Wooyoungmi Review of the Spring 2025 Runway, Fashion Show and Ready-to-Wear Collection

South Korean designer Woo Young Mi constantly explores the East-West push-pull exchange of ideas through her collections.

This season, she looked to the style of “ABKs,” or American-born Koreans, and their inherent blend of college prep, California surfer, and sporty styles that in turn influenced Korean fashion.

She brought these references together with a slim silhouette that recalled vintage football uniforms and traditional East Asian cowboys with high-waisted cropped pants with pleats at the knees, padding at the thighs and lacing at the waist. The shape of the football was highlighted in men’s sleeveless button-down shirts with strong pointed shoulders, which then tie to the body in a fashionable bojagi-bow style.

Baseball jerseys and varsity jackets bore the only visible logos, with the brand debuting a scrawled WYM based on traditional calligraphy on the latter. Woo maintained a youthful style by working with a color palette consisting primarily of neutral beiges, blues, and blacks. The tranquility was broken by the almost shocking combination of rust and red, but it worked in harmony against the deep V of a sleek knit dress.

Elsewhere, she referenced the Korean countryside in tapestries of lush landscapes transformed into beautiful coats, jackets and zip-front shorts for men and skirt suits for women. The craft of crochet created layered jerseys and shorts, worn over buttons and pants.

Woo harnesses the rich harmony of both worlds and infuses it with a modern energy that never leans on nostalgia or overdoes his deft hand with distractions. The setting of the Collège des Bernadins was grandiose and gave a ceremonial air to the show, with the hypnotic rhythm of traditional singing bowls providing the soundtrack to the models parading under the medieval arches for emotional effect.

For more Paris Men’s Spring 2025 reviews, click here.