Eudon Choi toes a fine line in ephemeral practicality. If that sounds like a contradiction, think of him as an expert practitioner of lightweight, comfortable clothes, whose construction nevertheless imparts the rigor of his tailoring training in Seoul. For spring he expanded his well-honed repertoire of breezy suiting and easy dresses, referencing the soft-focus paintings of the French 19th-century painter Berthe Morisot. She’s a worthy muse, one of the founding members of the Impressionist movement known for her nuanced palette and loose style. Her milky coffee browns, mottled blues, and muted pinks, lifted with shots of sunshine yellow and floral prints, conferred a grown-up prettiness on Choi’s collection. Also front of mind was the louche touch of Giorgio Armani tailoring circa the ’90s, gently making his presence felt via cutouts and draping techniques to elegant effect.
Equally uplifting was the casting, which ranged from seasoned youngsters (and not just the rake-thin ones) to a striking 50-something named Sandy, who was making her catwalk debut in a pair of gunmetal gray, wide-leg wool pants with a matching collared shirt, its sleeves lined with buttons that were left open to expose her shoulders. “I was so nervous; I was sweating buckets!” she confided backstage. Another coup was the appearance of the legendary Korean model Choi Miae, a friend of a friend of Choi’s, persuaded out of retirement and onto a Eurostar from Paris to walk in the show. “It’s really exciting to have these beautiful older ladies and the diversity in the casting,” said Choi, whose favorite looks were all modeled by older women. Choi had partnered with the Korean skin-care label Laneige. “They’re known in this country for their lip balm, but the skin care is really famous in Korea. We wanted to create a light look for the skin, so this helped to achieve that,” he said. We’re squirreling our samples away for emergency facials when PFW rolls around.
