There were more trains than you could count at Sohee Park’s lavish couture collection, not to mention hourglass gowns, backless dresses with thigh-high slits, and crystal embellishments. “I was looking at the female form and the art of seduction,” she said backstage. “But it’s about sophisticated seduction.”
Held in the salons of the Shangri-La Hotel, whose grand spiral staircase was decorated by massive bouquets of white flowers, the show had the atmosphere of a couture presentation in times past. Yet Park said that she wanted to keep the collection grounded in the present; her clients appreciate the craft couture and the designer’s conscious practice of upcycling.
This season she regenerated fabrics from old Korean costumes, and referred extensively to her culture. In Seoul she visited South-Korean artisans making Hansan Mosi-linen, a unique slow-weaving technique using locally sourced hemp. The patterns of antique tiles as well as the peonies and lotus flowers of traditional landscape paintings were also translated into motifs embroidered in Swarovski crystals on trains and bodices.
Park is a passionate collector of South-Korean antiques; mother of pearl jewelry boxes, old white porcelain vases, and wooden fans were the suggestions behind the collection’s feminine spirit. “Seduction for me has to do with confidence,” said Park. “It’s about being myself and being confident in my own body.”
