Sohee Park presented her couture collection in a sumptuous gilded salon at the Shangri-La hotel, an unsurprising choice for a designer with a well-documented fondness for old-world glamour. But the real point of departure was far less Versailles-by-way-of-couture. Instead it was a window in her summer house at the southern tip of Korea, overlooking the sea. Through it, Park watched wisteria bloom, bamboo sway, and the seasons take turns in the garden. Her mother photographed it all, neatly framing nature within the window’s geometry. Naturally, this became couture.
Park treats the female body like a sinuous sculpture; here, she used the silhouette as a literal window onto imagined landscapes. Think mountains, orchids, hills and skies melting from sunset to midnight, embroidered onto her signature hourglass corseted bustiers with fluted skirts. Pyrotechnics played their part: gowns sprouted cherry blossoms, while brass bamboo branches burst from bodices like couture flora. And if the point needed underlining, one model appeared carrying a real (taxidermied) albino peacock, dressed to match her white feathery number.
Weddings, meanwhile, are booming. Everyone seems to be getting married, at least according to couture week, where nearly every show ended with a bride. Park, whose made-to-order bridal business is thriving, responded with a series of gowns “designed to feel something,” culminating in a finale look with a hooded veil inspired by traditional head coverings once worn by unmarried women in Korea. She reimagined the idea in meters of sheer silk embroidered with patterns inspired by Korean sea waves, lavishly encrusted with Swarovski crystals. Her brides, she said, are young, experimental, and fashion-forward, very much uninterested in marrying in their mother’s dress, or anything that looks like it’s been seen before.
As a woman designing for women, Park believes that the real sorcery lies in understanding the body: what to highlight, what to conceal, where confidence hides, and how serious structure can still look effortless. Her couture walks the tightrope between dream and wearability, sculpture and emotion. In short: windows, gardens, brides, a few peacocks. For Park, fashion is a framing device for the world and the body—preferably dipped in fantasy. And unlike most of us, she’s not just dreaming of escape: she’s actually dressing women for it.
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