How to get photographed at Seoul Fashion Week

Can’t get into the shows at Seoul Fashion Week?  No worries, as the Dongdaemun Design Plaza (DDP) grounds outside the venue function as a giant runway of sorts themselves.  (As one of our reporters stated, the twice-yearly festivities are like a Comic-Con for Korean fashion.)  Here are a few cardinal rules to getting yourself noticed by the street photographers:

Don’t wear all black.  Unless you want to remain hidden among the sea of paparazzi, fashionistas, curious tourists and models going into and out of shows, which only seems to grow larger as the day gets later.

 

Be a Song Jae Rim or Park Bo Gum look-alike.  Seriously, it doesn’t hurt.

If you have a cute child (or are a cute child yourself), make sure that he or she has a modeling contract.  Why?  It turns out that the wide-eyed adorable tots wearing layers of designer clothes and bling were actually baby and child models planted there by their agencies.  So there is some pretty stiff competition.

 

When all else fails, find a gimmick.  Perhaps this is in the form of an accompanying dressed-up pet.  Or, in the case of an empty closet, a cat mask.

 

Treat the DDP as your personal runway.  Better yet, show off your well-practiced catwalk in unison with friends after having carefully coordinated outfits in advance.  If you don’t succeed the first time, as they say, try, try again, because maybe a photographer will notice you the second time around.  (Need a tutorial?  Watch “Fashion King” – the film version starring Joo Won, Sulli and Ahn Jae-hyun – which was partially shot at the DDP and features many a spontaneous runway walk-off, in a way parodying the circus that happens twice a year at Seoul Fashion Week.)

 

If you can’t beat them, join them.  The celebrities and models in the selfie – or selca in Korean – game, that is.  The show venues are smack in the middle of the fashionista chaos, so the VIPs often have to trek through the area to get from Point A to B, and they often stop to take photos with fans.  Quite a few Korean models, especially the men, don’t have long runway careers because they often use the shows as a stepping stone to drama and variety show stardom.  Several such examples from the men’s side alone include Song, Ahn, Kim Woo Bin and Kang Dong Won.

 

If you can’t join them…become a celebrity?

More photos: Seoul Fashion Week Spring 2017 street fashion
all photos by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine