[Eye Interview] ‘I always did my own thing’

Troa Cho is the picture of a quintessential fashion designer, with her silver hair in a Louise Brooks bob and sporting black slim-fit tuxedo-style denim pants paired with a black dress shirt. Looking at her posing next to her work from the 1980s -- a slinky python print number fit for a sexy diva of the wild disco years -- currently on exhibition at the Culture Station 284 as part of “Mode & Moments: 100 Years of Korean Fashion,” it does not take too much imagination to picture the septuagenaria

Sept. 9, 2016

Kanye West unveils body suits in NY presidential park

NEW YORK (AFP) - Kanye West showed the loftiness of his ambition Wednesday by commandeering the same presidential park Hillary Clinton used for kick-starting her White House run to unveil his latest fashion collection of body suits and stilettos.Yeezy Season Four is the rapper and global sensation’s latest collaboration for Adidas, which has seen him fend off complaints the clothes are too expensive for the mass market he has in mind.The event kicked off more than an hour and a half late at Four

Sept. 8, 2016

100 years of Korean fashion at a glance

What were the must-have fashion items in Korea more than a century ago? In the early 1900s, stylish people keen on fashion trends were dubbed “modern girls” and “modern boys,” with Western culture making inroads into Confucian society at the time. Women began to wear Western-style dresses instead of “hanbok,” or Korean traditional costume, and they would hold a parasol in one hand to cover their faces, effectively replacing the skirt-shaped headgear used to conceal their faces in the deeply Conf

Sept. 1, 2016

Interactive font system wins Herald Design Tech 2016 award

A 27-year-old student won the top award at Herald Design Tech 2016, a design-meets-technology contest organized by Herald Corp., with a customized font design system that reflects the user’s preferences. Pyo Jun-hee, a visual communication design student at Gachon University won the competition with his interactive font system which allows users to easily change fonts by merely tilting an iPad screen. Pyo received a prize of 3 million won ($2,680). “When you tilt an iPad screen equipped with the

Aug. 31, 2016

A blowout that lasts three months? Hello to semipermanent waves

Fierce blowouts -- straightened hair that has been hot-curled into gentle waves -- are the reason women hightail it to the salon once, sometimes twice, a week, and especially before special occasions. But what if you could get the same look and forfeit those salon trips for up to three months?The trendletSemipermanent-curl processes are the latest hair phenom to give women the just-left-the-salon look every day. Think of it as a Keratin treatment, but instead of bone-straight hair, ends are curl

Aug. 4, 2016

Hi, Design Festival

Herald Corp. will hold a design festival introducing innovative products by leading designers in Korea from July 29-31 at the HiBrand shopping mall in Seoul. The three-day sale of design products, organized in cooperation with HiBrand, will present a variety of design products ranging from stationery and interior decor items to clothing and accessories. The market is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.The festival also offers classes where visitors can participate in making simple cards, gift boxes and

July 25, 2016

Dark secrets of the man who opened architecture to the light

PARIS (AFP) -- Love him or loathe him, few people have changed the world we live in more than Le Corbusier, one of the fathers of modern architecture, whose works were placed Sunday on UNESCO's prestigious World Heritage List.His ideas about utilitarian concrete buildings have altered the face of cities across the planet and have had an equally profound influence on urban planning.From his modernist master planning of Chandigarh in northern India to Paris, which he dreamed of levelling to make w

July 21, 2016

Fashion rebels Vetements stitch up haute couture

PARIS (AFP) -- Rebel brand Vetements sent fashion into a spin Sunday with an haute couture show that broke all the rules, appropriating clothes and shoes from 17 other brands and recutting them in its own irreverent neo-Soviet street style.The most talked about brand in fashion had been invited to show as a guest in the elite, uniquely Parisian events, seen as the pinnacle of exclusive made-to-measure clothing.But instead of bowing to couture’s near century-long tradition of handmade artistry, V

July 4, 2016

Iconic clubs feted in celebrity-filled Paris menswear shows

PARIS (AP) -- Actor Robert Pattinson took center stage at Dior Homme's menswear show in Paris that celebrated the styles of Britain’s iconic retro club, The Haeuroienda -- against a theatrical fairground backdrop that had celebrity attendees gawping. Kenzo, too, paid homage to legendary retro clubs in a show dedicated to the flamboyant styles once worn at New York music venues.Here are some of the highlights of the spring-summer 2017 collections.Rise of Robert PattinsonPattinson, who has success

June 26, 2016

Top trends from Milan menswear shows

MILAN (AFP) - The future of exclusively menswear catwalk shows is in doubt, but the cult of the “see and be seen party” is alive and well.Highlights from the Milan menswear Spring-Summer 2017 fashion shows, which concluded here Tuesday, included Dsquared2 duo Dean and Dan Caten’s bash in their own Ceresio restaurant, which boasts spectacular views of the Milanese skyline.Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana treated the crowds outside their show to glasses of bubbly before hosting their party at Bi

June 23, 2016

Japan's Uniqlo targets global stature with fashion identity

TOKYO (AP) -- Japanese clothing chain Uniqlo has leveraged its prowess in mass production to build a fashion empire filled with shelves upon shelves of affordable, good quality items like down jackets, underwear and T-shirts. Now the 17-nation, 1,734-store retailer is on a quest to beat Western giants like Gap, H&M and Zara to become the world's biggest apparel-maker.In the overcrowded, highly competitive casual fashion market, size is important, but no guarantee of success: Analysts say Uniqlo’

June 16, 2016

Public School declares in off-calendar show: We need leaders

NEW YORK (AP) -- We need leaders. Beware false gods. Wear cool clothes.The design duo Maxwell Osborne and Dao-Yi Chow opted out of the New York Fashion Week frenzy to present their latest ready-to-wear collection Tuesday -- instead of the usual February or September -- against a dystopian backdrop that served as an Orwellian wake-up call.Before their models race-walked down the runway, sirens blaring, workers stood silent in assembly lines, their faces covered in black mesh, hands hidden in yell

June 9, 2016

Beyonce steals show as surprise honoree at fashion awards

NEW YORK (AP) -- In a surprise appearance, Beyonce delighted a glittery fashion crowd Monday evening, showing up unannounced to accept the Council of Fashion Designers of America’s Fashion Icon award.Usually, organizers announce the name of the Fashion Icon winner well in advance, but this year they kept it under wraps until the end of the ceremony, when designer Diane von Furstenberg took the stage to introduce the pop superstar, saying she was everything women aspire to be. Designer Calvin Kle

June 7, 2016

Tokyo museum exhibits Issey Miyake‘s constant innovations

TOKYO (AP) -- Although he’s behind one of the biggest fashion brands to come out of Japan, Issey Miyake detests being called a fashion designer. Maybe a designer, even a sculptor, but not that frivolous, trend-watching, conspicuous consumption known as fashion. What he has pursued since he started in the 1970s is more timeless. His down-to-earth clothing is meant to celebrate the human body. And it’s anyone’s or everyone’s body -- any race, build, size or age.“The work of Miyake Issey,” at the N

June 1, 2016