Rare spotlight put on Korea’s master draper

 
Along a slim alleyway close to exit 1 of Dongdaemun Station in central Seoul, garment factories are crowded collectively. They are the final surviving remnants of an business that helped Korea industrialize — and made Dongdaemun Korea’s style mecca.
 
Motorcycles nonetheless transport material and garments across the space. Many go by the Iumpium Sewing History Museum, arrange in 2018 to honor the legacy of Korea’s garment business.
 
On the third flooring, mannequins are donned in nameless white cotton attire, stylized silhouettes representing an business that thrived on selection. The attire on show are by 67-year-old Seo Wan-seok, Korea’s first master draper when it comes to Western apparel.
 

Cotton attire by Seo on show on the Iumpium Sewing History Museum. [JANG JIN-YOUNG]

 
An exhibition on this trailblazer, “The Pioneer of Draping in Korea; A Master-hand in Domestic Fashion Industry, Wan Seok Seo,” opened final October and runs by way of May 30. It shines a uncommon spotlight on drapers, additionally referred to as modelists or paeteonsa in Korean, who haven’t been broadly appreciated inside the native style business.
 
A draper is somebody who cuts material based mostly on a design, considers sizes and physique shapes, and makes garments truly match a human physique; a course of dubbed “modelling after the patterns.”
 
The draper is the craftsman who makes a designer’s plan into actuality.Specifically, Seo is an professional of three-dimensional patterns.
 
Two-dimensional patterns, additionally referred to as “flat patterns,” are acquainted from movies. A design is first drawn on a chunk of paper, which is pinned on a size of fabric, and the reducing begins. Three-dimensional patterns, Seo’s specialty, are extra complicated. Fabric is pinned immediately on mannequins, respecting the curves of the human physique. In this manner, a garment is delivered to life.
 

“Draping is simply as necessary because the design on the subject of making good garments,” mentioned Seo. [JANG JIN-YOUNG]

 
After graduating from highschool, Seo attended the Kookje Fashion Academy (later renamed the Kookje Fashion Design Occupational Training College) in Myeongdong, central Seoul and began working as a draper in 1974. Seo was within the business from the daybreak of Korean ready-made clothes, for the reason that clothes firm Shinwon was based in 1973 and Bando Fashion (now LF) in 1974.
 
“Back then, folks acquired their garments custom-made on the tailor’s relatively than [buying] ready-made garments,” mentioned Seo throughout an interview with the JoongAng Ilbo, an affiliate of the Korea JoongAng Daily.
 
“I began working at a boutique in Myeongdong, and the idea of a designer was not widespread on the time. So the drapers referred to magazines to make all the garments.” 
 

Works by Seo on show on the Iumpium Sewing History Museum. Draping brings curves of the human physique and the feel of the material to life. [IUMPIUM SEWING HISTORY MUSEUM]

 
In the early stage of Seo’s profession, flat patterns have been how garments have been made by the Korean garment business. Seo had been working as a draper for a couple of decade when he heard about three-dimensional patterns at a seminar. He grew to become satisfied that the age of draping would quickly emerge, and went to Japan to review at Tokyo’s Vantan Design Institute in 1982.
 
He got here again to Seoul in 1984 and opened his Draping Laboratory in Myeongdong.He gave technical steerage to home garment corporations equivalent to LF and Cheil Industries and devoted himself to elevating the subsequent era of drapers.
 
Seo was seen by the style business in 1997 when he submitted ten draping works to the primary Seoul Fashion Week. In 2004, he was named Korea’s 379th master artisan of style design by a presidential decree. He is Korea’s first and solely master draper. 
 
Draping is as necessary as design on the subject of making good garments, Seo says.
 
“Sometimes the garments look all proper, however are uncomfortable for some motive or don’t have a phenomenal form whenever you truly put on them,” Seo says. “It’s a matter of draping relatively than design.”  
 

Works by Seo on show on the Iumpium Sewing History Museum. [IUMPIUM SEWING HISTORY MUSEUM]

 
Seo laments that Korea nonetheless treats drapers as nothing greater than technical staff. He says there are lots of circumstances of draper-turned-designers overseas, most notably Tunisian designer Azzedine Alaïa, who based the ladies’s style model Alaïa.
 
“Designers who’re expert at draping typically create their very own distinctive silhouettes,” Seo says. “The motive that Korea does not have many world-class designers is as a result of there is a lack of expertise of draping.”  
 
The normal of gorgeous clothes adjustments relying on the occasions, and the typical physique form has modified too. It’s the draper’s job to appropriately replicate these adjustments on garments.
 
“When you have a look at ladies’s trousers right now, the aspect seam has come out ahead so much in comparison with the previous, as a result of now they need their bottoms to look thicker and thighs to look slimmer. Koreans’ physique shapes have additionally modified; their limbs have been getting longer,” says Seo.
 
Suit manufacturers are declining, and informal put on equivalent to sweatshirts, denims and t-shirts have develop into fashionable among the many public. But, Seo says, “the significance of draping stays the identical.” In reality, silhouettes are extra necessary on the subject of informal put on, since a small distinction could make garments look dishevelled.
 

Fashion model 10MONTH’s best-selling merchandise MasterMatch go well with, which Seo helped create. [10MONTH]

 
Seo just lately collaborated with Shinsegae International’s on-line unique style model 10MONTH. The model focuses on garments which can be snug however nonetheless have trendy silhouettes, which is why they requested Seo to assist. The MasterMatch go well with, which Seo helped create, is 10MONTH’s best-selling merchandise.     
 
As somebody who labored with garments for 4 a long time, Seo advises folks to “have a look at the interior lining” in the event that they need to select good garments.
 
“If you have a look at international luxurious manufacturers, the end of the liner is impeccable. If the liner is a large number, the interior and outer materials do not stretch collectively when the wearer strikes, which causes discomfort even when you use good material on the skin.”
 
Since many individuals purchase garments on-line, which makes them unable to the touch the garments earlier than buy, Seo says “look to see if the garments keep a very good silhouette whether or not it is on a hanger, model, or particular person.”
 

10MONTH focuses on garments which can be snug however nonetheless have trendy silhouettes, which is why they requested Seo’s assist. [10MONTH]

 
As a residing witness to the Korean style enterprise, Seo didn’t neglect some laborious truths concerning the business.
 
“In the previous, folks purchased garments from Dongdaemun Market and bought them in China. These days, they purchase garments from Guangzhou and promote them in Dongdaemun,” suggesting that Korea’s garment business has misplaced its aggressive benefit.
 
“The common age of garment professionals can be getting increased due to poor remedy [since fewer younger people are willing to enter the industry]. There needs to be a profound help system if we wish Ok-fashion to develop.”
 
BY YOO JI-YOEN   [[email protected]]