This western-inspired collection takes the genre into a global perspective.
Korean designer Hyeme Lee presents her Spring/Summer 2023 collection at the EENK Womenswear show at Paris Fashion Week. (Nikkala Kovacevic for WSN)
Designer Hyemee Lee has moved away from the typically metaphorical themes of her collection, such as “T for Temptation” and “U for Utopia,” and gone deeper into history with her take on the American West. “He draft letter”, Lee’s current set of collections, focuses on a letter of the alphabet that represents a keyword or theme. Last season’s “V for Vintage” featured the Korean designer’s take on ’80s glamour, focusing on the geometric silhouettes and structure that fashion of the time had to offer. The last installment, and the next letter, is “W for WWW”, or W for World Wild West.
Located at the Palais de Tokyo, this season’s show veered away from glamor and opted for a more rustic, industrial vibe. The model and singer Carla Bruni started the show with a soft and sensual voice combined with an acoustic guitar. Bruni then began strutting down the runway as the first model. She directed the audience’s gaze to the front of the room as the models began to arrive from an adjoining chamber.
The first look felt classic. They embraced warm shades of orange and yellow, with corsets and belts. — all of which coincided with the expectation of the canonized western seen in movies, such as “Noon” and “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre”. The looks shifted to cooler tones and denim, introducing plunging necklines and some looser silhouettes. Soon Bruni’s voice began to pick up speed, the guitar taking on a more raucous and sinister melody as the models draped in bright red ensembles began to maneuver their way across the winding runway.
The monochrome looks in red gave a certain crescendo to the show. While they still played with the aestheticism of the West, especially in the use of tassels and boots, the change in tone felt like a personal statement from Lee. The importance of the “World” aspect of World Wild West to Lee is bringing her global perspective into an already established genre. — a genre that many do not realize has an expansive and international impact.
“The western frontier mystique represented by the Gold Rush Era, the Jazz Age, the Belle Epoque and the Roaring Twenties has captivated our imaginations from the Far East into a collection of upbeat freedom and high adventure spectacle. Lee said.
As the looks moved towards leather and fur, the claim that Lee’s perception of the West is as important an aspect as the films and American media stories came true. Ending with a set of pieces done entirely in black and white, Lee’s designs evolved more into a deconstruction of the Western image. The final looks, like a turtleneck, tassel-lined leather dress, simply showcased the most defining aspects of the West and, for Lee, the characteristics that fueled his mystique.
Contact Nikkala Kovacevic at [email protected]
Source: news.google.com