Overview :With their natural instinct for style, the female haenyeo divers of Jeju are recurring references on the international fashion map. Since the 17th Century, matriarchal snorkelers – up to eighty years of age as – have provided for their families by diving for seafood off the black rocks of the volcanic South Korean island. They layer their wetsuits with garments repurposed from a distinctly feminine wardrobe, strap them in with utilitarian diving belts, and adorn themselves with necessary goggles and masks, diving bags and nets. As the world intensifies its focus on South Korea, Madame Woo – whose practice traditionally gravitated towards domains foreign to her own – continues recent seasons’ explorations of her own culture and the global fascination it inspires.
The Wooyoungmi Spring-Summer 2024 Collection makes Jeju its island muse. From a South Korean perspective, it prompts a premise of contrasts: Jeju, the raw and rocky coastal environment of the laborious haenyeo divers; versus Jeju, the sunny party island adored by the nation’s holidaying youth. The juxtaposition is expressed in an oscillating silhouette that clenches and releases from the skin. Scuba gilets, girdles, trousers and tops cut a body-conscious line contrasted by the relaxed fit of lightweight tailoring with little waistcoats founded in a 1980s’ summertime sensibility – a loose-fitting boyish spirit cemented in pyjama elements. Asymmetrically-tied, second-skin tops nod at bojagi – the art of wrapping with cloth – but materialise in beach-centric expressions evocative of swimsuit constructions.
For Madame Woo, who observes the connections between her own culture and her brand’s adopted European soil, the historical meeting between South Korea and the West underpins the season narrative. In 1628, thirty-nine Dutchmen shipwrecked on Jeju and became the second group of Westerners to lay eyes upon The Land of the Morning Calm. During his time on the island – known to him as Quelpart – Hendrik Hamel wrote the first account of the kingdom, published in Europe in 1668. The image of the Dutchmen marooned on Joseon-era Jesu infuses the collection with hints to the Renaissance: ruffles and ruches are imbued within the fronts and sleeves of transparent coats, jackets and shirts – and echoed in the cascading flares of techno trousers – while Dutch seaman’s hats find parallel expression in scuba.
Imagining the nature of Jeju through Renaissance eyes, old-world scientific illustrations of the Nomura’s jellyfish native to the waters of the island adorn shirts, tops and the skin of models. The motifs are contemporised in neon graphics on draped dresses and tops – some with embroidered tentacles – created in the image of the glow-in-the-dark graphics of rave culture. They feed into a techno island party sensibility reflected in oversized tech workwear and warped acidized denim pieces. The feeling is cemented in shiny, glasslike or translucent materials employed in outerwear, tops, trousers and skirts, and in jewellery featuring resin abstractions of jellyfish on necklaces, earrings and ear cuffs, as well as sea glass pendants. The palette is founded in the black, brown, navy, slate, light blue and sunset reds and pinks of the Jeju landscape, but invigorated with electric hits of neon colours.
Overview :This collection studies the culture of the royal family of Silla, which shaped Korea for a thousand years from 57 to 935 BC, and reinterprets its expression in a modern language. Youngmi Woo, a designer who has identified with Parisian fashion tendencies, is inspired by the new generation's curiosity about her country. In Youngmi Woo's 23FW collection, this phenomenon inspired designer Youngmi Woo to reflect on the historical and artistic relationship between Korea and the West. In 1900, the Korean Pavilion was opened at the World's Fair in Paris, and this magnificent building recontextualized the Parisian environment, which was built in the style of a Korean palace but was renovated by the Haussmanns. The 23FW collection maintains the shape of jewels that were used as excessive decorative elements by the royal family of Shilla in the past, but leaves only the core shape and expands it to a sculptural dimension. These decorate the front, seam, and collar of classic menswear cuts and generational workwear, resembling the modern cityscape of Seoul where futuristic buildings and traditional pagodas collide but harmonize. This method is also reflected in the functioning of proportions. Jackets, knitwear, handbags and belts made of leather and artificial snakeskin repeat expansion and contraction in large and small proportions, which simultaneously reflects the search for the Y2K silhouette found in designer Woo Young-mi's early works. Instead of pop culture defining today's Western view of Korea, designer Youngmi Woo looks at the artistic exchanges between Paris and Seoul at the turn of the century through a 21st-century lens. The concept created romantic silhouettes loosely influenced by Belle Epoque sensibility created by the brand's structured, utilitarian approach. Modern riding coats, colored suits, and riding boots have been transformed into the spacious, teen-centric forms that were a hallmark of Youngmi Woo's early 2000s work. The historical premise crosses over to Edwardian England, where shooting jackets, padded coats and stalking trousers can be transformed into the cargo garments that are the hallmark of today's urban wardrobe.
Overview :This collection reflects the brand's debut in Paris 20 years ago, and re-evaluates the archives of Woo Young-mi's early days from a current perspective. The space of Wooyoungmi 2023 SS collection contains the connotative atmosphere of an auction that was held in the old grand gallery, and expresses the renewal process of reevaluation and reinterpretation of the past through the present, inspired by the memories of early incarnations. did. The 2023 SS silhouettes detect the similarity between her appearance at that time and her current attire in the early 2000s when she relocated to her new office building in Seoul, South Korea this spring this spring. As an expression of respect for the times, this SS silhouette was expressed. The millennium of the past and the years around it, its crude minimalism, a mashup of Britpop and hip-hop dressing, etc., are products of the early desires for the glamor of the 2000s. The 2023 SS collection runway unfolds ideas with a delicate approach developed through 20 years of aesthetics. The overall silhouette is boyishly tight and generous in fit, as seen in Woo Young-mi's early works, reminiscent of the dress code of the skateboarding community in the late 1990s. While aiming for a collection shared by men and women, the identity of the Wooyoungmi brand, scale-up and scale-down are possible according to the fit and feel through the free exchange of male and female codes.
Overview :Wooyoungmi's Fall-Winter 2022 collection embodies the nostalgic sensibility and classic splendor of Wooyoungmi Design House's unique modern elegance. Classic tailoring and neutral shades meet unexpectedly popular colors and delicate details to add a thrill, highlighting the artistic balance between elegance and the everyday. The main shades of the collection consist of an appropriate combination of jewel tones of green, pink, orange and blue. A scarf secured with a small WYM closure is styled like a mini cape over jumpers and blazers. Some items, such as balaclava, are an extension of the previous season, and fresh silhouettes such as cropped knitwear, unisex jackets, and trousers tucked into boots are introduced.
Overview :The narrative for Spring Summer 22 begins with The Man in the Red Coat, Julian Barnes’s recent historical book set during the Belle Époque period in Paris. We discover a contemporary, dandy-esque protagonist, richly attired as he awaits the train to London for a shopping trip. By the end, he has arrived at a mountain summit, dressed in loose layers of well-worn hiking gear. This evocative storyline plays out as a film set against the backdrop of an Art Nouveau train station in surreal XR (Cross Reality). As the quotidian cityscape gradually distorts, our visual perception alters too; and this action builds up to a blacked-out finale whereby garments assume a radioactive glow.
As Wooyoungmi continues its pursuit of a genderless, shared wardrobe, this becomes a representation of freedom-as-muse in both theory and practice. A contemporary, urban outlook is bolstered by technical materials that appear as dress fabrics across 43 looks.
All of this is underpinned by the collection’s unofficial motto, ‘Chacun mérite sa propre Belle Époque’, which is to say: everyone deserves their own beautiful time.
Overview :A defiant reaction of the human psyche, times of limitation can spur our imagination and take us to places we’ve never been before. For the Autumn-Winter 2021 co-ed collection, Wooyoungmi stages an abstract journey beyond the borders of our current reality. The enchanted forest sets the scene for a dialogue between the natural and the supernatural: a collection that transforms the real into surreal, and the ordinary into extraordinary. Continuing Wooyoungmi’s conversation with the new generations of Seoul, Wooyoungmi consistently draws on the energy instinctive to the current style spirit of South Korea.
Overview :For spring-summer 2021, Wooyoungmi expresses the momentum of our time through the medium of dance. At its core, the concept of group choreography represents an assembly of diverse individuals motivated by one collaborative purpose.
Garments informed by the premise of dance immerse themselves in the rehearsal wardrobe of the dancer and interprets it for a contemporary urban outlook. Continuing its genderless approach a shared and versatile proposal Wooyoungmi applies the soul of dance to a co-ed collection entrenched in the instinctive style of the youth of Seoul.
