Tunnel to the River

Tunnel to the River

uyguguygu   19.25   Comment  

Right before I decided to move to Seoul my sister asked me what I wanted to get out of the trip. I told her that I had three big goals:

- I wanted to refine my personal style
- I wanted to learn to speak, read, and write Korean
- I wanted to learn transferable skills that would help me when I came back home

I'm almost one quarter of the way here and those three goals have been ever present and almost a burden on the way my life here is shaped. But, having those three things at the front of my mind has  helped me shape the kind of life here I wanted to have when I moved.

But, the biggest thing of all I've learned here is that time is finite. I have never felt that more acutely than now. I'm not in a position to stay as long as I feel like here in Korea. I have one year and then that's it. It's back to my house in Detroit and my life there.

When I first arrived I was staring at a stack of fifty two weeks, lined up one after another an endless parade of time available. When I first got here I talked to another expat who was about to leave and I asked her what I should do, what she would have done differently about her time here and she said, "I think if you want to do something you need to just go do it. Don't worry about lining up a group to go with or anything, just go. Because I thought there was always time but now I realize there isn't much left and there are things I never did because I wanted to go with people, or thought I could just put it off." And she was right: time moves fast. The calendar pages turn quicker than I'd like.

Knowing that I cannot be here forever makes the experiences I have richer, but I've also learned to curate my experiences so that I do what I love. So, I've said yes to cherry blossoms in a rainy park, history museums on national holidays with women in Hanbok fluttering like butterflies. I've said yes to every Saturday in Garosugil shooting photos with the other street style photographers. Yes to fashion week and yes to weekday mornings at my kitchen table writing, editing, and researching for articles. I've said yes to really long walks along streets I don't know the name of with my camera in hand, and yes to the orange glow of the city at night in amongst the Hanok near palaces, along the Han river and the quiet stream near my apartment, and through the brightly lit overcrowded boulevards of Gangnam.

But before I say yes I think to myself: Is what is being proposed right now what I truly want out of life? My motivations are many. Sometimes I say yes because I want to cultivate a relationship with the person I'm going to do something with. Sometimes I say yes because I know that the activity will feed my soul - church, museum visits, performances all fit into this. Sometimes I say yes because it will help me gain those skills I want. That's why I shoot street style, attend fashion week, relentlessly pitch articles in the weekday mornings before work, and take Korean class. And sometimes I say yes because, well, I just want to. It sounds fun. Fun for no reason is absolutely allowed.

And I say no, too. I say no a lot here, more than I ever did back home and you know what? I like it! I do have a moment of guilt when I decline an invitation to do something but keeping the question in my mind helps me sort out whether or not I am moving forward. If it doesn't move me forward or feed my soul, or cultivate beautiful relationships with others then I don't say yes to it. It's simple.

And so when I go to life back home I hope I can remember how time is finite. I hope that I can keep the question I ask here in the front of my life there and act accordingly without falling into the trap of saying yes to things simply to be entertained or because I didn't want to get out of my pajamas or was tired which I knew I did all the time back home. I hope that I can find a few new goals to work towards, or perhaps refine the three I already have to keep me moving forward.

***

These photos were taken in a tunnel in Gangnam that has been specifically designated for graffiti artists to use between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m. One of the graffiti artists explained to me that it's basically a wall of fame here. You paint over a piece of graffiti and put up your own art. The artists cue up around 9:45 but are super respectful and don't actually start painting until the time is right. These guys were nice enough to let me take their picture as long as I didn't show their faces in the photographs. 

Jeans: Cheap Monday

Jacket: Ann Taylor

Shirt: Indiebrand

Shoes: Doc Martens

Backpack: Low Classic

Seoul Fashion Week Wrap Up

AW15 Seoul Fashion Week

Seoul Fashion Week Wrap Up

uyguguygu   03.10   Comment  

I know you've seen some Seoul Fashion Week coverage here on Elizabeth lives, but you can find my final recap and a handful of street style photos I took over on Mutzine, a new Korean Fashion webzine. 

Linda McCartney Retrospective at the Daelim // Jongno

Linda McCartney Retrospective at the Daelim // Jongno

uyguguygu   21.28   Comment  

We went down to the Linda McCartney Retrospective at the Daelim Museum, which features maily photography exhibits. After taking in the museum for a while we wandered the charming streets west of the museum and found flower shops, quiet cafes, traditional Korean homes called Hanoks, and perfect light. 

The Good Glass // Seoul Fashion Week Part II

The Good Glass // Seoul Fashion Week Part II

uyguguygu   18.14   Comment  

Model Paul Craddock

Model Yoni

Low Classic's New Classic Pocket Bag

Here's my second set of street style photos from Seoul Fashion Week AW15.  You can see the entire set here on The Good Glass. 

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.