Physical shows’ return at Seoul Fashion Week reinvigorates stagnant fashion industry

Seoul Fashion Week, South Korea’s biggest fashion event held every March and October, wrapped up its six-day fashion extravaganza on Wednesday. By holding in-person shows and events for the first time in three years, it revived the stagnant local fashion industry, which has been hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The 2022 fall-winter Seoul Fashion Week ran in an online-offline hybrid format to avoid crowds amid the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 35 fashion brands -- 23 established designer brands for the Seoul Collection shows and 12 rookie designer brands for the Generation Next shows -- presented their collections on the catwalk. Twenty-three shows had been prerecorded for streaming.

The biannual event kicked off on March 18 at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art in central Seoul, where three fashion labels -- Bonbom, C-Zann E and Beyond Closet -- presented their collections with in-person catwalk shows. About 150 people -- among them Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, big-name celebrities and buyers -- were in attendance.

Nine rookie designer brands, including Nodicoma, Ice Garden and July Column, held offline runways for the Generation Next shows at Han Collection in central Seoul from Sunday to Tuesday. Miss Gee Collection brought the Seoul Fashion Week to a close Wednesday with a prerecorded fashion show titled “Keep Up the Light.”

Four local designer brands -- Doucan, Eenk, LIE and Wnderkammer -- were sponsored by Seoul Fashion Week to stage shows at the 2022 Fall-Winter Paris Fashion Week earlier this month. Nine local designer brands also operated a special booth featuring Seoul Fashion Week during the latest Tranoi trade fair accompanying the latest Paris Fashion Week. 

All the fashion shows were streamed online through YouTube, Naver TV and TikTok. Actor Lee Jung-jae and model Choi So-ra promoted local fashion brands as the 2022 fall-winter Seoul Fashion Week’s global ambassadors.

Although the biannual fashion event’s in-person shows were completed, an on-site exhibition, where visitors can try on Seoul Fashion Week’s designer brands’ products and buy them at discounted prices, is available through the end of May at Han Collection.

By Jie Ye-eun (yeeun@heraldcorp.com)