Seoul Fashion Week attracts world gurus

Artwork of honorary designer Han Hye-ja will be displayed during the opening ceremony of the 2017 Spring Summer Hera Seoul Fashion Week, Oct. 17 at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza, Seoul. / Courtesy of Seoul Design Foundation

Korea’s fashion show

grown into hot event

for top designers

Jung Ku-ho, executive director of the 2017 Spring Summer Hera Seoul Fashion Week, speaks during a press conference at the Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, last Wednesday. / Courtesy of Seoul Design Foundation

By Kim Jae-heun

Jung Ku-ho, the executive director of Hera Seoul Fashion Week, said Korea’s biggest fashion runway festival has now become a hot attraction for international fashion moguls, in comments at a press conference for the upcoming 2017 Spring and Summer collection that kicks off next Monday.

“Again, we have invited established fashion magazine directors from abroad and luxury store buyers to our event,” Jung said at Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) last Wednesday. “To be honest, until last year we begged them to join us and we’d email them five times. But the story is different this year. They are requesting an invitation, but we’ve limited one person per media organization due to our low budget. We’ve kindly asked uninvited guests to participate with their own expenses if possible.”

Jung invites globally known fashion gurus for this fashion week in Seoul, such as former dean of fashion design school Parsons Simon Collins, Italian chamber of buyers Mario Dell’Oglio and Paris College of Art Donald Potard plus five more. Participating buyers from luxury departments include Harvey Nichols London, Selfridges, Excelsior, Saks Fifth Avenue and Net A Porter.

Jung emphasized that the main focus of Seoul Fashion Week still lies in promoting the Korean fashion industry abroad and obtaining orders is not their priority at this point.

The executive director disclosed his idea when he began leading the Seoul collection last May that Korea needs to establish an internationally recognized fashion designer first. This will then naturally lead to bringing people to watch the popular designers’ shows at Seoul Fashion Week.

“According to the data we received from designers and buyer agencies, we were informed of 2.2 million dollars worth of buying contracts, but the amount has no meaning. It is more important to promote local designers abroad and one popular Korean designer can gather global attention to the Korean fashion industry,” said Jung.

As part of his marketing strategy, the director picks the 10 best local designers every year and sends them out to open pop-up stores in luxury department stores in London, Paris and Milan.

“Previously, we had Korean fashion designers open their pop-up stores in Paris and Milan. We would pay the rent for four to six weeks and Excelsior in Milan would give us the whole floor,” said Jung.

“This year Selfridges bought pieces by 10 Korean designers and they are going to sell them on their own. If the clothes make a good profit, the department store will consider launching the brand there.”

Jung was chosen as part of a list of 500 powerful fashion people by the British fashion magazine “Business of Fashion” for his efforts in promoting Seoul Fashion Week this year.

Asked what the strengths and distinguished character of Seoul Fashion Week are, the executive director said the fashion here adopts elements from street style but presents high-end collections as well. There are also efforts to turn street fashion into high-quality works too.

“If other Fashion Weeks in different countries only pursue high-end fashion, our fashion gets inspiration from street and music. Our target age group is low too. The atmosphere is comparatively young while the standard participants’ age group in European fashion weeks is around 30s to 40s,” said Jung.

2017 S/S Hera Seoul Fashion Week will be held at DDP from Oct. 17 to 22.