Seoul Fashion Week FW15: K-trends seen on the runway – Part 2

The recently concluded Seoul Fashion Week (SFW) down right inspired us with their edgy and unique sensibilities which is why we couldn’t just stop at identifying one series of trends. Hence we scoured through countless runways and found more common ground across the collections. From the striking use of electric blue to soft pastels, sleepwear as daywear and innovative cutouts, it’s safe to say that Seoul is deservedly a fashion capital that moves according to the beat of their own innovative yet stylish drums.

Here are the second set of trends we unearthed and trust us you’ll want to look like the savvy Seoulites for sure.

Black and Blue

One of the dominating colour combinations on the runway was no doubt electric blue with the trusty black. The bright, electric blue stayed as the main hue but was paired with accents of black, either through panels or separates such as dresses and pants. Last season, we saw the same electric blue from designers but it was instead coupled with white. Nonetheless, cobalt blue seems to be the definitive colour of the year. From Big Park to Kim Chul Ung and NOHKE, clearly there was no contention in putting these two fairly striking colours into one seamless look – after all, the collections were for Fall/ Winter.

Pretty Pastels

While Fall typically brings to mind a darker, more sombre and muted colour palette, Seoul designers showed us that they were not going to let their fun side slide no matter what the temperature. Featuring soft pretty pastels of bubblegum pink, hazy yellow and orange, the designs at Chez Heezin, PushBUTTON and S=YZ sure did help to lighten up the generally dusky runways. It’s always refreshing to see designers play with colours and inject a pop of exuberance no matter what the season.

PushBUTTON for instance largely portrayed monochrome, black and white looks but with subtle infusions of faint pink and yellow, the collection instantaneously brightened up and became a smidge more chirpy. As for the softest collection throughout the week, that accolade would have to go to tibaeg’s ‘Fly Me To The Moon’ collection, which was on all counts elegant and featured mostly delicate and light shades of dusky blue, greys.

Cool Cutouts

When we speak about cutouts, the most usual places to see them occur are at the mid-riff areas, neckline or back and the shapes that are cutout are usually circles or rectangles. On the SFW runways though, cutouts were given a whole new meaning. Kim Chul Ung for instance used a slew of grommets right down the middle of the outfit to portray cutouts while Low Classic had three oval-shaped cutouts in the middle of the top to resemble a flower of sorts. If these quirky cutouts are anything to go by, it’s that clearly anything can be slashed to create a sartorial statement – the options are limitless!

Oversized Order

Bigger is always better and that was essentially also the mantra at Seoul. From oversized pullovers to exaggerated but irrefutably snuggly turtleneck sweaters, the silhouettes were ultimately large and cocoon-ish. We especially loved the white or rather, creamy sweater from ARCHE with the ruffled detailing on the sleeves – in all honesty, they reminded us of ruffled frosting on a cake. The bulky shapes though were brilliantly complemented with sleek, more tailored bottoms, either by way of sleek pleated skirts or cropped pants.

So if Singapore’s temperature ever faced a strong dip, there’s no question that we’ll be wearing these magnified and oh-so-comfy sweaters to death.

Sleek Sleepwear

As ironic as it sounds, sleepwear is no longer reserved for sleep. We first saw sleepwear on the streets of Paris by a crew of streetstyle stars as they advocated ‘comfy-chic’ but seeing it go full out at SFW was a whole other eye-opening experience. The Studio K particularly turned their runway into one massive pyjama party with robes, sweatpants and snug slippers, and S=YZ followed suit by parading down luxuriant robes that you can sleep in anywhere. While Steve J Yoni P’s collection was largely medical-inspired, elements of sleepwear were nonetheless also incorporated with pyjama sets especially taking the limelight.

Now this is what they mean by running with versatile fashion.

Trendy Trumpet

Perhaps inspired by the 70s but a couple of looks went down the flared look with billowy pants, dresses and skirts but mind you they were all punctuated with a dose of edginess. More specifically though, trumpet skirts – fitted on top, flared at the bottom – ruled the runways of ARCHE, Big Park, Kim Chul Ung and Rocket x Lunch. While ARCHE presented the typical trumpet skirt, the others were slightly more experimental. Big Park’s collection which was inspired by Jean de la Fontaine’s 1669 love story, ‘Psyche and Cupid‘ – hence the 17th century hairdo – sent down a high-low, layered skirt that flared ever so elegantly. Kim Chul Ung on the other hand did not create the trumpet silhouette on a skirt but on a leather-like coat instead, perhaps to create the illusion of layering, as Rocket x Lunch literally did with a trumpet skirt peeking out from under the coat.

Tarandip Kaur

Photos: Seoul Fashion Week

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Seoul Fashion Week FW15: K-trends seen on the runway – Part 1