KAAL E.SUKTAE Spring 2016 – Seoul Fashion Week

About a month and change after unveiling his Spring/Summer 2016 collection at the Concept Korea runway show in New York, KAAL E.SUKTAE designer Lee Suk Tae decided to make some significant changes at Seoul Fashion Week.  To a spectator previously unacquainted with Lee’s work – or even the previous incarnation of his Spring 2016 offering – those modifications were obvious, and a bit too jarring.  Colors other than ivory, black and beige were swapped out for similar shades, but still managed to comprise the weakest aspects of Lee’s “Dust to Dust” collection, these pieces felled by a lack of structure and continuity with what remained.

This is a shame because what did carry over from New York to Seoul was quite remarkable, in particular the concluding section of beige pieces featuring contrasting black buckles and rectangular panels.  It is no small feat to impress an audience with a combination of pagoda-sleeved tops, blazers and skirts, but Lee accomplished exactly that thanks to his specialty and preference for mixed materials.  The major highlight of these pieces was, from a distance, what appeared to be dotted stripes traversing shoulders, torsos and sleeves.  In actuality, these “dots” consisted of burned out stencil contours of hangul (Korean alphabet) characters: a subtle, artful inclusion that elevated Lee’s East-meets-West designs.

Jeffrey Campbell was the shoe sponsor for the KAAL E.SUKTAE Spring 2016 show in Seoul. (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

Photos: KAAL E.SUKTAE Spring 2016 – Seoul Fashion Week
all photos by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine

Video: KAAL E.SUKTAE Spring 2016 – Seoul Fashion Week
video by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine