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Sundae School: Studious Stoner

Kathleen Tso

At first glance, it’s easy to get the vibe of what Sundae School’s clothing is about. There are curved brim dad caps embroidered with university-inspired letters reading “Property of THC 420,” with a rear embroidery that reads “Ranked #1 in Higher Ed.” A heather grey hoodie version of this graphic channels ‘90s mall brands like Abercrombie & Fitch. Meanwhile, the cobalt blue hoodie that reads “indica erotica” in a sans serif typeface and a similarly lettered white dad cap with “honor roller” lean heavily towards streetwear.

More daring pieces complicate the picture and bring the dichotomy of the label’s ethos into full view. Traditional Korean clothes like loose-fitting baji pants and side-tie collarless jeogoris are modernized with design details like pleats and materials like mint green nylon. This is the world that Mia Park and Dae Lim have built over four seasons, one where the irony is both self-evident and subversive. After all, marijuana remains highly taboo in Korea, where pop stars like G-DRAGON faced scrutiny after testing positive for the drug in 2011—though the artist claims he accidentally took a hit of a joint he thought was a cigarette at an afterparty in Japan.

Ironic, considering the importance of cannabis as a crop in Korean history. Samples of Korean hemp fabric date as far back as 3000 BCE, and the hemp seed was thought to have medicinal properties as a laxative. It’s something Dae’s mother might be familiar with as an Eastern herbal medicine doctor; he remembers growing up with ingredients ranging from deer antlers to bear testicles. In stark contrast, his father is an orthopedic surgeon.

Born in Korea, Dae started to learn English at age five from a Filipino housekeeper. He moved to America when he was 11. His family lived in southern California first, then Virginia and New Jersey before finally settling in New York. He grew up with a rigorous school schedule packed with extracurriculars: squash, tennis, and other things Dae calls “Asian sports.” He admits feeling like a robot programmed for success, a sentiment he took with him to boarding school in Connecticut.

He regards those years as the “whitest” time of his life, when he developed an affinity for popped collar polo shirts, khaki pants, and brands like Vineyard Vines. His stress level only got worse, and at one point he was on the verge of a mental breakdown.

“I was like … ’I think I’ve been living my life all wrong, like, I don’t know what I’m working hard for, I don’t understand what I’m doing’,” he admits. One night, his proctor noticed how agitated he was and invited him to the bathroom for a smoke break.

“I was smoking cigarettes at the time, not because I liked it, but because it was the cool thing to do in Korea,” says Dae. “I thought it was a cigarette, like—those hand rolled cigarettes, but there were no filters.”

Turns out, it was Dae’s first experience smoking weed. At first, he was horrified at what he’d just done, and the common paranoia that plagues first time smokers kicked in. G-DRAGON’s marijuana scandal was fresh in his mind, and he thought he’d just fucked up his future. He quickly retreated back to his room, and that’s where he had his epiphany. 

“I had the craziest mental journey I’ve ever had in my life,” says Dae. “As soon as I closed my eyes, everything went to RGB mode, like pointillism—dots, dots, dots, dots.”

Eventually weed helped Dae learn how to manage his stress and opened him up to a more relaxed approach to life. He learned to focus more on the things he could control and less on the things he couldn’t. He ended up going to Harvard, graduating with a degree in math, and then worked as a quantitative analyst for McKinsey & Co. 

The straight-laced corporate life wasn’t for him however, and he began exploring options in the fashion industry. A mutual friend introduced him to Julie Ann Quay, founder of experimental fashion platform and retail store VFILES, so he came on board as a numbers-focused business guy, putting his skills to use in an industry he loved. That inspired him to start his own fashion line, along with some key advice from another one of Dae’s mentors: Kenneth Cole, shoe designer-turned-fashion industry titan in his own right.

“How he started is with shoe molds, and then he rented a truck, parked it right next to the Hilton where the halal carts are, and displayed samples,” says Dae. “He started selling his shoes and taking pre-orders from there.”

Cole’s advice to Dae was to start simple with a few items that were easy to scale—what the fashion business world refers to as “core competencies.” That meant T-shirts, hoodies, and baseball caps. Dae’s first Sundae School collection was done with the help of his sister and self-taught skills in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. It consisted of graphics that mixed traditional Korean art with weed references, a genre that Dae cheekily called “smokewear.”

“Not to sound super cliché, but it’s actually true. Weed really helped me understand a lot about myself,” admits Dae. “I always loved clothes ever since my mother would dress me in overalls. I have really fond memories of my first Guess sweater.”

By the time Dae started his own line, his own fashion tastes had evolved from the prep brands he favored in high school. His income at McKinsey allowed him to buy garments from designers like Gareth Pugh, Dries Van Noten, and elevated takes on the classic menswear he grew up with from brands like Incotex and Thom Browne. 

His personal style evolution filters into how the Sundae School label has progressed over four seasons. Mia Park, still based in Seoul, acts as the fashion consultant, helping guide the aesthetic direction of the clothing. In addition, a small team of 12 freelancers supports them in bringing their vision into wearable pieces. 

The Fall/Winter 2019 collection is called “The Green Rush” and draws parallels between the cannabis industry boom in California and its historical antecedent, the Gold Rush of the 1800s. The message here isn’t one of prosperity and promise, but rather it’s about the lives that suffer under industrialization. In the same way you can’t tell the story of the Wild West without addressing the Chinese immigrants who built the railroads, the same goes for the undocumented immigrants working in modern day weed farms. This is something Dae witnessed firsthand when visiting several cannabis growers in California.

“So many undocumented immigrants were working at these farms,” he says. “That was really when it hit us. We wanted to tell a story about the green rush, and we wanted to not only portray the optimism and the excitement of legalization opening doors, but how when change happens, there are victims who suffer from it.”

Dae is also keenly aware of the plight faced by those unfairly incarcerated by the war on drugs, victims who are now felons in an industry largely run by white faces. The new collection features paintings of Chinese immigrants of the Gold Rush era and inspirations drawn from the journals they kept. Beyond just apparel, Sundae School is planning to enter the cannabis market proper. Its first line of products include pre-rolled joints and vaporizer pens containing strains flavored by yuzu and matcha. 

It’s a way to separate themselves from a market so focused on wellness and medical uses. Dae wants to remind users that despite the benefits and continued regulation of weed, it’s still fun. It’s a product made to bring people together. 

“Weed is more communal than a personal experience, and it’s really fun.”

Thanks for reading and being a part of the Banana community! While we stay put to combat the COVID-19 pandemic together, the Banana team wants to be a resource for you to stay inspired, hopeful, and creative. We'll be curating stories from our past issues every week to rediscover our ambitions and to remind ourselves to, even during these tough times, stay positive and celebrate the moments that bring us happiness and pride.

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