Identity Crisis: Seoul’s 10 Soul Party

I attended Seoul’s 10 Soul, which featured ten of Korea’s best talent and eastern-styled hors d’oeuvres served in all courses from appetizer to dessert paired with refills of bubbly. As a cultural observer on a tight budget I found this highly appealing. Overall, one of the starkest differences I noticed between Paris Fashion Week and New York’s was the abundance of complimentary food and wine.  Anyways, back to the fashion.

EXAMPLES OF MAINSTREAM KOREAN FASHION

When I think of Korean fashion, Greenwich Village boutiques lined with walls of frocks, tops, and bottoms doused in femininity retailing around $70 to $200 come to mind.   I can’t help but associate opaque tights, ruching, ruffles, mini-length hem lines, and loose silhouettes.  Even the men’s clothing has a tendency to be on the delicate side relative to its Western and Japanese counterparts.  Everything from the width of the double stitching to the button placements is narrower and scaled to the petite-framed man.  The aesthetic is cute and wearable, easy to match with something edgier or more conservative, but predictable.

So when I arrived to see digital prints, hard lines, structure, and vibrant almost psychedelic hues, I was intrigued.  The architectural details and silhouettes particularly reminded me of the Parisians, or at least the Japanese.

Seung Hee Lee of LeyII gives us exaggerated fin-like origami that takes the Korean aesthetic to the next level.  Kaal E Suktae mimics the human skeleton in an uncharacteristically Korean risqué dress.  Jae Hyun Kim of Jardin De Chouette digitized the grandma hobby of cross stitching for a print she implemented on her summer tuxedos.  While Jaewan Lee uses digital prints to create a stoney kaleidoscope that is implemented in a way that elongates the body and reminds me of Alexander McQueen.  Although there was nothing mind blowing, the clothing was diverse, interesting, and not inline with my idea of Korean fashion.

Part of the reason for this I discover is that Seoul’s 10 Soul is a global project that selects their ten designers based upon how appropriate they are to the hosting city.  The designers that show in Paris aren’t necessarily the Korean designers they show in New York or London, the other major cities the project has targeted.  This is a smart move for a project who is funded by the Seoul Metropolitan Government and Seoul Fashion Centre and whose goal is to establish Seoul as a fashion capital outside Asia.  The initiative only began last year in 2010, but has some formidable players collaborating on their marketing side, including top models Coco Rocha and Davis Smith and leading digital entertainment magazine Dazed.

Another reason for my culture shock (and likely the bigger cause) is the very limited view I have as a self-absorbed Westerner the organization is trying to change about Korea’s fashion reputation.  Just like any city’s mass-market clothing, it is a watered down.  As an American, I am rarely exposed to their high end apparel never mind their runway visions.

Unfortunately, Seoul has some ways before they can flaunt an international reputation.  Diversifying their clothing, increasing the quality, and appealing to westerners is beneficial to individual Korean designers.  They have a shot in making it in the major fashion capitols.  For example, Bumsuk Choi of General Idea (who participated in Seoul’s 10 Soul) has been showing in New York since 2008, and their Korean-American counterparts Doo Ri, Richard Chai, and Thuy, are broadly respected.  However, in order for Seoul to put itself on the map, the city needs a unique look and construction that the other cities have not achieved.  Unfortunately, neither the aesthetic currently associated with Korea nor their emulation of Western designers serves this purpose.