Seoul Design Foundation takes over DDP for fashion-forward events

Life & Style

Published: 13 Oct. 2022, 14:30 Updated: 13 Oct. 2022, 16:57

Seoul Design Foundation takes over DDP for fashion-forward events

"K Culture Fashion Show," held at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) featured stage costumes of SM Entertainment artists, like Exo, shown here. [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

October is the month to celebrate fashion and the Seoul Design Foundation is hosting a number of fashion-related events at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) in Dongdaemun District, eastern Seoul.

Last Friday evening, a crowd of some 500 people gathered at the outdoor Oullim Square in DDP to see the “K Culture Fashion Show.” The Oullim Square is typically used as a space similar to a front lawn, but on this night it was turned into a rectangular catwalk.

Model Song Hae-na kicked off the event as the host and Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon gave a welcoming speech.

Divided into two parts, the first showcased costumes that SM Entertainment artists — Girls’ Generation, Exo, aespa and NCT — previously wore on stage or in their music videos. Titled “The Light of K-pop,” models showed off a total of 51 outfits while a mashup of each of the K-pop acts' songs were blasted.

A futuristic outfit that had been worn by members of girl group aespa [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

The first set of costumes were Girls’ Generation’s patterned 1950’s-inspired retro mini dresses with thick buckle belts from the music video for “Party,” the lead track from full-length album “Lion Heart” (2015). They were followed by blue-striped marine looks from the video for “Holiday” of the album “Holiday Night” (2017), and the video for its latest title track, “Forever 1” (2022).

The show shifted to showcase leather two-piece suits and military uniforms donned by Exo for the music video of the title track of album “Obsession” (2019) and the video of “Tempo,” the lead track of album “Don’t Mess Up My Tempo” (2018).

aespa, SM Entertainment’s most recently-launched girl group that has been releasing hit after hit since its debut in 2020, displayed outfits from the videos for “Savage” (2021) and “Dreams Come True” (2021), the latter being part of the agency’s remastering project that sees its artists recreate old songs. Representing the group’s ongoing metaverse concept, the outfits featured knee-high boots with sparkly futuristic dresses.

Boy band NCT's outfits [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

Another Exo costume [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

Boy band NCT’s outfits were centered on videos for songs “Kick It” (2020), “90’s Love” (2020) and “Beautiful” (2021). They ranged from black hoodies and bomber jackets, colorful athleisure wear and baseball jersey uniforms. The first part of the fashion show compared and contrasted the different styles according to each K-pop group.

Fashion brand Miss Gee Collection took the helm of the second part of the show, “Be The Light” with its 2023 S/S collection.

The brand was launched in 1979 by Gee Chun-hee, one of Korea’s most famous designers, and has established itself as a regular on the red carpet, with celebrities like Kim Sung-ryoung, Lee Ha-nee and Girls' Generation’s Seohyun wearing dresses from the brand.

Long, flowy silhouettes and bright neon colors were part of Miss Gee Collection's 2023 S/S collection. [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

Miss Gee Collection was also chosen to design the wedding dresses for actors Lee Na-young (who married actor Won Bin in 2015), Cha Ye-ryun (who married actor Joo Sang-wook in 2017) and girl group S.E.S.’s ex-member Bada (who married a non-celebrity businessman in 2017).

Miss Gee Collection’s 2023 S/S collection was mainly comprised of long, flowy silhouettes, bright neon colors and enormous round dangly earrings. There were also dresses and pants that came in neutral, earthy colors that were bejeweled for a more romantic and elegant look.

According to Miss Gee Collection in a statement, this collection is dedicated to “cheer for everyone who is trying to find their place in this complicated world with an energy of passion that fills any long void.”

Actors like Cha, Park Si-yeon, Lee Min-jung, Oh Yoon-ah, Lee Jung-hyun, Jun Hyo-seong and Hwang Boreumbyeol attended the show.

Vogue Korea at DDP (January 2014 edition) [VOGUE KOREA]

Vogue Korea at DDP (November 2022 edition) [VOGUE KOREA]

The Seoul Design Foundation is also holding a joint exhibition with Vogue Korea, titled “DDP, Fashion and You,” which is an archive of fashion photoshoots at the DDP from 2014 and 2022.

The DDP building, which was designed by the late British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid (1950-2016), was inaugurated in 2014 and Vogue Korea had a photoshoot in January that year with models who wore Korean-inspired outfits in front of the curvy, spaceship-shaped gray building.

Fast forward to 2022, and the fashion magazine held another photoshoot at the iconic building. The exhibition presents 7 photos from 2014 and 33 from the upcoming November edition to allow visitors to see how the building symbolizes a “K-fashion” mecca in Seoul.

The images were taken by photographer Kang Hyea-won, who’s worked with Vogue Korea for the past 10 years.

A bird's-eye view of the "K Culture Fashion Show" on Friday night [SEOUL DESIGN FOUNDATION]

“We hope this exhibition provides a fresh view on fashion and the space, models and the stories behind each photograph, as well as an insight into how Korean fashion will advance in the future,” Vogue Korea explained in a statement.

“DDP, Fashion and You” continues until Dec. 4. The DDP is open every day from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and the exhibition is free to all.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [shin.minhee@joongang.co.kr]