Yoon Ahn

he Business of HYPE is a weekly series brought to you by HYPEBEAST Radio and hosted by jeffstaple. It’s a show about creatives, brand-builders and entrepreneurs and the realities behind the dreams they’ve built. On this week’s episode, Jeff sits down with Yoon Ahn, the brand designer behind AMBUSH. (Editor’s note: this interview was recorded on the eve of Yoon’s appointment as men’s jeweler at Dior Homme.) Yoon Ahn is a bit of a polymath: her duties have ranged from music packaging to jewelry design and everywhere in between, but it is her consistent work ethic that have made her stand out across the board. Yoon’s upbringing is that of a classic Third Culture Kid: she was born in Korea to a military family; this meant they moved constantly: first to Hawaii, then back to Korea, and then to California. They made it back to Korea before Yoon’s father left the army and the family settled down in Seattle. In this conversation with jeffstaple, Yoon explains why she turned down a spot at NYU and chose Boston to study graphic design and art history at Boston University. “I knew I wasn’t gonna study if I went to New York,” she says. “Plus BU gave me a full scholarship,” Yoon explains with a laugh, “so that was a practical reason. I’m a pretty practical person.” It was at BU where Yoon met Verbal, an aspiring musician and Yoon’s soon-to-be creative collaborator, partner, and spouse. Verbal invited Yoon to visit Tokyo, to see if there was “anything for her to test out.” She took the p