AFP/VOGUE – Pick a front row, any front row, and the extraordinary influence of South Korea on fashion right now will be large. Paris, like Milan, has succumbed to K-Pop mania, and every VIP team worth its bamboo salt is adding a South Korean superstar to its celebrity roster, driving much-needed social-media exposure for brands and attracting screaming hordes of young women outside their shows in the process.
If Madame Woo is faintly irritated by this belated, commercially-motivated courting of her homeland, after 20 years of showing collections that have elegantly bridged the gap between Paris and Seoul, she didn’t show it during a preview of her recent Wooyoungmi collection.
Instead, she said she was running with it, leaning in to her heritage more than ever. “It’s incredible to see the influence of Korean culture and the explosion of Korean style. After two decades of showing my collection in Paris, I feel confident in myself, finally, to have the balance,” she said, her words translated by an assistant.
The opening gambit of her show at the Palais de Tokyo grounded this collection in the Korean city of Gyeongju.
Next, she sent out sharp tailoring in a clean palette of cream, caramel and jade, lapels enlivened with shiny silver jewellery to reflect Seoul’s futuristic landscape.
Some of the collection’s most sophisticated looks came in chocolate brown, with strong-shouldered overcoats and bomber jackets paired with fluid trousers, their banana-shaped legs inspired by traditional Korean pants. For the streetwear fans, a volcano graphic-repeated across cotton sweatpants, denim and a bouclé wool zippy jacket-hit the spot.
