect with these experiences lived. Then, we start designing, making the story, and living in the concept of the new collection. That makes us speak with one voice as a team.

It depends on the situation, there is no rule or fixed scale. Sometimes, it can be made to support the storytelling of the main collection, and sometimes, for collaboration with others and often for expression of what we’d like to tell at that time.
As a basic line, we operate exclusive collection, Significant Tag Collection which are composed of our signature shape of sweatshirts, hoodies, outerwear and basic accessories.

Accessories are very important because people can style them their own way to tell something, which means they can express their identity more easily. Also, the price range – of socks and headwear, for example – is more reasonable than the one of clothing. But we don’t want to create meaningless pieces just for sale; we create a story, we tell it, and people understand it, feel sympathy and experience our brand as a whole.

Of course, no one can deny the power of social media in the digital age. We think they are the best platform and tool for anything at this stage. The thing is that we already knew it and made a plan for this upcoming flow. What else could we do? Someone may copy our designs, but they can’t copy our brain or identity.
We have focused on our contents a lot: the ones on the webpage convey the message we want to spread around the world. There is no space-time limitation when you’re online, which is very good. But we’ve also wanted to make something to communicate offline: our first flagship store in Seoul. In the near future, we’ll introduce more projects related to space, art and culture.

Actually, we’re very interested in creative contents and space. In Korea, the biggest challenge is the distribution channel and its connections in retail. But what is the answer to this? An online platform. Also, regarding space, we can say that we plan to expand our business worldwide, although we can’t reveal much yet.

We’ll keep working as we always do, but we’re also trying to do things that we’ve never done before. Also, we’d love to have a positive impact on people worldwide, to create our own culture and spread it. There are interesting projects coming: more stores, collaborations with brands, etc.