Trendspotting: Seoul Fashion Week Street Style
Street style at any fashion week has this wonderful way of combining current trends with the ‘hot picks’ of what is to come next season. MUTZINE's guest street style editor, Fii Cridland, teams up with photographer Kangsso, to tell us about the five hot trends that dominated the concrete of Dongdaemun Design Plaza for the Spring/Summer 2016 season of Hera Seoul Fashion Week.
Words Fii Cridland
Photos Kangsso (@Studio_Found)
01.
warm toned neutrals
By far one of the most accessible trends, as they can be worked into a variety of colour palettes. The easiest way to wear warm toned neutrals is with the trench coat, usually in camel or beige, as it gives an instant, polished feel to any outfit.
This trend also works very well in the layers of an outfit. Neutral toned sweaters were another strong choice, and can be paired with darker bottoms for a bolder look.
Alternatively, the neutral lower half was also quite a popular look in street style. The material of choice seemed to be corduroy, in trousers especially. Definitely influenced by the 70’s trend sweeping worldwide .
02.
mirrored sunglasses
Gentle Monster is continuing to take the fashion world by storm with their simple yet elegant frames and instantly recognisable lenses. A variety of styles were seen around Dongdaemun Design Plaza, proving that this design house is a firm favourite.
The oversized round frames seemed to be the most popular choice this season, with the thin rimmed Gold Fish 201s coming out on top. Wayfarers continued to be a frequent sight as well, with pastel or clear frames featuring heavily on those who chose to wear this style.
03.
berets
The snapback and fedora craze that gripped South Korea for so long seems to have relinquished their dominant positions to allow the beret to slip through this season. Slightly more difficult to wear, yet if done well it can bring a new dimension to an outfit.
This season berets were seen in a variety of styles and colours, combined with a variety of outfits, from sleek parisienne to utility. The latter is seen on model/artist JUNG HYUK (@yb_91).
04.
LENGTHS IN LAYERS
No one does layering quite as well as those attending Seoul Fashion Week. Colours, patterns, and cuts all fall into place effortlessly in a single outfit, despite looking as though they'd clash horrifically on the hanger. One of the trends this year has been to play around with the lengths in the layering.
While not wearing a street style favourite, the double coat, model JOO WOOJAE (@ophen28) mimics this effect by wearing a contrasting collared shirt as one of his layers. This clean look is completed with dress trousers that fall at the ankle, adding a further dimension to the layering.
Trending model, SHIN JAEHYUK (@hyukiki), head to toe in Munsoo Kwon, is combining the layering trend with sportswear elements, as well as playing with textures. A longline, relaxed fit bomber jacket over the "Can't Sleep, Count Sheep" hoodie, in turn over leather shorts and leggings perfectly recreates the runway look of last season.
To perfectly summarize this trend, here we have a blouse over a trench coat, over a lined check jacket, over an embellished skirt. By keeping the main colours closely related (beige, white, yellow) the interest comes from the layer play and textures. Short over long, over medium, over short again.
As a complete contrast from all the layers, incredibly basic, sweater and jeans outfits were in vogue this season. Minimal styles are about as hard to pull off as a beret, but, if worn with confidence, can be as much of a showstopper as an outfit that is designed to turn heads.
05.
ultrabasic
To break up the complete minimalism, it seems that slogan sweaters were favoured to add a little interest to the outfit. This trend has been going strong since Nohant stormed the scene with their mash-up of Hangul and Roman letters for their "LOVECITY" apparel collection.
The t-shirt neckline that LEE SEOKCHAN (@seokchan216 ) wears is a key element of Ultrabasic, as the higher cut, no-fuss shape creates very clean lines. It's currently a massive trending item in the Asian fashion scene, with many brands stocking this type of sweater, favouring plain or minimalist motif designs.
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Final thoughts...
The street style found at Seoul Fashion Week is always incredibly vibrant and a massive source of inspiration for an everyday outfit, as well as special occasion. It's also great to see such continuity between the day-to-day street style of Seoul and the street style at fashion week. The argument of 'peacocking' plaguing the season seems to hold very little value in South Korea, which is pretty darn wonderful.