카이 KYE Spring 2017 – Seoul Fashion Week 서울 패션 위크

Kathleen Kye (계한희) at the conclusion of the KYE Spring 2017 show at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul. (photo by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine)

In a continued aesthetic from last season, the KYE Spring 2017 collection is a welcome, toned-down offering compared to the visual clutter that has sometimes marred the designer’s past work. Now a mainstay in both New York and Seoul Fashion Weeks – with an accompanying growing global celebrity endorsement roster – this inclination towards more commercial fare is a wise choice by Kathleen Kye. According to the HERA Seoul Fashion Week Daily notes, the designer wanted to focus on the “self-image gap between social media and reality.” In doing so, Kye took yet another welcome step back from the psychedelic cacophony preferred by K-pop stars but still catering to the Instagram-obsessed masses.

Retaining her signature prints and graphics, colors were varied, warm and appropriate for the season. Amusing nods to emoticons frequently used in social media posts – such as the Hundred Points Symbol and the Extraterrestrial Alien – were used in both obvious and subtle ways. Such imagery featured in large silver studs adorning an orange two-piece women’s outfit and in smaller prints along the slits of a pair of men’s pants, as just two examples.

KYE Spring 2017 runway show HERA make-up credits:

Face: “Sun-burnt” look that included the Face Designing Blusher #03 (Glow Coral) product

Eye: “Natural shadow” through the use of Shadow Duo Nos. 1, 2 and 3

Lip: Rouge Holic No. 134 (Rosy Scent)