Consider the Simone Handbag Museum, which opened last year on Garosugil in Bagstage, a multi-story building designed to resemble a bag and to showcase local artisans and designs from its own brand 0914, alongside its museum collection. Or consider Seoul Fashion Week, which ended on March 30, having featured an array of established and upcoming designers such as Shin Jang Kyoung, Kimseoryong, and Munsoo Kwon.
The latter launched his first collection in New York in 2012 after working for a number of big brands, including Helmut Lang.
Though Kwon is based in Gangnam, he also has a New York showroom, indicative of the way Korean designers are beginning to branch out in the US market. Indeed, at this year’s New York Fashion Week, Concept Korea, a showcase for Korean designers launched in 2010 to promote Korean fashion designers and help them break into the US, proved one of the most colourful highlights of the week, attracting guests such as the British pop singer Neon Hitch, who modelled one of Lie Sang Bong’s glamorous fluffy white jackets.
On display was work from six leading designers, including Lie Sang Bong, Son Jung Wan and Choi Bo Ko and Kye by Kathleen Kye, a Central St Martins graduate whose work can be found in Harvey Nichols in London and in Gangnam in the Daily Projects shop.
“Korean consumers like to follow fashion trends,” Kye says. “My hope is that Koreans can express their personality with a more free-minded and witty style, like in the UK and Japan.”
“K-pop became famous, and now the attention is moving to K-fashion,” says Lie Sang Bong. “K-fashion is important because it can communicate Korean emotions and feelings throughout the world.”
