2015 Autumn/Winter - Moohong - Seoul Fashion Week

AW15 Moohong Seoul Fashion Week

2015 Autumn/Winter - Moohong - Seoul Fashion Week

uyguguygu   08.01   Comment  

Moohong Kim’s AW15 collection was presented at Seoul Fashion Week with a sense of calmness, propriety, and form that removed the collection from simply being another part of the new monastic wave. Moohong’s collection, cut and draped to use space outside of the form of the body, created strong and unexpected silhouettes. The presentation of the collection was austere and quiet in a way that settled the collection. 

The show opened with a softly discordant song, buzzing noise, and a model draped in layers of textured black wearing a jacket over it all that emphasize broad shoulders. After several minutes the noise dissolved into Anthony Hegarty’s piano/vocal cover of Returnal by Oneohtrix Point Never. This move away from the typical throbbing bass/electronic noise/moody repetition that is is so commonly chosen for shows seemed to settle the energy in the tent. 

Moohong’s collection mixed fabric, sculpture, and human movement. The clothes hung in monochromatic columns off the austerely made up models who walked with almost bare faces and simply styled hair. He coupled architectural cantilevering with exceptional tailoring that hints at classic menswear ateliers draped and he did not forgo these details on the women’s wear included in his collection. Each of the outfits had a lot going on, and beyond the layers of black there were tiny details: frayed cuffs, silk twisted and tucked, zippers placed at angles, lapels on one outfit that briefly hinted at a tuxedo before melting back  into the drape of the rest of the column. None of it seemed needlessly busy, though, or even fussy. 

After Moohong Kim’s AW15 show ended people meandered through the tent, slowly leaving instead of chaotically dashing out. Moohong’s collection, and its entire presentation had created atmosphere and mood that caused people to take a deep breath and exhale slowly.

You can watch the whole show below:

You can listen to Anthony Hegarty’s version of Returnal by Oneohtrix Point Neve below:

The Good Glass // Seoul Fashion Week Part I

The Good Glass // Seoul Fashion Week Part I

uyguguygu   17.56   Comment  

On the left, Korean blogger Chimi

Model

Models Kim Ye Rim, Hye Jin Shin, and friend

As always, there are more photos up my instagram account: The Good Glass

2015 Autumn/Winter - The Centaur - Seoul Fashion Week

2015 Autumn/Winter - The Centaur - Seoul Fashion Week

uyguguygu   18.42   Comment  

Ranji Ye, The Centaur’s designer, was one of the Korean designers that I was aware of before I headed to Korea and I made sure to reach out to her brand's PR firm for tickets to her show. In 2009 she had been featured in Interview Magazine as a Generation Next Designer, Seoul Fashion Week’s category for up and coming Korean designers and I have followed her career as she rose through the ranks. By the time I was able to attend this show she had solidly moved to Seoul Collection, a spot she had decidedly earned over the last five years of confident collections. 

The Centaur’s collection for A/W15 came with Ye’s signature attention to detail and pulled other unexpected influences together. Primarily, the clothes brought us back to an elaborate version of a silver screen era starlet that was offbeat but completely in control. Silks, satins, and gentle East Asian inspired patterns were worked into loose tailoring with clear hints towards glamorous pajamas of the 1930’s and 40’s. The clothes also featured wide legged trousers and long ribbed knit sweaters that gave credence to the 1970s, thin silver glasses chains and dark round sunglasses that reminded me of the 1960’s, and elaborate old-world coiffures and bold makeup that hearkened back to the starlets of early Asian cinema. Models came out wearing small silver hood ornament-like miniatures sitting delicately on the center parts of their hair. 

The finale of the the collection came out to Dusty Springfield’s classic, You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me which lyrically and tonally was a perfect fit for a collection asking best features of bygone eras to come back. It articulated a certain sense of playful nostalgia. This feeling comes appropriately at this point in Ye’s career but the collection also made it completely clear that Ye hasn’t stopped exploring what it means to play with design and influence.

The Good Glass // Garosugil

The Good Glass // Garosugil

uyguguygu   21.51   Comment  

Korean Model Kim Insik

HoYoung Kwon at the Sinsa Gentle Monster

Korean Models Kim Sein and Park Hyorin

 Kim Yoonyon

A few favorites that I shot this week and last in Garosugil. I've been noticing a lot of people playing with scale and proportion but the thing that continues to catch my eye is quality. A well made and beautifully constructed garment in a gorgeous really stands out in a photograph. More over at The Good Glass.

Ganghwado Beach

Ganghwado Beach

uyguguygu   19.02   Comment  

I don't make it out of the city that often here but I jumped at the opportunity to head out of town. We headed west beyond Incheon to Ganghwado. Since we just had a day it was perfect since it wasn't too far or too close.

Much of Seoul had the same idea so the traffic was a little busy and the beach was a little crowded but we walked around and really enjoyed the scenery and the stillness. The air was clean and smelled like the ocean and the tide was out so there were miles and miles of sparkling mud flats between us and the water.

What is it about the sea that soothes you? I think I needed to be there. I had a somewhat long and stressful week and this was enough to calm me down and recharge me. Seoul Fashion Week is coming up this week and I'm attending a handful of the shows as well as trying to get street style photographs and do some copy writing for that. 

The Good Glass // Dongdaemun + Garosugil

The Good Glass // Dongdaemun + Garosugil

uyguguygu   19.55   Comment  

Favorite street style photos from the week in Dongdaemun and Garosugil, South Korea. 

It is still too cold to call it spring but it seems that the clothes are waking up to pave the way for flowers and people are taking advantage of the slightly warmer weather and are showing interesting layers.

For more follow The Good Glass on instagram: @thegoodglass

Buildings and Bridges

Buildings and Bridges

uyguguygu   07.00   Comment  

The air outside of my apartment was pretty bad the day I shot these photos. In fact, it was so bad that the air inside my apartment was pretty bad, too. I immediately bought an air purifier online to fix that and in true Korean fashion it was delivered right to my door about twenty four hours later. I've been super happy with it and have noticed an actual difference in the quality of the air inside my apartment.

 Sometimes, to keep myself moving and active when the air is bad or it's really cold I do laps in my apartment building. I actually live in a complex of three buildings all connected by bridges and I've noticed that the light checkerboards the floor in the greatest way and it looks so cool when I'm running through those tunnels.

And speaking of walking, I've done so much walking here that the three pairs of winter-weather appropriate shoes I brought are showing serious signs of wear and I wanted to add a few more into rotation to try to extend the life of the shoes I brought.

My shoe options are pretty limited in Korea - I'm a 255 in Korean sizing, and they stop selling shoes in the women's department at 250. At first I thought it was a tragedy because I like shoes with a sense of humor and Korea is a prime location to buy outlandish clothing, but now I've come to terms with shoe shopping in the men's department. I just look for a slimmer cut shoe with a classic profile like these Adidas Seeley. 

***

Sweater: Unbranded
Pants: Banana Republic
Shoes: Adidas