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!

PARIS IS BURNING

You know that scene in The Devil Wears Prada when Meryl Streep AK47 Anna Wintour talks sense into a giggling and, apparently, naïve Anne Hathaway.

She was laughing at two belts that looked identical to her and got a lecture on the importance of fashion and how that Yves Klein Blue Dorothy Perkins (insert any American cheap, ugly, boring and what-your-mum-wears label) top she was wearing have been a few years in the making. More exactly since Babadim used that colour for his AW0304 collection and Babadom showed a similar fabric the season after, or something like that.

Her conclusion: catwalk fashion matters because colours, fabric, hemlines and other details will find its way in to your (and Hathaway’s) high street wardrobe. And she’s right, of course, but what ever you do, don’t tell Romain Kremer that!



I’m sure Paris has been used and abused before. Fashion Week, and especially in the French capital, is often used as an excuse to impose scary, horrible and revolting fashion statements on us. We accept this, or at least learn to live with it, because of all the beautiful, inspiring, wearable and gorgeous things that also come out of it. But, by God, this has to stop.



Let’s hope that none of Kremer’s colours, fabric, hemlines and other details will find a way into our wardrobes. Why?

A. Not many look good in dresses made out of pantyhose fabric.
B. It looks even worse when they come in fluorescent pink, green and yellow.



And look at Kremer’s protective American Football gear. Obviously, Romain bats for the other team, but that’s no excuse (see what I did there). Bernard Willhelm has been equally inspired by American football in the past and even though you won’t find me wearing it, I can still appreciate his imagination and craftsmanship.



A catwalk collection must always have a few show pieces to keep the audience interested, and fair enough, Kremer had my attention – but for all the wrong reasons.