5 Designers to Know From Seoul Manner Week Tumble 2021

It was just about a yr ago when Seoul Fashion 7 days became just one of the 1st big manner activities to slide target to the coronavirus. Because of to South Korea’s locus as an early hotspot for the pandemic, the announcement of its postponement was manufactured when Paris Style 7 days was even now quite considerably underway. Even though the circumstance in South Korea is presently secure, the week’s organizers were eager to guarantee that this season’s situations went in advance as responsibly as attainable, with all of the reveals live-streamed without having an viewers. However what emerged from these limitations was a surprising quantity of creativity, with quite a few of the week’s standout collections coming by way of youthful and emerging voices. 

Under normal conditions, the the vast majority of demonstrates would just take place within the grandiose location of the Zaha Hadid–designed Dongdaemun Design and style Plaza which, even though convenient, provides minimal area for designers to experiment with how their collections are offered. One silver lining to arise this season, then, was the broader wide range of backdrops, with designers discovering areas from the hallowed halls of the National Museum of Korea to the leafy environs of the Han Riverside Park, affording them the option for far more cohesive earth-constructing along with every selection. This mix of spots showcased a lot more of what Seoul has to present as a structure money, even from afar—something the week’s organizers would do perfectly to continue on with even when normality returns. 

The highlights arrived by way of familiar faces these types of as the earlier LVMH Prize-nominated Minju Kim, who confirmed off-timetable far more proven Korean names like LIE and a number of emerging skills, together with Hanacha Studio and Painters. Jointly they created for an eclectic mix that displays the rich patchwork of type scenes that have designed Seoul a vogue capital.

Listed here, obtain the 5 designers to know from Seoul Manner Week’s fall 2021 time. 

LIE

As one of the a lot more set up names on the Seoul Vogue Week timetable, designer Chung Chung Lee of LIE confirmed his assortment in the colossal plaza exterior the National Museum of Korea. It was a suitably epic setting for an outing that featured impeccably-minimize and quickly fascinating separates and outerwear. A range of particularly persuasive pieces ended up motivated by horse driving, such as a cropped, belted coat with a crossover shoulder element and saddle-style leather-based bags dripping with tassels, buckles, and even stirrups. The most playful accessory? A riding crop. 

Minjukim

Arguably Korean fashion’s finest results story of the earlier number of decades, Minju Kim’s delightfully frou-frou smocked dresses and charming oversized coats went world-wide soon after she emerged as the substantially-deserved winner of Netflix’s Subsequent in Trend contest, earning $250,000 from Net-a-Porter to start a new assortment on its internet site. While Kim typically chooses to demonstrate off timetable, she premiered her tumble 2021 collection with a slick glimpse guide that observed her set a sharper and more graphic spin on her girlish design signatures. (Highlights provided bunny rabbit-adorned knits, cardigans featuring abstracted slash-out florals impressed by Edward Scissorhands, and a series of flouncy attire with oversized shoulders and peter pan collars.) She may be 1 of the week’s better-recognized names, but with a collection that continued to go the dial ahead, Kim clearly isn’t resting on her laurels. 

Hanacha Studio

A graduate of the London Faculty of Vogue, Hana Cha of Hanacha Studio emerged as one particular of the week’s standouts with a selection that fused spectacular silhouettes with painterly prints to kind a distinctive and darkly intimate entire. Though the designer is identified for her intellectual POV—she lately completed a PhD at Seoul’s Hong-ik College on the connection in between the Bauhaus movement and fashion—there was a lightness of contact present in the crystal fringing jogging alongside the hems of coats and jackets and the paint-spattered denim items. This 7 days, Cha founded herself as an fascinating new expertise to preserve an eye on.

Pian

Even though Seoul was an early outpost for genderless dressing, there’s still a rich tradition of ingenious men’s tailoring current in the metropolis courtesy of longstanding makes like Münn and Caruso. The most recent name on the block is designer HyunHo Kim of Pian, who showed his assortment of off-kilter tailoring at dusk less than a bridge on an island in the Han River. Balancing convenience with a louche, dandy-esque glamour—and a remaining dose of Dickensian dishevelment—his tumble collection consisted of a few-piece suits and peacoats cut from washed linens and handled denims, although Junya-esque patchwork aspects were provided a fresh new update through exposed seams and asymmetric fastenings. It was exciting to see a menswear designer stand out as just one of the week’s most intriguing voices, not minimum with a collection as innovative as it was covet-deserving.

Painters

This season’s wild card was Painters, the brainchild of designer Won Jeon, who was awarded the H&M x London Faculty of Vogue Design and style Award in 2015 right before setting up his label a few a long time in the past. Getting emerged as a single of Seoul’s wittiest and most playful designers, Jeon’s signature topsy-turvy proportions, kaleidoscopic eye for shade, and unexpected textures were out in full drive. Warped, bulbous attire came wrapped all over the human body in cloud-like cottons and shiny bin liner blacks, whilst a especially unforgettable piece reduce from a fluffy grey fake fur featured a kangaroo-like protrusion at the waist as beguiling as it was weird. It appears to be the emergent trend for oversized, enveloping proportions is a single that Jeon is thoroughly on board with.