In recent times, Eudon Choi has taken to approaching his pre-fall and resort collections as palate cleansers. His inclination has been to current what’s (no less than at first look) a extra stripped-back providing of his chameleonic wardrobe staples: layered knits, coats with removable panels and sleeves, or trousers with creative fastenings and belts, as just some examples.
His newest assortment married this low season industrial rigor together with his intuition for a well-judged artistic reference; for the latter, he appeared to the work of Lee Ufan, the influential Korean artist who served as a foundational member of the Mono-ha motion that emerged from post-war Japan as a form of earthy, philosophical cousin of arte povera. Choi caught a serious Ufan exhibition whereas he was visiting Seoul, the place he first skilled as a menswear designer, final spring, and in addition cites the up to date artwork increase in Korea (most lately buoyed by the introduction of the Frieze Artwork Truthful to Seoul) as notably inspiring. “It inspired me to give attention to the supplies I used to be utilizing,” mentioned Choi. “To strip issues again to their essence.”
Together with loads of Choi’s classics—blouses with slashed sleeves and panels hooked up by buttons, the louche draping of his bias minimize shirt attire, ribbed knits—there have been some new, standout items within the combine. The primary look, consisting of an uneven riff on a trench coat with a single epaulette and matching trousers, was each glossy and sensible (and got here in a recurring shade of deep navy that neatly echoed the counterintuitively vibrant neutrals of Ufan’s work). Elsewhere, shimmering metallic satins and a painterly brushstroke print with a intentionally messy bleed across the edges added an extra word of inventive aptitude, whereas statuesque woolen tailor-made coats and luxuriously delicate knitted tanks appeared able to fly off the cabinets. As soon as once more, Choi supplied a totally realized wardrobe of sensible, grown-up garments for his following of sensible, grown-up ladies.
