BEYOND CLOSET 2016 Fall Winter Collection – BROMANCE. Photographed by Justin. Written by 알렌.
Ko Tae Yong’s talent in delighting the public with his fun, preppy and almost toy like street wear creations reminds one of a young and ambitious Japanese savant Nigo during his heyday as chief designer for BAPE. In an interview with the Korea Times, designer Ko Tae Yong does hint that BAPE was a major influence for his street brand Beyond Closet. BAPE store locations were notoriously hard to find in Japan, but once found, one couldn’t help but marvel at this genius marketing tactic and feel immensely proud of the fact that you had indeed found the store after an hour of searching. Like BAPE, the Beyond Closet brand has a strong following among cool hunting youth, even young women can be seen strutting his signature brand of street cred cool. “Gae-T’s”(Gae means dog) , colorful graphic tees with cute uniformed dogs are extremely popular items among women, the items from his runway are limited edition enough to invoke pride in owning a piece from his highly sought after collection.
Ko Tae Yong’s shows are some of the best produced at Seoul Fashion Week, from rebellious youth emerging from a brilliant classroom set piece, to Korean model Park Hyeong Seop getting out of a gull wing Mercedes, always full of spectacle are infused with innate cool and KPOP star levels of chutzpah, the runways are fueled with masculinity and and adrenaline. For the 2016 Fall Winter Season, the designer channels the term”Bromance”, a term for boys hanging out. Flamboyant, leopard printed jackets feel like they are taken straight out of the Miami night club scene Devilishly winged french bull dogs and Miami style bar sign signature patches on slickly tailored, jackets round out the collection to create a boozed up, luxurious boys night out in finely tailored swag, preppy velvet coats, and extravagant leather. I personally had the pleasure of attending the grand opening of designer Ko Tae Yong’s launch of his Beyond Closet store in Sinsa some years ago, and was impressed not just by the fun clothes but by his business savvy as I walked out with a Boy Scout inspired olive green uniform with “Boy Scouts of Beyond Closet” scrawled in black on the back, and noticed that the designer hand ink stamped in purple, his logo individually on every bag.
