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September 2018

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For Spring Summer 2019, Korean-born Central Saint Martins MA graduate, Rejina Pyo, showcased her sixth consecutive collection at London’s bi-annual Fashion Week, bringing sunshine to damp late September. Since launching her namesake fashion house in 2014, Pyo has built it on a ‘philosophy that explores dressing as an everyday phenomenon, both mundane and extraordinary.’ Offering contemporary, wearable, elegance to her consumers.

 

This season the Rejina Pyo collection evoked feelings of discovery and independence, the disorderly and irregular styling representing thirty-five women at thirty-five different moments in their life. Drawing from nostalgia the silhouettes are decisively angular, achieved through clinched waists, exaggerated tailoring and calculated tucks and drapes, all working in contrast to the often oversized loose fit of the garments and Pyo’s choice of fabric. Blush pink and tangerine orange jacquard silks, sheer florals, polka-dots, pink and green ostrich feathered trims and a hazy pastel plaid that featured across the collection. All of which combined, conveyed a free and resolutely feminine aura.

 

The collection also hints at youthfulness, with pieces that embrace playful independence, translated through print, shape and colour. Pyo’s muted sky blue, red-and-white plaid, cut into free flowing blouses and dresses and adorned with bows and ruffles, exemplifies this. As does the gaudy fruit print, which featured on a linen oversized collared shirt and an asymmetrical gathered skirt. Both prints were interpreted directly from clothing the designer wore as a teenager growing up in South Korea.

 

Pyo’s colour pallet is brave, with injections of lime green, candy orange and vibrant blue, paired with tonal pastel hues in silk and PVC. The designer’s close consideration of both colour and shape reflects inspiration from artists Marc Rothko and Angela de la Cruz, whose own work brings unexpected materials and colours together to create harmony.

 

Since beginning her career, Pyo has always used the work of artists as fundamental inspiration for her collections. Her Central Saint Martins graduate collection was influenced by Japanese wood sculptor Isamu Noguchi, which she referred back to this season when developing her footwear range.

 

For Spring Summer 2019, Pyo introduced sandals with sculptural hand carved wooden heels, using the same material, technique and shapes that enthused her back in 2011. The same inspiration was applied to her new line of handbags, which were also reminiscent of Noguchi’s sculptures, due to their geometric juxtaposed with free flowing structures.

 

The collection was also graced with embossed leather crocodile-print shoes and handbags, adorned with shells, a tribute to her own collection of keepsakes gathered from seashores, contributing further to the vein of innocence and nostalgia that runs throughout the collection.

 

Not only is Rejina Pyo Spring Summer 2019 wholly wearable and therefore profitable, positioning it aptly within today’s capital orientated sphere, it also acknowledges wider creative influences and translates them directly into the fabrics used and the shapes cut.

 

Pyo’s self-awareness using inspiration drawn from personal experiences, is also what ensures her work remains heard amongst the noise of today’s all consuming, fast-paced, digital age. The collection successfully looks back to a time where one could be truly experimental with finding forms of individual style, something that is a rarity within fashion today.