Miss Sohee

L I V I N G F A N T A S Y

T H E S T O R Y O F S O H E E P A R K ' S E L E C T R I C F A S H I O N W E E K D E B U T

Meet Sohee Park: the biggest surprise of this Milan Fashion Week, and, emerging star categorizations aside, the designer of Elysium's pick for most impressive collection overall. The 25-year old Korean designer, a grad of Central St. Martin’s, made her fashion week debut before an exclusive crowd utterly captivated by the masterful craftsmanship, vivid colors, and stunning jewels that defined every one of her couture pieces.

This said, Park was anything but a surprise to Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabanna, the fashion royalty who funded this collection and launched its creator on the Milano stage. Dolce and Gabanna have a rich history of providing a platform for young designers, whether this be through collaborative collections, media support, selling their products in the Spiga 2 D & G concept store, or organizing them a spot on the illustrious Camera Moda calendar. Park was their biggest coup yet, the Milan presentation marking the culmination of a meteoric rise that took less than two years and is doubtless just the beginning of a new story arc through the fashion stratosphere.

Park first caught D & G's attention in Spring 2020, just a couple of months after Covid began, when the UK lockdown necessitated the cancellation of her Central St. Martin’s graduation show. Frustrated and bored, she decided to upload some photos of her collection, “The Girl in Full Bloom” on Instagram. The floral-inspired ensemble, each unique piece informed by Sohee’s childhood love of illustration as well as her fashion training, went viral. This college collection, presented in a lookbook as professional and inspired as that of the most of the most established brand, was soon gracing the covers of magazines. Sohee told Vogue in 2021: “Couture shouldn’t just be for big fashion houses with an atelier in Paris, it’s about the craftsmanship and artistry. We’re in a world where there’s so much mass-produced clothing creating unnecessary waste, so I hope to see more young couturiers in the future who go against this. ”

That she developed this attitude as a student, and designed “Girl in Full Bloom” independently without the human and financial resources of the aforementioned “big fashion houses, ” is remarkable…and it would soon earn her access to an illustrious market of both models and sponsors.

As worn by Taylor Fineman at the 2022 Met Gala

A who’s who of celebrities had worn her gowns to major events before she even appeared of a fashion week: Gigi and Bella Hadid, Naomi Campbell, and Ariana Grande to name a few. Miley Cyrus shot her Midnight Sky music video in one of Sohee’s original Girl in Full Bloom dresses just weeks after they debuted online. Cardi B drew international attention to her custom headwear when she appeared in it on her Billboard Woman of the Year cover. By the time Taylor Hill and Chloe Fineman wore Park's designs at the 2022 Met Gala, she had officially transitioned from fashion world secret to household name.

Fineman and Hill’s gowns were most notable for their inordinately long and undeniably extravagant trains, garnering “best look” awards in my annual group chat commentaries from both industry insiders who were intimately familiar with Park’s work and casual fashion followers who hadn’t previously heard of her. I had the pleasure of examining Hill and Fineman’s gowns in person at the February Milano presentation and can confirm that they are even more dazzling close-up than in the digitally perfected paparazzi photos. Park’s attention to detail is beyond reproach: from patterns to materials to stitching there’s not a component of her garments that slips below her impeccable standards. Her talent and vision combined with the support of Dolce & Gabanna, who spared no expense on sourcing the finest materials for the Milano collection, is a recipe for luxury fashion at its almost anachronistic best.

As I walked into Sohee’s inaugural presentation, given under the eponymous label Miss Sohee, it was the embroidery, jewels, and countless Swarovski crystals that impressed me most. All the embellishments were added by hand…many by Sohee personally. Looking at the intricate designs, one would never guess that she was almost entirely self-trained. “I was always hungry to learn new things and spent a lot of time watching Youtube tutorials of old ladies sewing and embroidering, ” she has told Vogue Hong Kong. It’s this curiosity, independence, and entrepreneurial spirit that has been critical to her success, and that Dolce and Gabanna gave free rein to thrive. “Domenico and Stefano gave me complete freedom to create my collection and realize my vision, ” she said.

“With each collection, I try to push myself to work with sustainable materials, ” Park said in the same Vogue HK interview. “This season, we used Abaca fabric sourced from the same banana tree family we utilized last season and teamed up with the Alta Mode team at Dolce & Gabanna to create beautiful shoes from pineapple leather. We also used Hansan Moss from the Hansan region of South Korea. Recognized for its unique weaving, it is one of the country’s oldest textiles and is inscribed in UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage List. It is made from locally sourced Ramie [a linen-type plant in the nettle family]. In addition, the collection was made from mostly upcycled fabrics used from the Dolce & Gabanna archive. ”

This quote offers an excellent encapsulation of two common threads throughout Sohee’s collection: sustainability and her South Korean heritage. A cornucopia of vivid colors dominated the presentation: from fuchsia to peacock green to bright blue to fire engine red, almost every gown was blindingly bright. The designs matched the tropical color scheme; white Bengal tigers starred on a couple of pieces and there were allusions to peacocks, leopards, and seashells in the adornments, embroidery, and headwear.

All of this reflects the ancient Korean folk art of Minhwa, which fittingly, given Sohee’s own self-taught background, was historically was made by artists and artisans without formal training. Translating directly to “the art of the people, ” Minhwa is a descriptive term for a wide range of decorative art pieces inspired by Korean mythology and symbolism and intended for everyday use within the home. Popular throughout the six-century Chosun era (1392-1910) and then briefly again after World War II, it has been resuscitated for the modern era, with a deep respect for tradition and a deeply personal motivation, by Sohee. “I really wanted to explore and show the beauty of Minhwa as I experienced it, ” she said. “ They were painted by unknown and anonymous artists….untrained locals…who told their life stories through these paintings. Elements and motifs such as tigers, magpies, butterflies, sea waves, the sun, the moon, mountains and flowers are often seen through Minhwa, which I translated into embroidery on big sculptural silhouettes. ”

On my second walk-through of the collection, it was the somewhat surprising but ever-present references to the ocean that caught my attention. Sea shells, coral, and sea plants, in their many forms and patterns, were reflected by the overall silhouettes of the garments, several dramatic headpieces, and almost every floral design. This was no coincidence. Sohee conceived many of her current works while at her grandmother’s house during Covid: a time during which she reflected upon her childhood memories and pondered her sense of physical place. Her grandmother lived near Jeju Island, a place of almost mystical importance in the Korean psyche where ancient traditions remain alive to this day. One such tradition is that of the “Haenyo:” older women who dive into the sea, without oxygen or modern equipment, to harvest shellfish using generations-old methods (a la Les Pecheurs des Perles). Sohee’s first encounter with a haenyo left a major impression. “She was coming back to shore in her black scuba diving suit with all these corals, shellfish, and other treasures that she had found, ” the designer explained. “That was very inspiring; she looked like some mythical creature. ”

February 2022 in Milan Sohee create her own myth in Milan. One opulent dress, in a delicate shade of pink, directly evoked Botticelli’s Birth of Venus. This piece, perhaps inspired by encounters with the haenyo, was both prescient and metaphorical. First presented during its Sohee’s coronation in the fashion world, and at the birth of her Miss Sohee brand, it represented many of the attributes that garnered its creator international acclaim. Yet it also stands at the relative beginning of this remarkable couturier's journey.