HEOHWAN SIMULATION 16 F/W FILM _ the Wall

Hwan Heo has a thing for history. And not always the happier moments—his collection for Spring, entitled “The Wall,” was inspired by the Great Depression, and his new offering takes cues from both the fall of the Berlin Wall and Wolfgang Tillmans’s images of cyberpunk bands of the era.

Which isn’t to say that all this attention the past means that Heo isn’t forward-thinking. “The next 10 collections will be looking to explore new territory,” declared the designer via a written statement, “focusing on fashion tribes looking into the future, leaving fashion history behind with The wall.” And so his Fall collection, much like the breaking down of the Berlin Wall, was a culmination of sorts.

It all came together in a long, lean, and vaguely retro silhouette meant to signify the cultural clash of Eastern and Western cultures, with graffiti and the German flag translated into tonally related neoprene, denim, and faux fur adorned with the occasional stripe or ruffled trim. These are clothes meant for kicking around in your urban locale rather than punk protests,

but that’s not to their detriment. Where things worked best was in the outerwear, which was well tailored and easy to imagine in a contemporary wardrobe, whether it was the clever takes on the ubiquitous bomber; the narrow black vinyl jackets; or the longer woolen toppers in an acidic verdant shade, cinched at the waist with a navy faux-fur accent that turned up on other looks as a collar or cuff. As for the future, we’ll all just have to wait and see.

HEOHWAN SIMULATION is a London-based Womenswear label established by Korean-born designer Hwan Heo. Royal College of Arts (RCA) graduate, Hwan Heo created the brand’s vision for the next 10 years is to showcase “The Critique Collection Project” where the theme for each collection stems from Hwan’s experimental artwork and geopolitical aestheticism. Studying the fashion hisory and phenomenon from 1920 to 1990s and observing contemporary fashion, Hwan develops and rebuilds his own fashion statement.

Heohwan Simulation