Fashion house WOOYOUNGMI unveiled its Spring Summer 2024 Collection, inspired by the island of Jeju, on June 25th, during the recently finished Paris Fashion Week. Female haenyeo divers from Jeju have been a recurring influence on the international fashion scene, thanks to their intuitive sense of style. For centuries, these matriarchal snorkelers, often in their nineties, have supported their families by diving for fish along South Korea’s Jeju Island’s black volcanic rocks. Layering their wetsuits with upcycled items from a decidedly feminine wardrobe, they secure them with utilitarian diving belts and accessorize with goggles, masks, dive bags, and nets. As the world’s attention shifts to South Korea, Madame Woo, whose design work has always focused on foreign domains, digs into her own culture and the worldwide attraction it inspires.
SPRING SUMMER 2024 COLLECTIONS
The worldwide fascination with my country is thrilling to me. As a South Korean designer, I was always interested in cultures and history different to my own: Parisian mentality, the Belle Époque, British literature. Now, I want to portray my own culture to the rest of the world, from a South Korean perspective. It’s a way for me to reflect on our traditions through the contemporary reality of the youth and pop cultures so distinct to our mentality. I do it in a way that stays true to my premise: by layering it with historical elements that bind together South Korea and my passion for European studies. This season, that impulse comes to life in the image of Jeju Island, with its 17th Century Dutch seafarers, its fabled female divers, and present-day partygoers. – Madame Woo, Paris, June 2023.
From a South Korean standpoint, the collection presents a contrast premise: Jeju as the rough and rocky coastal environment of hardy haenyeo divers contrasted Jeju as the sun-drenched party island cherished by the nation’s young visitors. This contrast is embodied by an oscillating silhouette that alternates between hugging and releasing the body. Body-conscious scuba gilets, girdles, pants, and tops mix with loose-fitting waistcoats and casual lightweight tailoring, conjuring a boyish attitude reminiscent of 1980s summer sensibility and laced with pyjama-inspired features. Asymmetrically wrapped second-skin tops pay homage to bojagi, the technique of cloth wrapping, but with a beachy twist suggestive of swimsuit structures.
Madame Woo, who pays close attention to the ties between her own culture and her brand’s European roots, finds inspiration in the historical interaction between South Korea and the West. Thirty-nine Dutchmen were shipwrecked on Jeju in 1628, becoming the second party of Westerners to set foot on the “Land of the Morning Calm.” During his time on the island, Hendrik Hamel, one of the shipwrecked survivors, penned the first chronicle of the kingdom, which he referred to as Quelpart. This historical meeting infuses the collection with Renaissance-era themes. Ruffles and ruches adorn transparent coats, jackets, and shirts, mimicking bygone designs. The presence of Dutch seamen’s headgear and cascading flares on their pants add to the Dutchmen’s experience on Joseon-era Jeju.
Old-world scientific images of the Nomura’s jellyfish, unique to the island’s seas, grace shirts, tops, and even the models’ skin, imagining Jeju’s environment through the eyes of the Renaissance. These patterns are modernized with neon graphics on draped dresses and tops, with some even including embroidered tentacles suggestive of rave culture’s glow-in-the-dark aspects. This electronic island party style can also be found in oversized tech workwear and distorted acidized denim. Outerwear, tops, trousers, and skirts are made of gleaming, glass-like, and translucent materials, while jewelry with resin abstractions of jellyfish, such as necklaces, earrings, and ear cuffs, as well as sea glass pendants, add to the aquatic theme. The color palette is inspired by the black, brown, navy, slate, light blue, and sunset reds and pinks of the Jeju terrain, and is energized by brilliant electric neon strikes.
A technological trainer made in partnership with Italian shoemaker RAL7000STUDIO is also included in the Wooyoungmi Spring Summer 2024 Collection. These trainers, which combine the aesthetics of aqua shoes and techie features, are made using 3D modeling software and AI generation and are available in black, navy, and beige. They’re joined by sneaker hybrids that mix diving boots and sandals with subtle allusions to Renaissance clogs. Leather and nylon bags modeled after those carried by haenyeo divers take the form of their distinctive floating gadgets or half-moon nets, some with tulle overlays for an aquatic look. Pochettes, bum-bags, small leather products, and belts are inspired by the utilitarian accessories that were originally attached to the haenyeo waistbands.
Discover every look from the Wooyoungmi Spring Summer 2024 Collection in the gallery below:
