For Madame Woo Creative director and Designer of Wooyoungmi, who
always was identified with a Parisian fashion character, the new
generations’ curiosity for her homeland is intriguing, think of all
the hysteria around the K pop stars and K fashion. This inspired the
designer for the Wooyoungmi Fall Winter '23 Collection and made her
reflect on the historical artistic relationship between South Korea
and the West.
At the 1900 Paris Exposition, South Korea unveiled the Pavillon de Corée; a building constructed
in the style of the South Korean palaces but re-imagined within the
Haussmannian style of Paris. Coming of this background and with this
inspiration, Wooyoungmi unveiled it's Men- an Women´s collection at
Palais de Tokyo during Paris Men's Fashionweek.
The house of Youngmi Woo, Wooyoungmi, with 20 years of
showing collections bridged the gap between Paris and Seoul now even
more learning about the designer's inspiration. The collection
practiced tailoring and South Korean traditions. The brand's
utilitarian approach, loose suits, simultaneous bold shouldered
coats, puffers combined with hoodies, riding boots, aesthectic
simple bags have been evaluated with teenage-centric shapes based
on Wooyounmi's early 00's archive. Playing with proportions,
the collection showed in almost every look the oversized belts, as
seen at many collections, probably the biggest accessory trend of
the season. Besides that there was beautiful silver jewelry, coming
in long earring as wel as in orbs turned into broches, earrings and small
ones attached on the laces of the sneakers. These subtle details on
the highly detailed garment was an absolute highlight of the show.
Other favourite looks we found in the all leather effortless suit,
the black hoodie with Korean print on it with similar fitted pants,
and the leather slightly oversized pants, with oversized belt and
petrol blue sleeveless knit (big backstage pic).
"In the eyes of Wooyoungmi, the global popularisation of South
Korean culture is an interesting evolution. When the brand was
founded twenty years ago, its bricks were moulded in Seoul but its
foundation based on the blueprints of Parisian fashion mentality.
It’s a tale as old as time: the East dreams of the West and vice
versa. When it came to her craft, Woo Youngmi’s fascinations and
studies gravitated towards a milieu foreign to her own. Two
decades on, the digital age has assimilated Korean style, beauty
and pop into the Western mainstream." - From Wooyoungmi.
(Edit and pictures by Brenda)
No comments