Heohwan Simulation (Q4269)
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Heohwan Simulation is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Heohwan Simulation |
Heohwan Simulation is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
Hwan Heo’s Seoul, South Korea–basedHeohwan Simulationdoes not have any stockists in the United States as of yet. That may well change with his new Spring collection—his 11th and counting—which the designer showed by appointment in Milan.Hwan Heo has made it a point to tally each season numerically since launching his brand. Number 11 marks a new chapter—the first of 10 planned collections meant to dissect and reposition the popular understandings of certain “fashion tribes.” His first subgroup? Those denizens of the 1990s, grunge, Kurt Cobain’s Seattle, et al.The collection didn’t necessarily add up to all of that explanation and regiment, as it happens. What it did deliver was some really wearable, solid pieces with a contemporary, just-left-of-mainstream appeal. Grunge’s ubiquitous red flannel plaid was reimagined as more of a mid-grade cyan-and-cream gingham, worked into linen-cotton blends and cut into trenches, arty dresses, and culottes. That motif also manifested itself in a navy-and-yellow scheme on both an asymmetric shirt and shirtdress. Each played with linearity and outsize volumes. Heohwan Simulation’s best offering, though, was a linen-cotton blend XL-proportioned suit. It featured doubled-up stripes in blue over a white body, as well as discreet double-breasted vertical piping in neon yellow. That sold itself and didn’t need the overly complicated backstory.
12 October 2016
Hwan Heo has a thing for history. And not always the happier moments—his collection for Spring, entitled “The Wall,” was inspired by the Great Depression, and his new offering takes cues from both the fall of the Berlin Wall and Wolfgang Tillmans’s images of cyberpunk bands of the era. Which isn’t to say that all this attention the past means that Heo isn’t forward-thinking. “The next 10 collections will be looking to explore new territory,” declared the designer via a written statement, “focusing on fashion tribes looking into the future, leaving fashion history behind with The wall.” And so his Fall collection, much like the breaking down of the Berlin Wall, was a culmination of sorts.It all came together in a long, lean, and vaguely retro silhouette meant to signify the cultural clash of Eastern and Western cultures, with graffiti and the German flag translated into tonally related neoprene, denim, and faux fur adorned with the occasional stripe or ruffled trim. These are clothes meant for kicking around in your urban locale rather than punk protests, but that’s not to their detriment. Where things worked best was in the outerwear, which was well tailored and easy to imagine in a contemporary wardrobe, whether it was the clever takes on the ubiquitous bomber; the narrow black vinyl jackets; or the longer woolen toppers in an acidic verdant shade, cinched at the waist with a navy faux-fur accent that turned up on other looks as a collar or cuff. As for the future, we’ll all just have to wait and see.
18 March 2016
Fashion history is Hwan Heo’s obsession. The Korean designer has a quite nerdy approach, considering his almost scholarly zeal in referencing a precise fashion decade for each collection: “I call it the Critique Collection Project because the process is close to a research or a study,” he said during a presentation of his Spring lineup. Every Critique Collection is numbered, like chapters in a fashion history book. He has already reached Critique Collection Project n.°9, which was dedicated to the Great Depression. Not a very lighthearted subject, but the designer was undeterred. He found a picture from the ’30s of a little girl working in a factory, imagining her dreaming of being free and playful instead of having to face such a harsh reality. Hence a collection where the severe tailoring of masculine workwear (in pursuit of historical truth, real cutting patterns of that era were used as references) was softened by the use of fun, feminine colors. Ribbons and strings added a gentle yet playful touch, allowing the outfits to be transformed in a constellation of diverse silhouettes, following the personal mood of the wearer. In another literal nod to the prohibitions of that time, not a bit of fabric was wasted. Instead of trimming the excess material, the ingenious Hwan Heo made it into a multitude of inventive shapes, leaving the ends loose and un-hemmed. Case in point was a voluminous coat in black-and-white houndstooth jacquard with an orange belt; apparently it was cut as a geometric square, but on closer inspection it revealed hidden “wings” made from uncut fabric, folding and cascading on the sides for a graceful ruffled effect.
15 October 2015
Not many designers are equipped with the nerve, to say nothing of the cultural background, to reference a postmodern French philosopher as an inspiration, but that's just what South Korean Hwan Heo did when looking for a name for his brand. "Simulation" comes straight from the ponderous tomeSimulacra and Simulationby Jean Baudrillard, who sought to analyze the relationships among symbols, signs, and contemporary society. Heo's approach is brainy and conceptual, almost erudite in its convoluted attention to art and fashion history both past and present, and to thephenomena, as he calls them, on which each collection is based.All that arcana aside, a close look at the collection revealed strong tailoring skills and a handiness with proportion and volume. Heo put a heap of references on show: the '90s minimalism of his teenage years; the urban restraint of Helmut Lang and Jil Sander; grunge and street culture; even the magic eye graphic craze from the era when the Internet first appeared. All of which translated into oversize, blown-up silhouettes with a hint of uniform dressing and utility hardware details. A jacket with exaggerated batwing kimono sleeves had a round, arched back and was worn with neat cropped boy pants, while '90s Levi's were the starting point for a pair of engineered, twisted pants built with spiraling cuts to achieve a curved effect. Shiny foil ribbon appliqués added a much-needed spontaneous touch to an interesting yet somewhat overintellectualized collection.
24 March 2015
There have been quite a few fashion collections inspired, at least in part, by the filmBlade Runner. Seoul-based designer Hwan Heo may have broken new ground this season, though, by riffing on the Philip K. Dick story the film was based on,Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?The most interesting looks in Heo's latest Heohwan Simulation collection did have a redolence of "electric sheep"—or, to be more accurate, electrified live ones. Anoraks and short A-line dresses and coats were covered in crazy-looking heaps and swirls of raffia; dangling bead and paillette trim made Heo's gamine lace frocks look like they'd been hooked up to a current. The fringe dangling off his striped knit dresses produced a similar effect, as well. But if Heo's sheep were shocked, it wasn't the other stuff on his runway (he shows in Milan) doing the shocking: The shapes here were pretty ho-hum, a nice enough gloss on the '60s, cut with the modern sporty attitude. They won't necessarily advance Heo's reputation on the global stage, although his sense of fabrication will help move his clothes on the sales floor. To wit, there was an elevation and a gentle touch of the unexpected in the pieces done in a sheer bonded lace, like the mint-toned, A-line trenchcoat, or the lace poncho in white. In a collection with a lot going on, the simplicity of those items served as a palate cleanser. There were plenty of solid ideas here, but the collection could have used an edit—or, to put it another way, a good shear.
9 October 2014
It is a fact that Hwan Heo is a Korean designer and that his young brand is based in Seoul. But is that information relevant? Heo studied design in London. He presented his first five collections there, and the latest he debuted in Milan. Beyond that, though, you wonder about the relevance of Heohwan Simulation's geographic origins because it's so difficult to locate anything specifically "Korean" about the label's clothes. They have an international passport, you might say. This season, for instance, Heo was riffing on the not-very-Korean themes of eighties metal bands and, er, Kant. As in Immanuel Kant, the 18th-century philosopher. The link between these two themes was both simple and hilarious: Metallica's second album is calledRide the Lightning, while Kant located beauty in the sublime of nature, e.g., awe-inspiring spectacles such as lightning. Duh. That translated into an appealing lightning motif through much of the collection, and lush floral prints and one collaged from the covers of old hair-metal albums. Apropos of the latter, this collection had a nice sense of fun—for all the rather dour black jackets and coats, with their cocoonish, Claude Montana-ish cuts, there were also pieces like a white leather bomber with black lace and fringe, which seemed the very apotheosis of late eighties L.A. groupie-chic. But then there were also items with a really artisanal loveliness, like those in a graphic, black-and-white wool fabric that seemed to be unraveling. All in all, this was a collection that showed a lot of promise—Heo hasn't quite defined himself yet, but he's full of good ideas and capable of making some very desirable clothes.
12 March 2014