Is Seoul Fashion Week really going global?

Seoul Fashion Week has quickly escalated into a global phenomenon with South Korea’s buzzing pop culture influence, the ultrahyped streetstyle pictures outside the Zaha-Hadid-designed Dongdaemun Design Plaza, and the generous government funding as fashion becomes a business sector the country wants to build up. 

Hands down, the South Koreans are the absolute experts in building hype through celebrities and media channels with its powerful reach across Asia-Pacific to the rest of the world, but few Korean brands have truly come out of the game as an international player, or impressed us as much as their Japanese or Chinese counterparts. 

I went to Seoul last week, saw some shows, travelled between both sides of the Han River and talked to creative people in different areas of the city. Looking through the fashion-obsessed street style and the celebrity-obsessed crowds cheering outside the shows, I wanted to find out what is the real state of Korean fashion and creativity at the moment. 

Signs of transitions 

From the much-talked-about newcomer brands such as Blindness, NOHANT, to the commercially successful compatriots such as Pushbutton, Low Classic and YCH, the brands in Korea are diverse and certainly full of energy. Traditionally, Korean fashion is not shy about copying. From my previous experience at the shows, it’s not difficult to spot the clear references and imitation of European brands like Gucci, Balenciaga and Vetements that showed just a month or two in Paris, Milan, London and New York. But a slow transition is surely taking place, and a movement of Korean brands looking back at their own identities is starting to shape up.