Designer Discovery: Yegang Yoo

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Newly emerging Korean-born designer Yegang Yoo began her career in high fashion at Y&Kei in Seoul, Korea after earning a B.A. in Clothing and Textiles at Seoul National University. She moved to New York in 2000 to attend Parsons School of Design, receiving a B.F.A. in Fashion, and it was at Parsons that Yegang’s development of strong draping and patternmaking skills began to evolve into her unique design identity.

Drawn to the less commercial, conceptual fashion world, Yegang soon traveled to London to join Hussein Chalayan’s studio for six months, and thereafter that of Jens Laugesen. Working in these small, innovative environments, she realized that a strong focus on patternmaking and draping would be the key to producing the inventive and well-made garments she sought after. To pursue this line of thought, Yegang spent the next several years fine-tuning these skills, creating patterns for Vena Cava, Rachel Comey, Elise Overland, H Fredriksson, and many others.

Yegang introduced her first official collection for Autumn/Winter 2008-9, breaking onto the scene with a geometric-themed set of garments. The pieces were centered around a distinct asymmetry in construction, both in the relationship of adjoining patterns as well as in the playful combination of differently weighted and textured fabrics.

For the Spring/Summer 2009, Yegang is presenting a more extensive collection of uniquely draped pieces, which are again heavily drawn toward geometric concepts, but themed more toward the architecture of each piece as a whole. The brilliance of the pieces in the Spring/Summer 2009 collection is that Yegang, enabled by her finely tuned skills in draping and patternmaking, seamlessly sculpts these complex asymmetries into garments that appear at once both minimal and precise.

Her unique international aesthetic and quilted custom-made print pieces add to the collection’s distinctive voice. Each garment in the collection holds its own profile and character, allowing for an effortless complimenting of different body shapes. The pieces are highly wearable, functional, and replete with unforeseen bursts of intricacy.