Wooyoungmi SS09

All things beautiful must come to an end, but what an end it was. Technically, Agnés B finished off Paris Menswear week, but Wooyoungmi was just behind. Or before, depending on how you see it. No matter where you stand on the issue of chronological importance, the Paris based South Korean showed off a safe and sound collection on a hot Sunday evening in an exceptional venue; the Louvre Carousel.

Wooyoungmi has always worked hard at modernising traditional tailoring and Blur Poem, her SS09 outing, was no exception. This time around, she fused sportswear with formal tailoring and considering how much highflying designers rely on sportswear (and vice versa) for money these days, she might very well be on to something. Don’t get me wrong, the collection was no revolution; sport influenced collections are all over the place but what made this special was how far she took it.

Wooyoungmi's plastic boots

Classically formal pieces, like suits, trench coats, pleaded trousers and shirts all came in plastic, sometimes see-through fabric. It was truly for the successful and futuristic businessman of the 21st century. The chapeau hats and high boots in plastic also caught everyone’s attention. Colour-wise, Wooyoungmi went with lots of grey and white but cleverly brought in red and orange to brighten things up.

The designer herself

Utility was key word as trousers had elastic waists and the cut-up tailoring that has become a bit of her trademark was present. But the combinations that summed up her SS09 effort was a hooded waistcoat in both artificial plastic and traditional cotton, and an outfit consisting of a black formal suit jacket, teamed with plastic shorts - perfectly balanced, wholly wearable, stylishly put together, oozing of quality and what you will wear next summer!