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As part of its ambitious plan to be one of the world's top design capitals, Seoul is showing that design is part of South Koreans' everyday life, and in fashion, its designers have been predisposed with design DNA, as the recent Seoul Fashion Week (SFW) showed.

 Organised by the city administration and the Seoul Fashion Centre, the SFW brought together the spring and summer collections by 46 womenswear and menswear designers as well as those of New Wave in Seoul (NWS), the top-level designer group in South Korea.

The event was held in October at the Seoul Trade Exhibition Centre in Daechi-dong.

The organisers hoped that the fashion week would help boost Seoul's identity as a couture hub, not just in Asia but around the world, while enhancing the business side of the clothing industry.

"I believe Seoul could be the world's next fashion capital in the near future," said Paris-based designer Jung Hee Suk of Jaison Couture.

"I'd love to see Seoul as a city where collections on the catwalk come from not just Korean designers but from designers from other countries as well."

Top-level designers forming a Korean fashion wave overseas include Lee Sang-bong and Woo Young-mi, along with 70 fashion corporations that participated in the exhibition.

The first collection shown was by Han Song, with his newly developed fabric, a mix of Korean paper and natural dye. This was followed by Choi Chang Ho's line, predominated by black and white with check patterns.

But it was Jung Hee Suk of who wowed the news media. He introduced sensuous intricately detailed evening gowns with a distinct tang of femininity. These included a dazzling red gown and a range of white evening dresses that billowed in the wind to celebrate woman's individuality and curviness.

Suk's collection inspired with something surrealistic, dreamy and ideal. He says he doesn't differentiate between showpieces and ready-to-wear designs, since he believes the former can be worn at parties and other special occasions.

He prefers working with fabrics like chiffon that can move in the wind and also express the curves of a woman's figure.

"Individuality is key in today's Korean fashion," he says.

In the past, designers focused on creating clothes that were popular and could be worn by most people, but now a lot of young designers seek to express the wearer's individuality.

People in general have become more interested in design, Suk says, in decorating their homes, for example. "Koreans are very design-conscious people … We're attaining the same level of Western fashion we see in Paris and Milan."

The young designers are trendsetters, even those not trained in fashion. Suk emphasises that the real trends aren't created by designers but by people who incorporate the designers' work in their own individuality.

He gets much of his inspiration from travelling overseas, but also from the process of creating an outfit.

Suk loves to introduce traditional Korean elements into his clothing and showing foreigners "the Korean sentiment, the feeling and the expression and emotion of the Koreans".

He hopes to one day design clothes for the first lady of South Korea.

"When I see the first lady of France wear trendy dresses, I think somebody else can exactly do that. You don't need to be a fashion model like the French first lady in order to wear something fashionable."

 

The writer travelled to Seoul courtesy of the Seoul Metropolitan Government.