The hot takes from the runway shows in South Korea.

This month, the MR PORTER team took a trip to HERA Seoul fashion week, the South Korean capital’s major showcase for local designers. What did we think? Well, first of all, it needs to be said that though the event has been running in some way or other for at least the past 15 years, the fashion industry in Korea is still very much an emerging one, especially in comparison, say, to the country’s phenomenal beauty industry – a fact referenced at the event’s closing dinner by Seoul Fashion Week’s executive director Mr Kuho Jung. And while the city itself is clearly one of the most stylish places in the world (a fact it’s clear to see just from walking around) there still remains a cultural disconnect between the clothes its young designers are producing – heavily influenced by hyped European designers like Balenciaga and Prada, while seemingly fixated upon wildly deconstructed garments – and the buying habits of international markets.

The will is certainly there, though: though many of these shows felt, at best, embryonic, there is a buzzy feeling about the sheer number of young brands experimenting and vying for attention, as well as the huge prizes that were awarded, at the end of the week, to its top designers (Mr Hyun-min Han, who won the grand prize for his SS19 show for Münn, walked off with US$180,000 towards his next collection). An example of where it could all go was supplied by the opening show from Solid Homme, the menswear brand founded by Ms Woo Young Mi in 1988, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. This took place on the rooftop of the late Ms Zaha Hadid’s Dongdaemun Design Plaza, and offered an exhaustive and proficient overview of the brand’s calling cards: excellent outerwear; sporty tailoring; baggy knitwear; technical details. This was definitely the most truly grown-up feeling show of the lot. But that’s not to say that there weren’t plenty of interesting things going on at some of the younger brands, too. Scroll down for our key take-homes from the week.

Some of the most exciting and fresh-feeling shows at Seoul fashion week were, in fact, the most straightforward. Take D’Antidote, a streetwear inspired brand designed by Central Saint Martins-educated Mr Hwansung Park. Through its collaboration with the South Korean-owned sports brand Fila, it offered up a series of 1990s-inspired garments that you could see being worn by any self-respecting, Palace-clad Peckhamite. Charm’s, meanwhile collaborated with that most reviled of 1990s sports brands, Kappa, to similar effect. This is the kind of thing that could only have happened in Korea – and what’s more, it worked.

As with the rest of the world, the presiding influence over Seoul’s fashion collections seemed to be Balenciaga and Vetements. Shirts hanging from shirts, oversized shellsuits, wide-shouldered tailoring and giant, ugly sneakers were very much the order of the day. Also: drawstrings. Lots and lots of drawstrings. The best designers remixed these (and other) influences into something relatively fresh: Münn took an 1980s tilt at Raf-Simons-esque deconstructed tailoring and mixed it with fun outerwear pieces (including a fluoro yellow Scotchguard collab-jacket). Youser splashed 1990s sportswear with an appealing sunburst print that was mirrored in the show’s ambient lighting. Accordingly, these two designers were among those honoured in the closing ceremony.

While we’re on that Charm’s show: this offered up an epiphany for anyone looking for insight into the attitude towards fashion in Korea, mostly because it finished with an exclusive performance from K-Pop star Mr Kim Ki-bum – known as “Key” – of the hugely popular boy band ShiNee. Earlier in the week, he’d been attending shows in oversized tailoring, his hair blond, loafers on his feet. Now, hours later, here he was, black hair, lace-up shoes and a Kappa jacket. In further research MR PORTER discovered that, in the past few months, Key’s hair had also been rainbow coloured, pink, and bright red. You get the impression that it changes every other day. The mish-mash of trends and experimentation in these shows made a lot more sense when you considered such chameleonic abilities: this is a culture in which stars constantly reinvent themselves, and fashion is, of course, in favour of the latest thing. Which can be expensive but quite fun, really.

The people featured in this story are not associated with and do not endorse MR PORTER or the products shown