cabinet of curiosities

Supermodel Daul Kim found hanged

Her death was discovered after she left a series of messages on a website saying she was “lonely” and “depressed”.

Kim, 20, was a regular on catwalks in New York, Milan and Paris was found hanged in her city centre apartment by a friend, according to police.

She had modelled for leading designers, including Chanel, Dries van Noten and Alexander McQueen. Despite her professional success, she had hinted at her desire to end her life in her popular internet blog – a series of poems, photos and thoughts called “I like to Fork Myself”.

On October 30, she sounded upbeat: “I left Seoul and I’m in Paris – I’m happy!” Her former home town had, she said, made her “mad, depressed and overworked”.

The following day she wrote: “No more running away from something or someone or myself.” But her thoughts had apparently darkened by November 5, when she wrote: “I already accepted that I relate to nothing. The more I gain the more lonely it is… I know I’m like a ghost.”

And in a final comment on November 18, she posted an entry entitled “Say hi to forever” accompanied by a video of the song I Go Deep by Jim Rivers, a British DJ artist.

One internet link redirects to a website on Joy Division, whose lead singer Ian Curtis hanged himself in 1980.

Raised in Seoul and Singapore, Kim modelled in Asia before making her fashion week debut in Paris in 2007. She most recently appeared during Seoul fashion week in October.

Known for her thick mane of hair, often blond, and her quirkiness, the 5ft 10in model was appreciated for her sense of style. She recently featured in a Topshop commercial for designer Christopher Kane.

Kim was also an accomplished painter and video filmmaker who had a solo show of her artwork in Seoul.

French commentators pointed to the parallels between her death and that of Lucy Gordon, 28, the British model-turned-actress who hanged herself in May. Like Gordon, who featured in Spider Man 3 and stars as Jane Birkin in an forthcoming film, she was found by a friend in a flat in the trendy 10th arrondissement of Paris.

Bloggers in South Korea mourned her death online with many speculating that she had succumbed to the pressure of high-fashion modelling and a loss of identity.

In one blog post she quotes the American philosopher and essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose ideas are “considered a reaction to a commercial identity; he calls for a return to individual identity”.

Kim’s mother was expected in Paris yesterday night.

South Korea, which has the highest suicide rate among the 30 nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, has had a string of high-profile suicides in recent months.

Roh Moo-hyun, the former President, jumped to his death in May while under investigation for corruption and the ex-chairman of South Korea’s oldest conglomerate killed himself earlier this month. In 2008, Choi Jin-sil, one of the country’s top actresses, committed suicide, shortly after a fellow actor did the same. One of South Korea’s popular soap opera actresses also killed herself recently.
Article by Henry Samuel (The Telegraph)