It all fit together for South Korean designer Kiminte Kimhekim, who for fall played with his past and cued up hints of his greatest hits.
First looks of reworked denim and topsy-turvy trenches recalled his days as a student scouring vintage stores and were an ode to upcycling, before he moved into a more solid state of core collection pieces.
The looks were grounded in black and white with bright pops of red and filled with small touches of whimsy, say fuzzy trainers as part of his Asics collaboration or a faux-fur minidress for nights out as a sexy yeti. Chubby laces tied upside down on brogues were another off-kilter touch. He wove these signature touchstones of fur and bows through the collection without overpowering any one look.
He knows how to play on the runway and often toys with nostalgia. This season that resulted in the introduction of a bag based on the game of Tetris. Handcrafted by artisans at Seoul’s Bag Research Institute, the design is a series of bags that can fit together like puzzle pieces. It’s a clever rethink of shape and use in our accessory-obsessed era, and the motif carried through on shirt pockets in the coed collection.
Elsewhere pearls, another recurring favorite, dotted denim and hung from sunglasses, while suits had a subtle sparkles. But most of the collection was monochrome with contrasting collars or pockets on strong outerwear, houndstooth suiting and other soft neutrals of khaki and cloud gray.
Empty seats in the carved out, cavernous former C&A store on Rue de Rivoli were not an error, as models popped out of the lineup and took spots among the audience to watch the runway show, which added another fun, unexpected element to Kimhekim’s work.
Kimhekim opened a Cheongdam flagship last year, which has honed his instinct for salable items, a success he hopes to replicate: Plans are in the works to open his Paris flagship later this year.
