In the lower levels of the Horim Art Center in Sinsa is a bright white gallery space that smells like freshly ripped packaging tape. The floor has been covered with rolls of it, marked with the motto for 87MM’s Spring 2018 collection: Mr. Tired, a playful nod to the fatigue built into Fashion Week. “The 87MM staff is Mr. Tired, the models are Mr. Tired, the guests are Mr. Tired,” designer Won Joong Kim explained. “I wanted to play with that tired feeling this time.”
It is the first off-site presentation from the men’s label run by models Kim and Jiwoon Park, and by leaving the confines of the DDP show venue, the duo were able to fine-tune their vision and better create their clean, casual menswear. Guests shrugged one by one into white atelier work coats to take in the collection, and models stood on small white platforms holding Jensen tape recorders at their side. Some played odd ambient screeching, others a series of loose jazz piano riffs. Three models walked around the room in polo shirts holding silver trays with white sneakers on them. One portion of the gallery space was filled with white sand, and all of it was lit by round halos of light, meant to mimic the blinding sun after an all-nighter. Every so often, they would blink on and off, a cue for the models to soundlessly rotate around the room.
“Rather than tailoring, we did more of a relaxed fit and silhouette this time,” Kim said. There were loose gray suits with a single button and a white graphic tee, worn with pants cropped to the tops of slightly lopsided socks. The fabric was pleasantly soft and had a slight wrinkle to it, only visible from close up. “Maybe Mr. Tired is too busy, so his clothes get wrinkled, or your socks are worn a bit crooked,” he said. The palette was rather minimal, save for some violent grape coats, and new for the brand this season was a clever trompe l’oeil print. It looked like the thick braided yarn of an après-ski sweater, some woven like jumping white rabbits, but done on a thin nylon. “Some overseas brands are trying buy-now-wear-now, putting out Fall in fall and Spring in spring,” Kim said. “We can’t do that, but wanted to play with a fabric that looks like a winter knit, but is on a lighter spring fabric.” It was fun, well edited, and not overwrought—perhaps 87MM’s strongest yet; definitely the right direction to go.
