After earning his BFA, David founded the label Selahdor in 2009. What began as a self-taught pursuit in pattern making and garment construction grew into a fashion brand featured by DailyCandy, Boston Magazine, and US Weekly, with showroom representation in Boston and New York. That momentum led to national recognition when he appeared as an early fan-favorite designer on Project Runway Season 9 and became the inaugural recipient of The Emerging Designer Fund in 2010.
ABOUTDavid Chum
Some people know exactly what feels off. Others only know they are tired of being overlooked, misread, or asked to work too hard to be understood.
That is where David Chum begins.
Through DCPC, he helps minimize the gap between who his clients are and how they are received, through the face, the body, the environment, and the timing of their lives. His work is built for people who understand that presentation shapes perception, confidence, opportunity, and how a person moves through the world.
Born in a refugee camp at the end of the Cambodian Genocide, David has always lived at the intersection of survival, artistry, and transformation. These were the conditions he was born into — not inherited as story, but lived as history. They shaped his understanding of what it means to rebuild, adapt, and create meaning through form. His father taught him to turn talent into service. That principle still drives the work today.
He knows what it is to be misread. He also knows the power of finding forms that let a person come into clearer focus.
David is an artist, designer, stylist, and licensed Body Art Practitioner whose practice brings together fine art, fashion, cosmetic tattooing, interior design, and personalized timing systems through one lens: how people are seen, and what changes when that read becomes more accurate. Different mediums. One eye. One standard.
His relationship to beauty and personal presentation began early. Drawing became a language for observation, emotion, and self-expression. As a teenager, he taught himself clothing construction, textile manipulation, and costume design, using fashion and drag to explore identity, transformation, and self-possession.
At the College of Art and Design at Lesley University, where he earned his BFA, David's work examined transformation in the aftermath of trauma. His large-scale portraits combined sound, handmade costume and jewelry, oil painting, found objects, and sculpture, connecting physical form to psychological truth. His work is held in the collections of Samuel Adams, Jinx Nolan, and John Lester.
After earning his BFA, David founded the label Selahdor in 2009. What began as a self-taught pursuit in pattern making and garment construction grew into a brand featured by DailyCandy, Boston Magazine, and US Weekly, represented in showrooms in Boston and New York. The momentum eventually led to national recognition when David appeared as an early fan-favorite designer on Project Runway Season 9. The exposure cemented his reputation as one of Boston’s most distinctive emerging designers, and he was the inaugural recipient of The Emerging Designer Fund in 2010. His work became known for modern tailoring, strong visual identity, and refinement without excess.
Image courtesy of Todd Lee
Later on, for over a decade, he built a strong track record in luxury retail, learning how desire is shaped, how trust is built, and how visual decisions influence what people choose, value, and remember. That knowledge now lives inside DCPC.
Clients come to David for many reasons: brow loss, old PMU work, asymmetry, a major life shift, a wardrobe that no longer fits, or to prepare for high visibility moments. What they are often looking for is the same thing — the confidence to take up space, to be seen accurately, and to move through life with more ease and clarity.
Based in Boston, Massachusetts, David operates a licensed body art studio in Belmont, MA and works by appointment.
FEATURED IN BOSTON MAGAZINE | US WEEKLY | PROJECT RUNWAY SEASON 9