Designer Choi Kyung-ja (1911-2010) was nicknamed the “godmother” of the Korean vogue business for revolutionary trend training in the state, as effectively as opening a boutique for ladies in 1937. Through this time, it was rare to obtain a retail outlet that only offered ladies’ attire. As an alternative, it was usual for gals to shop between modest collections that were bought in men’s boutiques.
Nora Noh, 94, hosted Korea’s first-at any time trend clearly show in 1956 and was the very first Korean designer to start a concession in a Macy’s department store in New York in 1974.
André Kim (1935-2010) was the initial Korean designer to maintain a vogue demonstrate in Paris in 1966 and afterwards expanded his exhibits to lots of other major cities like New York, Barcelona, Sydney and Beijing.
From a vogue point of view, these designers’ legacy of firsts has paved the way for present-working day designers, as effectively as globalized Korean vogue. But when seeking at their dresses from an creative standpoint, it is their craftsmanship that is value admiration.
“Crafts in Fashion,” the latest exhibition at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art (SeMoCA) in Jongno District, central Seoul, has some 40 parts from the collections of Choi, Noh and Kim, on display screen along with three crafts that have been created employing comparable procedures to individuals employed by the aforementioned designers.
Except for Noh’s pieces, most are owned by SeMoCA.
Instead than emphasizing the achievements and main works of the trio, SeMoCA hopes to educate guests on the craftsmanship of their styles, and “blur the boundaries among style and crafts,” the exhibition’s curator Yi Seung-hae explained all through a push preview on Monday.
Considering that SeMoCA centers on the artwork of crafts, the museum selected a few up to date craftspeople to showcase as element of the exhibition. Moon Bo-ri, Cho Ye-ryung and Kim Kye-ok all focus in fabrics or metallic. By enabling readers to examine and contrast the similar procedures that were being utilized in vogue and crafts, it is straightforward to detect how considerably the two genres have in popular.
Pleating is a single frequent technique noticed in the apparel in the exhibition. Noh’s mint environmentally friendly flared dress from 1959 utilizes pleats to accentuate volume and avoid the piece from hunting flat. The bust region is highlighted by a ribbon.
Moon, just one of the craftspeople, utilised a very similar impact with yarn as a metaphor for the complexity of time. She overlapped and weaved parts with each other to make a pleated pattern on a canvas. The piece referred to as “White towards Metallic Environmentally friendly_Geo” (2022), also characteristics eco-friendly and beige gradated effects that was created with acrylic paints. The piece seems various dependent on what angle it is viewed from.
Appliqué is yet another method found at the exhibition. Designer Kim, whose famed works were predominantly extravagant evening and marriage robes, utilized appliqué procedures, which refer to fastening a cutout decoration to a more substantial piece of product — an additional way to give extra dimension to an posting of clothing.
His black organza evening gown from the 1980s, which is on demonstrate, has huge, daring white hanja (the Korean title for Chinese figures) letters appliquéd on to it.
It is displayed side by facet with craftsperson Cho’s painted Tyvek set up “Flowing Moon II” (2018). The installation is hung like appliqué for the wall, curator Yi described.
Tyvek refers to a artificial significant-density polyethylene fiber product that resembles paper.
The remaining method released by the museum is embroidery, in distinct working with sequins, buttons and rhinestones. While this sort of embroidery mostly has attractive purposes, it can also operate as a way to avert cloth from fraying.
Designer Choi’s 1963 spaghetti strap crop top rated and flared skirt equally have an comprehensive variety of beads elaborately sewn on to them, and this is likened to craftsperson Kim Kye-ok’s “Second Skin” (2019), which is a big world-wide-web-like crochet of thin metallic threads with beads, expressing the “overlapping of outdated recollections.”
Some legendary garments to glimpse out for consist of an tasteful 1963 crimson silk evening coat by Choi, on which she painted character motifs like the solar, moon and leaves. Yet another is a black wool jacket and trousers from 2000 with pink flower appliqués which were being both equally worn by actor Jang Dong-gun. And at the starting of the exhibit, there is a black wool tailcoat paired with a top hat and costume sneakers that Korea’s second president Yoon Bo-seon (1897-1990) wore in the 1960s.
“Crafts in Fashion” carries on right until April 2. SeMoCA is open up each working day apart from Mondays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The exhibition is free of charge to all.
BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]