LIE’s Lee matches elegance with Olympic spirit at Seoul Fashion Week

At Seoul Fashion Week on Friday, Lee Chung-chung, the iconic womenswear designer famed for elegantly juxtaposing bold colors with soft features, added something new to his fall-winter 2024 collection: the Olympic, or “All-lympic,” spirit.

An abstract painting of the five Olympics rings drawn by a performer with prosthetic arms kicked off LIE’s runway show at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in eastern Seoul. Some of the models came out in wheelchairs.

“A sense of togetherness was what I wanted to communicate,” Lee said of the 19-minute show held on the second day of the five-day fashion week that kicked off Thursday. Lee was referring to the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games, to be held in Paris in July and August.

Fluid silhouettes embodied by models wearing loose jackets and pants in a rich array of outwear set the tone. And the tone was as much about the clothes themselves as it was about making a statement.

The color palette was a bold embrace of exuberant bursts of brown and gray, in addition to Lee’s signature blue.

The athletic-inspired line featuring styles of modern tailoring was Lee’s answer to what he likes to call “sporty chic.”

“Perfectly Imperfect” is the mantra that has guided LIE to sacrifice neither individuality nor diversity when it comes to expression, Lee said. LIE stands for “life in expression.”

Seoul Fashion Week shows run through Monday at DDP and SFactory, with trade shows also open to buyers from here and abroad.