EXPIRED: 11/20/09 -Daul Kim, 20, was a South Korean model who seemed to have it all – a career, a face, a figure, a following – and a case of depression that she just could not manage.
You may have seen her gracing covers of i-D magazine, the British and South Korean editions of Vogue magazine, and in Harper’s Bazaar. She worked with Lagerfeld, Vivienne Westwood, Chanel and Alexander McQueen and Christopher Kane and modelled for H&M, GAP and Ralph Lauren.
She also had made her international catwalk debut at Paris Fashion Week in 2007. Last year, she was even named Model of the Year by Anan magazine.
So her career was doing quite well. She moved to Paris this past Spring to continue to advance her modeling career and to study painting. She’s already had some success at the latter, having had a solo exhibition in Seoul at the age of 17.
While in Paris, Kim was known to rummage thru flea markets and antique stores looking for old forks to add to her growing collection. She even dedicated a blog to her life named after the odd collectible, www.iliketoforkmyself.blogspot.com.
It was this blog that tipped friends off to the fact that things might not be quite right.
Kim had suffered from depression for a long time, and had voiced her frustrations in her blog and in her paintings. She had left often posted about self-mutilation, suicide, exhaustion and insomnia and loneliness. One posting read: “I am going to smash my face… Please join my loneliness in another world.” She then added. “KIDDING. I’m fine. Just tired.”
She also posted images of her paintings, one of which showed her stabbing herself in the forehead with a fork.
In October 2009 during New York Fashion Week she left a post on her blog describing herself as “mad depressed and overworked.”
Weeks later, Kim was found hanged in her Paris flat after leaving a final post on her blog that read: “Say hi to forever.”
Filed under: Was a fashionista | Tagged: Suicide, Gap, Dead, obituary, died, dies, obit, RIP, obituaries, die, Paris, death, Daul Kim, 20, South Korean, model, depression, i-D, Harper’s Bazaar, Karl Lagerfeld, Vivienne Westwood, Chanel, Alexander McQueen, Christopher Kane, H&M, Ralph Lauren, hang, hanging, Paris Fashion Week, Model of the Year, Anan, seoul, korea, fork, iliketoforkmyself, New York Fashion Week
