admin Seoul Fashion Week and Frieze Seoul are converging for the first time this week. At the center of this Venn diagram is We11done, which today hosted its debut runway show at the K-Pop Square in Coex, where Frieze is also being held.
Except that it was not a debut, at least not exactly. We11done had its first runway show during the fall 2020 menswear season in Paris. Then came the pandemic, a series of internal restructurings, and an eventual soft but decisive relaunch of the label. We11done has been playing catch up for the last few seasons, but they’re all done now.
“I feel like this is our first show,” said brand manager Youngjin Kim, Zooming from their Seoul studio, “we don’t even remember what it was like before 2020.” We11done has not always aligned itself with the South Korean fashion scene, showing their collections in Paris and placing themselves outside the mainstream definition of Korean fashion. The decision to stage their comeback show in Seoul was a pointed one: “Everyone is looking at Korea right now,” said Kim, nodding at the public’s interest in K-Pop and the way Western brands have sought to capitalize on this by staging shows in the country (Gucci, Louis Vuitton) or adopting its stars as their ambassadors (Bottega Veneta, Dior, Saint Laurent, Celine). “We decided to have a show here because it’s our hometown,” she said. “It’s the right time for us to do a show and it felt right to do it here.”
“Home” was the operating word here. The collection, as Kim described it, celebrated their childhoods in Korea with interpretations of their memories built into the clothes. Creative director Jessica Jung, who each season builds her collections based on an art reference, focused on the work of artist Do Ho Suh this time around. “He is known for creating architectural pieces that turn memories into spaces,” Kim said, “we want to turn memories into clothes.”
Think of the mind as a blank space that is populated by passing memories. Here, it took the shape of an empty gallery as the show’s runway, its art pieces memories in the shape of clothes (this artistic sensibility is where the Frieze of it all played in their favor). There was a stiff heather gray dress modeled after a blanket and draped around the body as one would do as a child, linoleum wood printed flooring (“like the one in a family room”) used both as a print on jersey and as is on boxy tops, and a circle skirt pleated and presented with no waistband— “like when you make pleats as a kid.” A run of optic white separates in crinkly fabric was playfully inventive. They had paper inserted between their cotton outer shell and their lining, each crease on the material giving the piece more texture. The balance of the lineup featured curvaceous but flattened jeans and knits. There was a paper doll quality to this We11done lineup that made it charming, if not slightly obtuse. It’s not easy to imagine these pieces off the runway, but that’s part of what made them special. Niche is a good place to be—ask the many celebrities in attendance, including rapper G-Dragon, influencer Irene Kim and model Lee Soo-hyuk.
“It’s a celebration of the mix of something real and something that will disappear, familiar things turning into memories or going away,” said Kim of a handful of lovely boxy trompe l’oeil jackets and skirts that featured embossed details: A flower, pockets, a tie, a belt. “Each piece encapsulates a memory,” she added, but like memories, these items presented themselves not always in their truest form. Their proportions were as if reimagined by a child: Just a little off and somewhat naive. As we get older and reminisce, we’re bound to mis-recall a detail or two. But that’s the charm in the act of remembrance—there’s nothing like our own version of the story.
