Y2K trend looks set to continue into 2023, along with ageless styles
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Loading... - Jong-soo Kym
- 03 Apr 2023
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Girl group NewJeans has been deemed a symbol of Y2K aesthetics since its debut.
After three years of the pandemic, 2022 finally seemed to offer a light at the end of the tunnel. However, after years of athleisure dominating the fashion scene and a shift to the online world, particularly the metaverse, many were left wondering what would happen to the local industry.
But it didn't take long for fashionistas and designers to find their groove again and jump back from the online world into the real world. Seongsu-dong in Seongdong District, eastern Seoul, is Korea’s newest fashion mecca, becoming the most-tagged district on Instagram. Seoul Fashion Week made a full return as an in-person event after a lengthy hiatus. Athletic wear, like golf wear, saw a brief surge in popularity. People were nostalgic for the past, which brought Y2K looks back to the forefront.
The domestic fashion industry saw a sharp recovery. Samsung Fashion Research and Development Team reported that accumulated sales for 2022 increased by 5.4 percent compared with the previous year, resulting in a sales volume of 41.7 trillion won ($32.8 billion). Based on the results of 2022, a number of fashion-related companies recently revealed their insights into what to expect in 2023 — the year of the black rabbit.
Brands took the furry, long-eared creatures and incorporated them into their new garments in fun ways. Many brands have already released rabbit-themed collections, including high-end luxury brands Dior and Ferragamo. J-Hope of BTS was spotted at the airport on Monday donning a white sweater embroidered with a bunny face from Dior's Lunar collection made in collaboration with designer ERL. He had just performed on ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” in New York on Dec. 31, 2022.
Ferragamo’s Lunar New Year collection is strikingly red, “infusing a contemporary charm into the classical imagery of Chinese symbolic tradition,” its website states. T-shirts and bags are covered in images of blood-red rabbit eyes made from silk materials. The rabbit theme extends to more casual brands, like Calvin Klein or TheOpen Product, the latter a local company. Girl group NewJeans and Joo Woo-jae, a model-turned-entertainer, all wore black TheOpen Product T-shirts with rabbit prints in a YouTube video together earlier this week. Read More…
