At the menswear shows, there has been an overarching theme of looking back to move forward. This has mostly been relayed in great tailoring seemingly born from a nostalgia for when suiting dominated the man’s wardrobe. Madame Woo’s research pulled her as far back as the turn of the 20th century. Her excellent AW26 Wooyoungmi collection was inspired by South Korea’s first railway network, the Gyeongin, where travellers would dress up for their journeys, even during the country’s harshest winters.
The result was a cross-pollination of winter-ready get ups that darted between different eras with serious flair. Where dandy suiting, cut in supple velvets, walked alongside ‘40s slip dresses shielded beneath shaggy, oversized Afghan coats. There were so many great jackets, like sculpted overcoats with fake astrakhan lapels, bulbous floor-length faux furs and guilted track jackets. Topping the looks off with chunky woollen hats that towered high, these were pieces that would make dressing for the briskest of chills something of an occasion.
Photography courtesy of Wooyoungmi.
