Artistic Careers in 2020 — A Series |Collin Dean Harris
The first steps in a career are never easy, and even for those who are more established, the path to growth isn’t always straightforward. Software engineers, branding professionals, actors — we all have growing pains. In this series, we will explore the lives of creatives at different stages of their careers, how they have been developing their skills for the past few months, and what they see for their future. This series includes designers, entrepreneurs, models, and musicians.
This is part two.
Seoul
Based in South Korea with roots in the American Midwest: dancer, musician, international model, lyricist.
Who is Collin Dean Harris?
Collin grew up in Chicago, surrounded by magazines covered in models that constantly served as an inspiration— Ebony, Essence, Jet. His mother, a former model, instilled in him the importance of looking presentable even before he understood what fashion was. Despite the bullies his preppy style attracted, Collin embraced clothing and its ability to create an aesthetic representation of “the authentic self,” something that seemed impossible in his private Catholic high school. By the age of 14, he started going to casting calls for standard modeling, where at 5'11, 220 pounds, and no muscle, he was told to lose weight.
I live by the idea that I want to be better tomorrow than I am today. I prided myself in individuality, and wearing the same clothes at school everyday made me irritated. I wanted variety in my expression. I really wanted to try modeling, so I changed my diet at 16.
The next few years played out in a typical high school manner. Collin got into musical theater, worked behind the scenes, did singing and dancing, and was overall surrounded by a lot of creative people whose energy he could feed off of. It wasn’t until college that he started working at the Chicago TopShop branch, where his future really started to take shape.
I met Aubrey O’Day, a few active models in the industry, Naomi Smalls and Kimchi from RuPaul’s Drag Race, and many other people that I’d seen on TV and loved their styles but had never gotten the chance to meet. And I was also surrounded by clothes…you know, being there, you had to be your authentic self while working there. You can’t show up to work looking a mess, especially with that kind of clientele. I thought this was awesome.
Being in college with no uniform requirement and working a job that encouraged style took Collin back to his roots. The effects of years of creative limitations started to fade, and his approach to fashion was embodied.
I spent that time working there finding my aesthetic and defining what is truly “Collin’s style.” Even now, I don’t know what it is because it is changing constantly, but it all centers around a specific theme you know, which is basically freedom. My own freedom, personal freedom. Sometimes I want to dress casual, alternative, as if I’m going to church. I don’t know, a variety of things, but all based on who I am as a person.
In 2016, midway through his junior year in college, Collin joined an exchange program in South Korea, where his friend group introduced him to the Korean entertainment industry. He was suggested to join a music video shoot by YG Entertainment, a company that owned everyone’s attention in 2016. It was the second-highest valued entertainment company in the country, its girl group Blackpink had just debuted, and three new sublabels had been announced — including one by Gangnam Style’s Psy. Collin was thrown in the middle of it all, and he took it in.
Afterwards, I was in the mentality that… I’ve always been interested in fashion, and you know at this point, I eat, breathe and sleep fashion, so why don’t I do something about it? So I contacted a lot of fashion photographers to get a portfolio and make this a reality.
The sessions paid off. By that summer, he had been cast by an agency, and throughout his academic summer program, he was a part time model.
As a student who is here more than six months, I was allowed to work part time, so I was a “part time worker” through my agency for the rest of that summer and the rest of the year. Then when the spring semester hit in 2017, I was just like, you know what, forget it. Let me just make money and be happy doing this job that I really enjoy. I studied marketing in college, I had a year and a half left. I didn’t finish. I hated school. What is the class I never finished? It starts with an A. Accounting. I hated it so much that it actually pushed me to leave.
The thing is, for me when I model, it doesn’t feel like a job.
Interviewer: It’s like you’re being yourself but now you’re getting paid for it, right?
(laughs) Exactly! Yeah its like you’re being a little bit vain but you get paid to be a little bit vain. And up until 2020, that’s what I’ve been doing. In 2019, I finished the year strong, I did a lot of modeling work and also performed with some friends at the GQ end of the year party which is an annual thing — well it was, I don’t know what’s going on this year — but I did that, and I was completely happy in what I was doing.
Interviewer: How were your career plans affected by 2020?
I went to visit my family for vacation during Christmas because I hadn’t seen them for like a year and a half, almost two years. I went home and… I dislocated my knee. I dislocated my knee and I had to get surgery.
Interviewer: It seems you weren’t affected by the coronavirus so much as by your knee. So that’s a unique situation among everyone I’ve interviewed so far.
(laughs) Yeah! I got my surgery when the pandemic hit Korea the first time, when it got out of hand and everything. I was in Chicago preparing to get my surgery, and it hadn’t really reached the US yet. Post-surgery I was fine, and then it hit the US. Originally my plan was that I was going to start my career in the US, not completely leave Korea, but branch out internationally. I went to visit some modeling agencies (before dislocating my knee, of course). I went to visit some modeling agencies in Chicago, and there’s one that told me…. You know Wilhelmina?
Interviewer: Yeah
I went to their Chicago branch and they told me that I’d be better off going to New York because my image fits there a lot better, so I. HAD. PLANS. TO. GO. TO. NEW. YORK.
Interviewer: Eyy, we’d be neighbors right now!
I KNOW. But then my knee betrayed me and I had to stay in Chicago. Coming back to Korea, it’s been weird adjusting. A lot of jobs have been canceled or postponed. A lot of things had to be relocated to adjust to what’s going on now. I’m still working, but its not the way that it used to be.
2020 had an unexpected effect. Since the age of 12, Collin has been writing lyrics inspired by his own study of the piano, violin, and guitar; but he had never had the opportunity to fully immerse himself in music.
Last year I released a song through a DJ I had worked with for a year. He made the instrumental and I sang it. I released it on iTunes, but it’s so hard to find. It’s a house-EDM song. It’s a chill song, and everybody likes it except for me. I’m being so serious. I like the song but it’s just not me, so… now — music is something that I’m really interested in and have a lot of ideas. I had the chance to prepare my own project now, and I just need to work on the instrumentals. I’m starting that process next week. It’s going to take a while for me to find the sound I’m searching for so deeply, but I’ve been doing that now.
Interviewer: What advice do you need from the world?
Wow. I don’t know. Between you and me and probably everyone else who’s going to see the article, I don’t really trust any advice. I kind of grew up doing things by myself. I had my parents, but mentally and emotionally, I was always pretty independent — I always had to answer my own questions. I mean, everywhere has their issues, and don’t think the world is even taking its own advice at this point. It’s like freefall. Every man for himself. Even the collective society is like this, trying to navigate and figure out what’s going on.
If anything, I would want to know how to provide exposure for myself. What is the best way for me to reach out to them? The world? In terms of, you know, shining my light — or whatever’s left of it — just to bring people’s spirits up, because I enjoy uplifting people if I can; or just making their experience better, which ties into my music as well. I always want to provide some sort of inspiration because a lot of people are in situations they don’t want to be in, and just to know that there’s a small hint of hope for them to look forward to — something in the future, no matter how small it is… if I can do that, then so be it.
Interviewer: What’s your advice to other people?
My advice to other people is to mind your business. I’m so serious. I’ve met a lot of people in the industry here, and one thing you notice when you end up in the field that’s been the focus of the majority of your life is that a lot of people go through a lot that you don’t understand. And you might have a lot of opinions, but to project your insecurities or issues onto someone who is just doing their job is something that’s kind of strange to me.
One example — and to be clear I do not stan Blackpink. I think that they are wonderful, creative individuals on their own, but the amount of hate that each girl gets for random reasons — it doesn’t make sense to me at all. Jennie could roll her eyes and everybody has an issue with it. Girl could be tired… she’s working!
Quarantine has given people so much time on their hands, and it’s getting worse. I think that people need to mind their business.
Number two on my advice for other people is to do things you keep postponing as long as it’s not harming anybody.
Interviewer: What are some of your favorite memories of things that you’ve done?
I’m not doing this to namedrop or anything, this is just how it is. I did a music video with N.Flying and ended up becoming friends with the members. I have fun when I’m working so I’ve made friends that way. Do you know AleXa? She is my favorite person. I did a dance video with AleXa before she debuted. I love her, she is a very free/ratchet spirit, but in a very beautiful way (laughs). She’s just very chill to be around, and you don’t meet very many genuine people like that. I love her energy.
As for my favorite runway show… my first one in Korea. It was 17FW Greedilous by Park Younhee. It’s my favorite because it was my first show. I was horrible, but it was a gateway for me to do more and believe in myself a little bit harder. I’m friends with her now, so it’s kind of interesting how it happened. My walking was not what it is now.
Baby steps. Complete baby steps.
