Fashion As Identity: Meet EdenMade Volunteer Hanbit Ku

Meet Hanbit, who has been a part of the EdenMade core team of volunteers since the beginning—since before the beginning, really. Hanbit began interceding for women in the sex industry when she was in high school. In college, Hanbit joined our founder Ruthie Kim in visiting strip clubs in North Beach. Years later, when God called Lynae Byler to begin EdenMade, Hanbit was right there to vision cast and turn that vision into a reality.

Volunteering in strip clubs isn’t the only impressive thing Hanbit does. She’s also a fashion designer. And get this: her work walked the runway at New York Fashion Week this year!

“I love women,” says Hanbit. “I want to serve them in any way I can, whether through EdenMade or fashion design. I had a mentor in my early 20s who taught me to dress in a way that demands dignity and respect. That really stuck with me, and when I started studying fashion, I realized I could serve women by showing them how valuable and loved they are by designing garments that would make them feel dignified, respected, and loved.”

Within Christian culture, the fashion industry often gets a bad rap. Christians place so much emphasis on internal beauty over external beauty that aesthetics are sometimes written off as superficial and unnecessary in the Kingdom. So even though Hanbit recognized her artistic talent from a young age, she felt pressure to pursue a “sanctified” career, like mission work.

But perhaps fashion is more than decorative.

“Fashion has much to do with identity,” says Hanbit. “As a designer, you have the ability to call forth one's identity by designing garments that enable one to do what he/she is called to do.”

We serve a God who cares about the details, even the details of what people wear. Think of Exodus 28, where God goes to great lengths to describe priestly garments—from the color of the yarn, to how many threads, to the types of stones used to adorn it. In several verses, that passage calls for “the work of skilled hands.” God desires that we glorify him with the best. Seems there’s space for all talents in the Kingdom of God.

“I once heard a speaker reframe, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ as, ‘Find out what you’re good at and exploit it for the good of others,’” says Hanbit. “I decided to pursue fashion, because I realized I was really good at it and enjoyed it so much. Loving others with the talent God has given us is our calling.”

Do you have a talent you want to use for the Kingdom? Let us know! We’re always looking for fresh, creative ways to love those in our neighborhood.