Fashion secrets meticulously hidden by 7 novelists

There is a man, K, who only wears new shoes obsessively all the time. He keeps in his mind two sentences, namely “Life is a festival of substitutes,” and “I am the oldest substitute of myself as person.” His secret is hidden in the sneakers that he wore when he was 13 years old.

K had a "smart and nice" friend. The friend was short, but had feet size similar to K’s, and they would exchange and wear the other’s shoes. They were wearing the other’s shoes as well when they were on a bus to Seoul to take a sophisticated IQ test.

K confesses to the friend. He says that because his parents reported his birthday belatedly after the birth, he is actually 14 years old, not 13 years old, and as a result his IQ was shown to be high. The boy who is truly smart and nice is none other than you. Soon after the confession, the bus falls off a cliff, and the friend gets killed while K is rescued. K comes to live life under the obsession due to the fact that children who are nice and smart cannot grow up to become adults, and only wears new shoes. This is the storyline of the short-story “Substitute” written by Eun Hee-gyeong, which is included in this book.

This collection of project novels has been created through collaboration between novels and fashion under partnership between Munji Publishing and the fashion magazine Arena Homme+. Seven famed novelists participated in the work, picked one of the four themes, namely "hold," "write," "put on" and "wear," wrote a short story, and had interviews with the magazine.

As if engaged in an assay writing contest, the writers picked fashion accessories, and wrote short stories in their own colors, respectively. Kim Joong-hyeok, the author of “Bathtub on Paper,” picked a lost leather bag, Jeon I-hyeon, who wrote “The Future of the Box,” chose Ray Ban Boeing Sunglasses, Jeong Yong-joon of “Mid Winter” selected a woolen hat, Pyeon Hye-young of “Living Next Door to Alice” a footprint of shoe insole, and Baek Ga-heum of “Four Friends” high heels and loafers, and Sohn Bo-mi of “Unforgettable" a suit, respectively.

Long lingering image stems from memories. “The Future of the Box’ features a 53-year-old woman who flutters whenever spotting Ray Ban Boeing Sunglasses due to her memory of her first love, while "Four Friends" has a woman character, who seeks to recollect memories even by reversing "time that has been buried in oblivion" by placing a strange woman’s shoes on her side.

What accessories do you have in your memories? Obviously, literature is more suitable than fashion to me. While reading this book, I developed the desire to write a piece under the same theme, rather than to consume fashion.