Beyond Closet F/W 2011

The lunching ladies in Seoul’s glittering Cheongdam-dong district are the city’s key style consumers but Korean men reign on Seoul’s A/W 2011 catwalks. The first three full days of Seoul Fashion Week were devoted to the menswear collections with sprinklings of creative unisex and masculine garb throughout the remaining half. The shows’ striking diversity, innovation and splashy colors established a fascinatingly fluid image of Korean masculine identity.

Resurrection by Juyoung asserted its strength in the main Setec show venue with heavy black boots, leopard print tophats and a post-apocalyptic sensibility recalling Zoot of New Zealand’s cult television show, The Tribe. While girls wore delicate black lace sleeves, Juyoung Lee’s men were comparably rugged in knee-length pleated black leather tails.

However, this dash of traditional swagger disappeared at Kring, Seoul’s space-age designed “Creative Culture Space,” where younger designers pioneered their sleek and directional collections. There, Instantology evoked the spirit of Evelyn Waugh with candy-striped, pleated shirts peeping through clean classic cut suits perfect for an English summer day.

Studio K Fall/Winter 2011

A less idealized vision of archetypical English style was artfully expressed in Hye Jin Hong’s striking Studio K collection of genuine Harris tweed, authenticated by the distinctive label stitched on the exterior of country classic coats and vests. Hong paired these pieces with beautiful knits and quilted coats for an elegant mens and womens’ Highland collection.

A different genre of outdoor-wear was championed at Lee Hyun Chan’s Chan+ge show. Utility-wear was a dominant theme throughout the mens’ shows and Chan’s appealed to outdoorsy types with gortex gaiters on basic jeans, life jacket-style gillets layered over tweed, classic suede jacket and an arresting fluorescent Orange pea coat. Beyond Closet, by Tae Yong Ko, subverted accessibly rangy pieces such as a checked lumberjack shirts or green canvas bomber jacket with cropped, pocketed, tapered or velvet trousers.

Ground Wave Fall/Winter 2011

Trousers were creatively reconsidered at the Star Trek Next Generation-style Ground Wave show were designer Sun Ho Kim presented low-slung tulip-shaped quilted suits in a muted grey-scale. In contrast to this minimalist collection were the bold hues at Alani and candy-colors at the aptly named Unbounded Awe show. Laykuni’s collection of cool stripped pastels evoked both cartoon prison-wear and the seventies’ dystopian sci-fi cult classic Soylent Greens.

Extreme color defined Ha SangBeg’s climatic final show in the lobby of the W hotel. The only collection that was present off-site included models parading before a hoard of fashion fans towards a real-time shooting by top photographer KimJiYang. Whereas SangBeg’s women wore slinky dresses with kinbaku bondage details, his men were sci-fi super-heroes in illuminated sunglasses, motorcycle helmets, one-sleeved ponchos, leather riding boots and tangerine stripped and intricate knotted sweaters. The lash of horsehair tassels on boots and jeans’ belt-hooks a classically manly counter-point to his sherbet palette.
Text Sam Hardwick

KEYWORDS: Seoul Fashion Week