Seoul’s Fashion Week takes steps toward transformation
The six-day 2011 Fall/Winter Seoul Fashion Week wrapped up Saturday. The 11-year-old event seems to have finally taken the first step toward transforming itself from a domestic event for established yet conformist designers to an international event full of new designers with fresh ideas.
Details about the show, including the schedule and participating designers, were kept secret until less than two weeks before the biannual event kicked off on March 28.
It was later revealed that the event was undergoing a major organizational transition up to the last minute.
The event’s previous organizer, the private Seoul Fashion Week Organizing Committee, was let go by the Seoul Fashion Center because of administrative inefficiencies following a government-led annual inspection late last year.
Instead, Seoul Fashion Center, under the Seoul Metropolitan Government, established a new internal body, the Seoul Fashion Week Management Team, to take over the work.
The Seoul Fashion Week Management Team is led by Park Yeon-ju, who has worked at the Seoul Fashion Center since 2000. She says the recent reform was done to promote the collection as an international trade show, thus attracting a larger number of buyers from Korea. The Korean government believes fashion is one the country’s most promising industries and will eventually play a role in driving national economic growth.
This year’s Fashion Week was organized into four subcategories: Seoul Collection, which showed menswear and womenswear by established designers; Fashion Take-off, a new program that shows work by nine next-generation designers who have the potential to achieve commercial success overseas; Generation-next, which features budding designers who have had their own labels for less than five years; and PT (Presentation) Show, which invites accessories brands, such as bag and shoe makers, to present their products.
With the administrative change, Fashion Week has applied stricter standards - including evaluations by overseas buyers and fashion experts from the previous season - when it comes to selecting designers to participate in the main Seoul Collection shows. The decision has reduced the number of designers participating in Seoul Collection from 39 to 27.
“Many older designers who were negligent in their work but took it for granted that they would be part of Seoul Fashion Week failed to get in this time. Some of them were furious about our decision. But generational change is something that definitely had to take place,” Park said. “We are in the middle of a transition period and we believe the harsh reforms will bear fruit in the near future.”
Kaal E. Suktae
Lee Suk-tae, long identified with romantic femininity, has adopted intense colors, heavy materials and avant-garde silhouettes. The collection was dominated by leather riding jackets with epaulettes, military coats and this long checkered dress and burgundy jacket.
Johnny Hates Jazz
Choi Ji-hyoung’s collection is dominated by black, accented with gray, navy, green and wine. The commercially successful designer has a unique way of matching a variety of materials, such as the fur on the arm and hemline of this black wool double-button coat.
KwakHyunJoo
Choi’s Circus collection features posh and sexy clothing for both men and women.
This model creates a striking image with her black trunks topped with a wool jacket and a color scheme of red, camel, gray and black.
Jardin de Chouette
Designer Kim Jae-hyun, who is beloved by Korea’s most fashionable celebrities, created this mini dress with two different flower patterns and contrasting color schemes, which are accentuated by a pair of orange and purple suede wedge-heel booties (not pictured).
Instantology
Famous for dressing Korea’s hottest male hip-hop group, Big Bang, designer Ji Il-keun accentuates this outfit with a big backpack and a high-rise fur hat inspired by the fez. The outfit was part of the Ji’s “In the Middle of Nowhere” show featuring 25 men travelling to unknown destinations.
Vanhart
Inspired by equestrian uniforms, the menswear collection by male designer Jung Du-young embraces a color spectrum that ranges from ivory and grey to camel, brown and wine.
Source: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2934306
The six-day 2011 Fall/Winter Seoul Fashion Week wrapped up Saturday. The 11-year-old event seems to have finally taken the first step toward transforming itself from a domestic event for established yet conformist designers to an international event full of new designers with fresh ideas.
Details about the show, including the schedule and participating designers, were kept secret until less than two weeks before the biannual event kicked off on March 28.
It was later revealed that the event was undergoing a major organizational transition up to the last minute.
The event’s previous organizer, the private Seoul Fashion Week Organizing Committee, was let go by the Seoul Fashion Center because of administrative inefficiencies following a government-led annual inspection late last year.
Instead, Seoul Fashion Center, under the Seoul Metropolitan Government, established a new internal body, the Seoul Fashion Week Management Team, to take over the work.
The Seoul Fashion Week Management Team is led by Park Yeon-ju, who has worked at the Seoul Fashion Center since 2000. She says the recent reform was done to promote the collection as an international trade show, thus attracting a larger number of buyers from Korea. The Korean government believes fashion is one the country’s most promising industries and will eventually play a role in driving national economic growth.
This year’s Fashion Week was organized into four subcategories: Seoul Collection, which showed menswear and womenswear by established designers; Fashion Take-off, a new program that shows work by nine next-generation designers who have the potential to achieve commercial success overseas; Generation-next, which features budding designers who have had their own labels for less than five years; and PT (Presentation) Show, which invites accessories brands, such as bag and shoe makers, to present their products.
With the administrative change, Fashion Week has applied stricter standards - including evaluations by overseas buyers and fashion experts from the previous season - when it comes to selecting designers to participate in the main Seoul Collection shows. The decision has reduced the number of designers participating in Seoul Collection from 39 to 27.
“Many older designers who were negligent in their work but took it for granted that they would be part of Seoul Fashion Week failed to get in this time. Some of them were furious about our decision. But generational change is something that definitely had to take place,” Park said. “We are in the middle of a transition period and we believe the harsh reforms will bear fruit in the near future.”
 | |
Lee Suk-tae, long identified with romantic femininity, has adopted intense colors, heavy materials and avant-garde silhouettes. The collection was dominated by leather riding jackets with epaulettes, military coats and this long checkered dress and burgundy jacket.
Johnny Hates Jazz
Choi Ji-hyoung’s collection is dominated by black, accented with gray, navy, green and wine. The commercially successful designer has a unique way of matching a variety of materials, such as the fur on the arm and hemline of this black wool double-button coat.
 | |
Choi’s Circus collection features posh and sexy clothing for both men and women.
This model creates a striking image with her black trunks topped with a wool jacket and a color scheme of red, camel, gray and black.
Jardin de Chouette
Designer Kim Jae-hyun, who is beloved by Korea’s most fashionable celebrities, created this mini dress with two different flower patterns and contrasting color schemes, which are accentuated by a pair of orange and purple suede wedge-heel booties (not pictured).
 | |
Famous for dressing Korea’s hottest male hip-hop group, Big Bang, designer Ji Il-keun accentuates this outfit with a big backpack and a high-rise fur hat inspired by the fez. The outfit was part of the Ji’s “In the Middle of Nowhere” show featuring 25 men travelling to unknown destinations.
Vanhart
Inspired by equestrian uniforms, the menswear collection by male designer Jung Du-young embraces a color spectrum that ranges from ivory and grey to camel, brown and wine.
Source: http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2934306
No comments:
Post a Comment