Wooyoungmi FW25 at Paris Men’s Fashion Week

Wooyoungmi FW25 / Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 at Paris Men’s Fashion Week

Elegance is a frame of mind and body. Empowered by the way we dress, it is a mentality expressed in consideration, compassion and calm. For Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 / FW25, Wooyoungmi venerates elegance as a compass for a new way of seeing and being. Ch’ŏrhak is the Korean word for philosophy. Meaning “how to become wiser”, its reflections are founded in self-cultivation: being the best we can be for others by improving the way we carry ourselves. Applied to visual expression, it portrays appearance as a kind of courtesy: dressing as a form of self-discipline that promotes diplomacy, decency and dignity in ourselves and our surroundings.

With classical ideas of “proper dressing” as its foundation, the collection explores new expressions of elegance through the eyes of future generations shaped by more progressive dress codes. The polished surface of the sharp dinner suit – a traditional epitome of grace – bursts into romantic tonal flower formations echoed in coats and shirting. Interrupting the line while enhancing a feeling of poetry, the fabric flowers provide a sense of ceremony likewise reflected in casual knitwear infused with floral motifs and textures as gestures of formality through different artisanal techniques.

Details of Wooyoungmi Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 / FW25, outerwear – greatcoats, trench coats, Crombie coats, parkas – is employed as frameworks of elegance: structures that empower the silhouette and, in turn, the spirit. They appear in the reassuring materials of the heritage wardrobe elated by brightly-coloured shearling lapels. Little tailored jackets informed by those of ceremonial wardrobes are fashioned in tactile materials as a dressed-up generational alternative to the traditional suit jacket. Coats and jackets constructed in leather, suede or shearling amplifies the expression of classic wardrobe staples.

Workwear splices with tailoring in manifestations of utilitarian elegance: coats, suits and shirts structured with cargo pockets posing as epaulettes, chest pockets, and elbow and knee patches. Sportswear and silhouettes inspired by those of extreme sports are translated into padded and graphic knitwear that enhances the posture as well as zippy nylon and leather trousers that cut a majestic line. Elevated out of the loungewear wardrobe, knitted long-johns take the place of sweatpants as an elegant proposal for everyday casual-wear.

Minhwa, the Korean folk art of the Chosun era (1392-1910), adorns garments throughout the collection. An eternal expression of elegance, the landscape drawings are chaotic in essence but exude an overriding calm embodied by their delicate colours and the harmonious nature of the motifs. Employed as a sentiment of finding order in disorder, original minhwa works are deconstructed and reconstructed into a découpage, which is printed on puffer garments, linings, long-johns and bags.

A riff on the shoes of ceremonial wardrobes, lace-up derbies, Chelsea boots and block-heel shoes in leather are encased in tonal leather harnesses. Duffle bags and backpacks are crafted in the materials of the collection as well as in the minhwa motif. Knitted scarves imitate the narrow sophistication of tuxedo scarves, while knitted mittens connected by strings dangle from the sleeves and assume an ornamental effect. Caps – a sportswear trope – are reimagined as elegant hats. The Wooyoungmi Fall Winter 2025 – 2026 / FW25 show is presented in the palatial salons of Hôtel de Maisons to the energetic elegance of concertos.