Madame Woo’s primary fixation this season at Wooyoungmi was that of the ABK, meaning the “American-born Korean.” She thought of the way South Koreans have historically immigrated to the United States in search of better lives and opportunity, and of how, in the process, they created a unique cross section of East-meets-West culture that has inevitably led to its own pocket of fashion and style.
At a preview, she explained through a translator that she had recently watched films like Past Lives and Minari and had been moved by their portrayals of South Koreans in the U.S. She thought of the people she knows who are, she said, now the third generation of Korean American people. They’re well established and they’ve built their fruitful lives, and turned what was once “a very sad story” entirely upside down.
This spring collection was an ode to that community’s determination but also to their style. Woo said that she looked to merge the “zen, minimal image of Korean style” with the laid-backness of American sportswear. She tailored long shorts close to the body to hybridize them with classic athleisure biker shorts and breeches, and tucked ties into corseted waistbands. She looked to baseball as a reference, utilizing its traditional whipstitch motif on the sides of jeans and as the closures of a run of charming cropped jackets. She also reimagined varsity jackets by merging suede bodices with knitted sleeves, and re-created a traditional Korean decorative knot with “yuppie” button-down shirts cut sleeveless with their shirts as the tie.
What was most interesting about this season’s Wooyoungmi survey of this particular segment of South Korean culture is that while geography and cultural differences still allot fashion particular regional nuances, our now globalized, internet-driven world means that we’re all, for the most part, looking at the same references—celebrities, TV shows, fashion—when getting dressed. Madame Woo said she enjoys having Wooyoungmi exist in the liminal space between French and Korean, East and West, and menswear and womenswear. That’s a good thing. People in the gray area need something made for them too.
