Walk through Tashkent’s blossoming street bazaars with designer J.Kim’s new capsule collection

Uzbek-Korean brand J.Kim has just dropped a new capsule collection inspired by the spring colours of Tashkent’s bustling markets.

The new collection, Blossoming, interprets Uzbekistan’s vibrant natural world, while retaining a firm grasp on the cultural hybridity that has built J.Kim’s identity.

Among the collection’s highlights are tugun bags: small accessories inspired by traditional Uzbek bags, rendered in vintage fabric with flowering motifs. Petal cutouts are also scattered across hoodies, trousers, and t-shirts, embroidered with flourishes of strings and beads.

Jenia Kim, the brand’s founder, splits her time between Moscow and Tashkent. She pinpoints her inspiration to the “blossoming fruit trees that line the streets of the mahallas (or traditional Uzbek neighbourhoods), the flea markets, and the childish sense of carefreeness and proximity to nature”.

Kim founded the label in 2014, and has since released conceptually complex collections that reflect her own journey of understanding Uzbek-Korean and cultural hybrid identities.