These Emerging Korean Designers Are Bringing K-fashion to the NYFW Stage
With K-pop and K-movies commanding global pop culture, K-fashion may be next to benefit from the frenzy.
At least that’s what emerging South Korean designers set to show at New York Fashion Week on Sept. 13 believe is coming down the pike.
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“There’s so many Korean cultures that are trending globally right now that fashion is a little bit slower than music or movies. We think that it is important because it is the chance that we can show how K-fashion can be trending and how important it is,” said Lee Seongdong, creative director of Ul:kin, a gender boundary-blurring contemporary brand, which will showcase its spring 2023 collection as part of Concept Korea. “We want to be part of what makes K-fashion more successful.”
Concept Korea is a global fashion program hosted by the country’s Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and organized by the Korea Creative Content Agency, to support emerging designers from South Korea. After a pandemic pause, the 12-year-old Concept Korea program is returning to the fashion week calendar to provide designers with a very visible global platform.
With Ul:kin, Seongdong’s spring 2023 collection draws on a pastime that picked up in popularity during the pandemic: fishing. And he’s using it to give the line a sustainability spin that’s core to the brand.
“Recently we heard that there’s a kind of fishing that catches garbage inside the water, which is called magnet fishing…as we are a brand based on recycling and eco-friendly fashion, we thought it would be one of our concepts for the season,” Seongdong said. “Some looks are based on fishing and camping and also based on the upcycling that we’ve been continuously showing in our collections.”
Pieces will channel a traditional multipocketed fisherman’s vest, but made into a skirt, nets will add texture and seaweed will serve as pattern inspiration.
And not forgoing the K-pop opportunity — and the trend of sending not just models but celebrities down the runway — Kim Donghyuk of South Korean boy band iKon, will walk the Ul:kin show.
The NYFW debut, Seongdong said, will be an opportunity to showcase not just his own brand, but K-fashion’s crafty balance of practicality and wearability without leaving artistic vision behind.
“What Korean people are doing and Korean people are wearing is K-fashion itself and to make it successful and make it global, we think that is the thing that we should show to the world….K-fashion is what we are wearing right now, what K-pop idols are wearing, not something from the past,” he said. “Fashion is one of the cultural parts [of South Korea] so we think fashion can be global just like the other parts of the cultural industries, like movies and music.”
Counter to Ul:kin’s new-era workwear vibe, Cahiers is bringing the romance.
All the ruffles, soft shapes and traditionally feminine silhouettes come courtesy of designer Kim A-Young’s 10 years living in France and traveling the world. While in France, she earned a master’s degree from école de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne.
“What I personally feel about the location or the historical images that I get [from my travels] I try to capture those in my work,” she said. “For the [spring] 2023 collection, I decided to [focus on] Spain’s old capital, Toledo. If you think about the characteristics of Toledo, there’s Judaism, Islamic culture, there’s also Christianity.
It’s all about “the beauty of coexistence,” she said. And the beauty of the female body, which Cahiers works to emphasize.
“Korean women are very interested in their fashion,” said the designer, who will also be showing for the first time at NYFW, despite her success in [South] Korea, which includes dressing top celebrities. “As a result, Korean fashion is very up to trend and creative.
“Korean fashion and Korean designers can lead the world and influence the world as well,” she continued. “It has a potential to influence not only Asia but the entire globe.”
For Besfxxk, which calls itself “an experimental fashion house” and describes its aesthetic as “bespoke but f–ked up,” this NYFW will be an opportunity to show a new audience, as well as existing stockists including Bergdorf Goodman, what’s on offer this spring 2023 season. It will be the brand’s first show in the U.S., and there are already plans in place to show at NYFW in February next year.
This season, Seoul designed and produced Besfxxk is “reconstructing classic garments based on the current trends,” designer Jae Hyuk Lim said.
Taking classics like ‘50s balloon skirts, smoking blazers and the trenchcoat — which the brand is known for, Lim is crafting new tailored silhouettes, hence the “bespoke but f–ked up.”
“It was a really interesting process because the balloon skirt is just skirt isn’t it? You can think of long and short balloon skirts, but we are representing some of the crazy hybrid clothing that has balloon skirts inserted in classic garments like blazers and trench coats, so it’s kind like combination of coat and skirt and it is absolutely wearable,” he said.
And that hybrid design element is something Korean designers, more broadly, he said, are excelling at.
“Korean designs are brilliant when it comes to finding balance between craftsmanship and commerciality,” Lim said. “For those who participate in Seoul Fashion Week, they are capable of producing high-level garments with reasonable pricing. I have been to many global manufacturers worldwide and I felt that Korean garment-makers are very skilled and reasonable in terms of pricing and handling the quality, I’ve seen it myself.
“I am quite sure with time the Korean designs will rise in the global business,” he continued. “But things take time.”
In the meantime, the three Concept Korea designers will debut their collections at an invite-only show at the Gallery at Spring Studios on Varick Street in New York City, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
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