260522 JENNIE + JENNIE | JENNIE and CHANEL, New York and Seoul | Dazed Korea

> Jennie is cool. But now, the word “cool” feels slightly insufficient. It’s been used too easily, worn down too often. Some days, Jennie feels cold enough to hurt if you get too close. Other days, she lowers her eyes and turns soft. Rigid enough to break something, then suddenly so detached it feels like she could disappear entirely. She rarely lets people too close, then absentmindedly laughs to herself with a cute little “heh heh heh.” I’m curious about every version of Jennie.

> It’s been seven years. Seven years since her first solo cover shoot in the spring of 2017, since we witnessed her first moment with CHANEL in the spring of 2019. Seven years later, Jennie again. In that time, I changed. Or maybe I stayed the same. I’m still here, exactly where I was, while the name Jennie kept moving farther away, climbing higher, passing through more cities, more stages, more screens. I can’t possibly know everything, but she looks like someone who has grown deeper.
“Omg… She’s cool….”

> Just as an unnecessary sense of smallness began creeping in, the Jennie I actually met didn’t feel like someone who had become impossibly distant. She has grown, but not into someone intimidating. I was happy to find she still carried traces of the sharp sensitivity she had the first time we met. I happen to love every kind of sensitivity. When Jennie walked into the studio carrying that unmistakable Saturday afternoon aura and asked for cup noodles instead of New York bagel. Right. Of course. No amount of unnecessary catering could replace the real thing. That melted me a little.

> “Seven years… that really was a long time ago. Compared to then, I think I’ve been living both similarly and differently. I’m still making music, still continuing projects with CHANEL. But as time passed, I grew, and within changing environments I’ve been learning how to find my own balance in a more flexible way. Meeting again after such a long time and shooting together like this makes it feel even more special.”

> Similarly, yet differently. She still does the same things. Makes music, steps onstage, wears CHANEL, stands in front of cameras. But the method has changed. If the Jennie of the past executed the scene given to her with precision, the Jennie of now decides the direction of the scene herself. From performer to decision maker. Same place, different weight.

> “I think the positive responses came from always doing my best within the moments and opportunities given to me, and from constantly thinking deeply about every step. Even now, whenever I take on something new, I still feel excited and nervous. But if there’s one thing that’s changed compared to before, it’s that I naturally feel more aware that the choices I make and the stories I tell can influence a lot of people.”

> If 2018’s SOLO was a declaration, then 2025’s Ruby feels like the sentence that follows. It no longer ends at “I can do this alone,” but instead asks what can be created from being alone. I don’t think Jennie’s identity as a solo artist can be judged by musical perfection alone. I’m more interested in how she continuously rearranges herself. Jennie never tries to become a completely different person overnight. Instead, she rearranges the fragments of “Jennie” we already know. The sharpness of the rapper, the temperature of the vocalist, the body of the pop star, the visual language of the fashion icon, the gestures that either respond to or betray the “Jennie-ness” the public expects from her.

> “I think my identity as an artist becomes the clearest when I’m working on music or standing on stage. In the end, my emotions and identity are directly embedded in my music, so those moments feel closest to who I really am.”

> Public expectation and Jennie’s own desires cannot always move in the same direction. Jennie moves toward whatever holds her most clearly.

> “Hmm… as just another human being, I think I keep discovering new goals that I truly want to pursue and feel I should pursue. The direction and values I follow can sometimes seem challenging or provocative to people, but over time there are moments when fans come to understand and respect the real meaning behind them. I think those things eventually remain as my own iconic qualities. So these days, rather than trying to satisfy every gaze directed at me, I try to focus first on what truly matters to me and trust that direction more.”

> What seems important to Jennie now are her own principles. Which sounds deserve her voice. Which moments deserve exposure, and which require retreat. The instinct to decide what to do and what not to do. Jennie does not completely reject the countless external systems that shape her. The global pop market, the K-pop system, fandom culture, social media, public attention, the gaze of the media. Jennie exists inside all of it. She simply adjusts the proportions on her own terms.

> Saturday, May 2. Another shoot day. This time in New York City. Jennie brought us into this enormous city. It’s my first time in New York. Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo. I’ve rushed in and out of those cities as casually as crossing from Seongsu to Apgujeong in Seoul, but somehow New York was the one place I had never been. Everything here feels exaggeratedly large and endless, to the point where I imagined if I died alone here, nobody would even discover it for the next hundred years. Even the voltage and measurement belong to a different world, yet the view outside my Manhattan hotel somehow resembles a street in Gangnam. Why?

> “It’s not exactly the same, but I think New York has similarities to Seoul. The busy people, the strangely familiar noise, even the traffic.(laughs) Maybe that’s why New York feels unfamiliar yet oddly comfortable to me at the same time. But it also has a freer energy and atmosphere that’s different from Seoul, so every visit feels new.”

> Just then, photographer Zoey Grossman arrived straight from Los Angeles at the Williamsburg studio, bringing with her warm hugs and endless chatter like California oranges soaked in sunlight. Stylist Sam Woolf, hair artist Olivier Schawalder, makeup artist Won Joyeon, and nail artist Zola Ganzorigt soon gathered too. Staff members of different nationalities, backgrounds, and sensitivities filled the set with bustling noise.