Perfectionism ties together Louis Vuitton, Park Seo-bo: official

A relentless pursuit of perfection is what identifies Park Seo-bo and Louis Vuitton, said Lee Yoo-jin, executive director of the Parkseobo Foundation, on Wednesday as the French luxury house launched a collaboration with the prominent Korean artist at the Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul.

“We were just amazed to witness the sheer attention to detail by the fashion house,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Herald. “That attitude isn’t far different from Park’s when he used to go into isolation for at least three years whenever starting to work on something.”

Park, one of the Korean artists who pioneered dansaekhwa, or monochrome paintings, was the first Korean artist to present a collaboration with Louis Vuitton in 2022 when he was one of the artists given the Capucines bag as his blank canvas. The current collaboration is the second since the 2019 launch of the Artycapusines collection, an annual project drawing in artists around the world. Park died in 2023.

Behind this year’s collaboration is Park Ji-hwan, the late Park’s grandson, who as creative director spearheaded efforts to present what Louis Vuitton labels as the Fall for the spring-summer 2025 collection. The ready-to-wear collection spans bags, suits, blazers, jackets, shoes and leather goods.

“The grandson knows best what the Park Seo-bo way is and should be,” Lee explained, adding that what originally began as a collaboration for bags expanded to include a wider array of menswear -- which the younger Park studied in London.

The wearable art unveiled Wednesday all carries Park’s signature, known as the Ecriture series -- the endless repetition of lines on a canvas Park said represented self-discipline. Ecriture, French for writing, is “Myobop” in Korean, referring to the method of describing.

Exclusively sold at the flagship Louis Vuitton Maison Seoul is a suit pieced together using Myobop in neon red, or maple red as the color is more informally communicated to the public. Fluorescent green and ash gray complement the collection.

“I don’t know whether we can call maple red the ‘special color’ but I do admit that it has special meaning,” Lee noted. “The color helped the late Park rediscover inner peace and recommit to challenging goals in the 2000s, when the artist feared the demise of his career,” Lee added.

The executive director leading efforts to carry on Park’s legacy said raising the global profile of Korean art centers on promoting awareness within. “The value of Korean cultural products isn’t set by those on the outside. We have to pride ourselves on ours. We deserve that,” Lee explained.

The Park Seo-bo collection goes on sale overseas starting Thursday.