Paris Fashion Week kicked off on Tuesday with the in-crowd abuzz at the prospect of style icon Hedi Slimane designing for Yves Saint Laurent, and rumours putting a newly-free Raf Simons in the wings at Dior.Opening with a day devoted to young designers, the Paris autumn-winter collections round off a month of womenswear shows that have sent fashionistas, models and media trooping on a style trail from New York to London and Milan.A cellist performing George Frideric Handel’s baroque masterpiece

Models wear creations from designer Moon Young Hee as part of the Fall-Winter, ready-to-wear 2013 fashion collection, during Paris Fashion week, Tuesday. (AP)Paris fashion week is rarely known for understatement, as confirmed by Portuguese designer Fatima Lopes who opened the fall-winter 2012 season

Korean Cultural Center in London opens ‘K-Pop Academy’The Korean Culture Center in London has an ambitious plan to become a center of Korean pop culture in Europe.Korean pop music already has a remarkable cult youth following, but needs more support to expand its fan base in Europe, said Won Yong-gi, the director of Korean Cultural Center. In a move to expand the K-pop fanbase, KCC in London established a 12-week long “K-Pop Academy,” which meets on Saturdays. The aim of the course, said Won, is

Culture Ministry to spend 54.4 billion won this year to further expand hallyuThe Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism will form a 12 billion-won ($10.7 million) fund to support original South Korean musicals and establish a K-Arts Academy to help create new sources of cultural products. The Culture Ministry announced plans on Tuesday at Culture Station Seoul 284 to further expand hallyu, the Korean Wave, through Korean arts. It will spend 54.4 billion won this year toward the project and inc

Korea International Students Support Association will host a forum on policy development for international students Tuesday.The forum will invite specialists on international student policies who will present studies, point out policy weaknesses and recommend solutions. International students will also speak on issues that affect them and discuss ways to assist students and universities.There has been an abrupt increase in the number of international students at universities, with around 90,000

An essay that used barley as a central theme to highlight the experiences of Ireland and Korea has won the Irish-Korean Essay contest.Ro Seong-ja wrote the essay that got the top-prize in the competition run by the Irish Association of Korea and supported by the Irish Embassy and the Dublin-based Emerald Cultural Institute.“‘Barley ― A story of Resilience’ is a piece of evocative, imaginative and informative writing,” the association said in a release. “It weaves a tale of the personal and the n

An expat 10s rugby union league in Korea is set to kick off its 2012 season on March 10.Expat rugby was first played in Korea by Seoul Wanderers in 1972. In 1978, U.S. military rugby teams formed and the Wanderers were reborn as Seoul Survivors. Despite the relatively long history of amateur rugby in Korea, as well as the long establishment of the Korea Rugby Union, it wasn’t until last year that eight amateur teams consisting of U.S. military and expat clubs began playing a league competition.C

After being contacted “by a mysterious envoy with a briefcase full of unmarked currency,” comedian James Adomian was reluctant to accept an invitation to perform in Seoul. After the deal was sweetened with an offer for a hotel, he eventually agreed and is set to perform at the amateur comedy club Stand-up Seoul at Rocky Mountain Tavern in Itaewon on Friday and Saturday. Adomian follows in the footsteps of fellow L.A. comedy scene regular, Kyle Kinane who recommended him to Stand-u

Children who play active video games do not engage in more physical activity than those who play inactive video games, U.S. and Hong Kong researchers suggest. MCTTom Baranowski of the Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Ester Cerin of the Institute of Human