Hyein Seo’s “Tough Girl” Cult Rebellion
If you’ve been invested in the commercial fashion world for the past year or so, you’ve likely caught a glimpse of the “subversive basics” trend, which was birthed out of quarantine and quickly gained attraction for its unique twist on basic pieces. On TikTok, the trend spread rapidly as people filmed themselves partaking in the style by creating asymmetric, maximalist outfits with scissor-cut tights and shirts. However, as I watched the trend gain traction from platform to platform, I wondered why one of the leading inspirations to the trend wasn’t being named – Hyein Seo.
(From Hyein Seo’s FW21 collection. Photo: Hyein Seo / Instagram)
Calling Seoul her hometown, young South-Korean designer Hyein Seo launched her brand in 2014 at the age of 23 with the ambition to expand. Expansion for Seo didn’t mean crafting luxury avant-garde pieces, but rather creating accessible clothing that was nonetheless fresh to the public eye. A focal point of Seo is her immersion into counterculture, which is explored in her fall-winter 2017 collection with contemporary urban sportswear. Titled “FINAL BOSS,” the collection fuses traditional silhouettes of the Korean hanbok with futuristic touches, as well as the dyed hair and bright lipstick of 21st-century youth culture. The collection featured judo-style dresses, silk prints, and nods to 90’s-style motorbike gangs and arcades.
(from Hyein Seo collection “FINAL BOSS” editorial. Photo via Hyein Seo)
With a rebellious vision, Hyein Seo manifested her “dystopian daydreams” of video games and anime into “FINAL BOSS” through references to the fantasy video game characters of Akira, Street Fighter, Tekken, and Dragon Girls. Seo described her encounter with the first spark of inspiration for “FINAL BOSS” when she saw a girl walking to her jiu-jitsu class with a pristine uniform, badge, and empowering attitude.
“I saw this little girl in Seoul. Swinging her ponytail, walking bravely in front of me in an interesting outfit. It had embroideries all over it. I had to go and ask her what it [was] and it was a Jiu-jitsu uniform,” said Seo in an interview with i-D.
(Photo [top and bottom] via Hyein Seo)
Though Hyein Seo’s more recent designs have contributed to the “antifashion” cultural phenomenon, it would be restrictive to name her brand after one style. The namesake brand has earned its title as more than just unique, but irreverent, creating its own home in the international fashion industry with each new collection. The commercial nature of her work preserves the experimental intricacies that echo her education at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Belgium.
(from Hyein Seo collection “LADY VENGEANCE” editorial. Photo via Hyein Seo)
Past seasons have been bold and compelling for Seo, with inspirations including the qipao-wearing sirens in Wong Kar Wai’s 2046 and Street Fighter’s Chun-Li. With silk cheongsams and asymmetric sukeban skirts, Seo claims she likes to get into character. “I’m always captivated by the bad girl in movies,” she told Vogue. During her breakthrough V Files Made Fashion show, she told V Files about her collection, “There is always a beautiful, rich woman who becomes a victim. She wears luxurious fur coats with a gothic atmosphere mixed with street culture.” Seo even titled her fall-winter 2016 collection – filled with racecar-style bombers and cigarettes – “LADY VENGEANCE.”
Seo’s “tough girl” aesthetic has already captivated the likes of Rihanna, who headed to the Comme des Garçons show at Paris Fashion Week showing off Seo’s faux fur from her ‘Fear Eats The Soul’ collection. Along with artists like Kendrick Lamar and Khalid, celebrity exposure has made the Hyein Seo brand a staple.
(Rihanna wearing Hyein Seo to the 2014 Comme des Garçons Paris Fashion Week show. Photo: unknown)
Seo cites the youthful nature of high school students as a source of inspiration for her brand. Her graduate collection “BAD EDUCATION” – an instant success – pioneered the vision. With anti-education slogans like “school kills” and “spoiled”, the theme was defiant yet comfortable and unisex, thus balancing its masculine and feminine aspects. Seo is eager to continue this fusion, and as The Face remarks, her design technique “makes her perfectly placed to represent the multi-faceted nature of modern day womanhood.”
After starting her brand, Seo’s revolution landed her back in her hometown of Seoul after working between there and Antwerp, Belgium. Seoul isn’t the most opportunistic place to lead fashion, but Seo says that “Seoul’s fashion scene has evolved tremendously since I had left for Antwerp a decade ago.” She believes that the flourishing designer culture there has transformed South Korea’s capital into a place filled with talented creatives, and she even critiques “places like London and Paris where you see a lot of young designers regurgitating [a] similar aesthetic, to be frank.”
(from the Hyein Seo FW19 collection “Save Yourself” editorial. Photo: Hyein Seo, via Hypebeast)
Seo’s love for her home city and youth empowerment collide in her spring-summer 2019 afterparty scene. Seoul’s passionate neighborhood of Euljiro set the background for a vodka-indulged party alongside ambitious young South-Korean creatives. While London-based producer CouCou Chloe performed live, clothes featured references to motorbike culture and cut-out spandex tops, a presentation inspired “by Seoul youth now.” Seo and her co-director Jino Lee “want to show what’s on now in this sleepless city.” They say that they “do have talents in Seoul but no place to get them together. Those young DJs, artists, designers, [and] photographers became our inspiration.”
As a versatile and ever-changing designer characterized by her fierce approach to design and empowerment, Seo’s place in the Korean and international cultural scene has attracted hundreds of thousands of aspiring youth who seek to join her as she continues to build her cult riot– which will be nothing short of a rebellion.
An art piece as an homage to designer Hyein Seo, featuring past collection titles and scenes from the “Save Yourself” and “WHITE NOISE” editorials.
made by Elaina Li [me]
by ELAINA LI