LFW Report: Gyo Yuni Kimchoe
Fifties Teddy boy culture and Buddhist monk attire were the main ideas behind Gyo Yuni Kimchoe’s SS16 collection Enlightened Rebel.
The looks avoided the trap of becoming simple pastiche of the era’s counter culture with the addition of the duo’s favoured ruffles and military details. A faded red polo shirt had contrasting collar and patch pockets with polished metal buttons and was worn with paper bag-waisted jeans with patches of denim in varying tones on each thigh.
More obviously military-inspired looks followed. Army green suits with shoulder lapels and Asian style collars featured appliquéd swirling clouds in sky blue and camp print, and the combination of trailing lines of ruffles and buttoned pockets on a green satin tank dress worked, the femininity of the former sitting nicely with the latter.
That was the first half. It was the second half of the show where we saw the ‘enlightenment’, which one assumes, took the form of traditional Chinese brocades with swirling clouds, dragons and floral motifs, though dresses, suits and coats in glossy emerald green, black and blood red retained the military influence.
A spaghetti strap dress was fastened with two rows of buttons down the torso before a hem of fiery ruffles flared out at the hip; red creepers, choker and quiff styling held onto the rebel spirit of the first half. Ruffles circled the upper arms of jackets with Asian-style sleeves that flared out. Head to toe brocade suits in royal yellow and electric blue had fitted army jackets or wrap over versions that tied at the side – not for wallflowers, and if anything, these later ensembles seemed to reference the Orient at its most opulent rather than the asceticism of Buddhism.
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