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By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter
Top Korean designers gave a preview of upcoming fashion trends for spring and summer 2008, during the eight-day Seoul fashion week, which ended Friday.
The Seoul Collection, billed as Korea's biggest fashion event, lost some of its luster as designers from the oldest fashion group, Seoul Fashion Artists Association (SFAA), chose not to participate. Instead, the SFAA will hold its own event in November.
Only 35 designers, either independent or affiliated with Korea Fashion Designers Association (KFDA) and New Wave in Seoul (NWS), participated in the Seoul Collection. Last March, there were 48 designers who held fashion shows for their fall/winter 2007 collection.
Despite the controversy, the Seoul Collection kicked off on Oct. 19 at the Seoul Trade Exhibition Center (SETEC), starting with the men's wear collections.
For the general idea by BumSuk's spring and summer collection, designer Choi Bum-suk said he was inspired by Philippe Greenleaf, a character from Patricia Highsmith's novel ``The Talented Mr. Ripley.'' Models walked the runway holding stark black umbrellas, while wearing chic outfits that expressed ``light emotion but a luxurious classic style.''
Soft pink and gray suits showed up at Seo Eun-gil's collection G.I.L. Homme, while Jung Hyun-tae designed crisp, white layered sporty outfits for mvio's collection. Han San-hyuk took unisex dressing to the next level, where male and female models wore identical outfits.
The women's wear collections started on Oct. 22, with NWS president and designer Park Choon-moo's show featuring dark, cocoon styles evoking an image of the moon.
Renowned hanbok designer Lee Young-hee combined the characteristics of the two-dimensional Korean traditional costumes with the three-dimensional Western-style dress, to create hanbok with a modern twist.
Husband and wife team Andy & Debb emphasized their signature style of simple and modern cuts in their collection. The clothes' silhouettes were clean and fluid, and done in sunflower yellow, light gray and fuchsia pink.
Lee Eun-jung's E.J. Lee collection was fresh and stylish, encompassing a circular design for all the pieces. Heo Ha-na's collection for hana.h showed both loose and slim fitting clothes in linen, printed silk and chiffon. Park Eun-kyung took inspiration from the late Princess Diana's modern and elegant look.
Imseonoc held her fashion show on Friday, featuring beautifully crafted clothes in green, navy, white, black and light orange. .
While this year's Seoul Collection may have lacked designers, it was made up with star power. The Hallyu Fashion Festival, a free fashion show, was held on Oct. 21 at the Seoul Plaza, in front of City Hall.
Designers Han Seung-soo, Park Herin, Hwang Jae-bock, Yang Sung-sook, An Yoon-jung and Lim Hyun-hee showcased designs from their 2007 fall/winter collection.
The show attracted fans of hallyu star Choi Ji-woo, as well as actors Jeoung Jun-ho and Shin Hyun-jun. Celebrities Hyun Young, Shinhwa's Andy, Fly to the Sky's Brian, Baek Ji-young and boyband FT Island also took the catwalk to model the designer clothes. However, the show did little to promote Korean fashion, since many in the audience were only there for the pop musical performances.
The next Seoul Collection, featuring 2008 fall/winter collection, is scheduled for March 2008.
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