Turns out prosperity can be accessorised. Wooyoungmi’s FW27 is built around heung: the Korean idea of joy, spontaneity, and rhythm. We can’t tell exactly where it is the Wooyoungmi model is going, as it’s very “beach at 1, quarterly review at 2.” They combine pastel blazers with shorts, breezy open blouses, and oversized totes that could hold either a laptop or a towel. But we always return to HR-approved territory: closed-toe shoes, ties, chinos, mini argyle cardigans. It’s prep school by way of the coast, where PTO and PTO requests exist in the same outfit.
Importantly, there’s a touch of Korean symbolism throughout the collection, like pockets of optimism stitched into the clothes. A bit of sunshine you can carry around. The cranes, for instance, aren’t just birds, they’re lifted from minhwa, the Korean folk painting tradition, where they symbolize longevity, freedom, and good fortune. Lotus motifs appear too, symbolising a flower that blooms from mud without carrying any of it, long associated with purity. Then there are Sipjangsaengdo references (pine trees, mountains, cranes, deer, all those traditional emblems of resilience and prosperity) reworked into cheerful, instinctively lucky graphics. The leather charms riff on norigae, the traditional ornaments worn with hanbok—not just pretty trinkets, but tiny talismans meant to bring protection, luck, and longevity.
Sometimes a collection just casually carries the feeling of a really good day. Sometimes that good day is because your outfit has quietly been wishing you luck the whole time.
Photography by Kasper Jernhag
