Hyein Seo’s Incredible Designs #

November 6, 2025
Boulangerie Christophe

I have been recently quite captivated by the designs and work of Hyein Seo. In part, this is due to a greater level of interest in avant garde fashion that I have been feeling. The term “avant garde” can seemingly refer to just about anything depending on who you are talking to and what you are talking about, so I will try my best to refrain from using that term going forward, but in certain contexts, it might be the only phrase I can reach for to describe this general aesthetic of work. Regardless, what I want to do is push myself in the way I dress in other directions, and I have found Hyein Seo to be excellent at helping me.

The first collection I discovered was Spring Summer 2024’s Blue Hour. I came to really like it because of its world building, which I think is pretty evident in looking at the collection. There are themes and ideas here taken from science fiction, athletics, and streetwear (loaded though that term may be), all of which play together to produce something both very futuristic (in how we imagine it through the lens of fiction) and very understandable in our current moment (in how it would sit very well in a modern athletic wardrobe).

Spring/Summer 2024, look 8 — Spring Summer 2024, Look 8. The man on the left is wearing a tight white mock neck t-shirt top, it is slightly translucent in certain parts, particularly at small slits in the back. There is a white strap that runs off the shirt at the bottom right and reconnects into the shirt nearer the front. It is tucked into black pants. The woman on the right is wearing a white hooded windbreaker and a black skirt. Pulled from Hyein Seo SS24.

Spring/Summer 2024, look 15 — Spring Summer 2024, Look 30. A man is wearing a dark grey zip up windbreaker that is zipped up to his neck. It appears to have darts going down the chest on both sides of the zipper. He is wearing wide black trousers with Nike Ava Rover shoes. Pulled from Hyein Seo SS24.

This was one of the few collections which I was able to share with somebody who had no interest in fashion and see them connect with the collection. A lot of them also appeared to understand some of the aesthetic choices. Perhaps this is in part due to many of my friends working in technology (and the stereotypical relationship with sci-fi), but such is the same. I felt that a lot of the garments I was looking at were taking cues from science fiction films I had watched in my youth, and then re-interpreting them to present them as athletic garments one could wear just to go out for a bike ride or a run. I really like how they’ve managed to take some ideas that would otherwise be very costume-y, but made them realistic clothes that fit a use and just look really cool, while being rather simple in nature. Nothing here is extremely complicated in design, there are certainly interesting flourishes here and there, but visually, the garments look uncluttered and clean, which I think helps to enhance the sci-fi theme I’m feeling. All of this works in tandem to make what are otherwise big steps forward in fashion (for someone who has spent much time on the shallow end of the pool) seem much easier and much more comfortable.

However, Hyein Seo hasn’t explored just futurism, in fact she has a recurring theme of rebellion in many of her collections. It was, in fact, one of the original ideas she discussed through her clothes, as it was present as part of her graduate collection from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp in 2014, which she titled “BAD EDUCATION”.

Hyein Seo's Graduate Look 1 — Look 1 from Hyein Seo's 2014 graduate collection. It shows a girl wearing an oversized dark grey t-shirt layered underneath a black strapped dress with eyelets peppered throughout the bust and strap (I think). There are what appear to be gem shaped tassels right below the bust, and further below that appears to be a grey pinstripe cloth with navy blue ribbons across tied at the waist. There is text on the ribbons, but they are hard to make out. The model is wearing a black netted shroud on her face with a gold tiara on her head. Pulled from The Antwerp Fashion Department's Tumblr.

Spring/Summer 2015 — Spring Summer 2015. This appears to be the same as the collection Hyein Seo showed at Antwerp, but presented on her brand's website as part of SS15. It shows a girl wearing an oversized grey suit that is draping outwards from her. The grey color of the suit is a very generic, business-like shade, which has been paired with a pink shirt and black slides with the word "LOSER" written across the tab. There is also a white paper bandana around the girls forehead with the words "SCHOOL RUINED[...]", presumably with the following text "MY LIFE". Pulled from Hyein Seo SS15.

One thing I want to mention here is that if you look through the graduate collection, a lot of the garments there feel very much so of a more modern Belgian fashion tradition. Many of these clothes and themes here are easier to follow and understand, but I feel that these clothes would be seen in the wardrobe of someone interested in the more avant garde side of fashion. While the core of her more recent clothes are still of this ilk, they are much more approachable for others. To me, while the clothes in this collection look really cool, they aren’t necessarily something I would wear top down. On the other hand, I could see myself wearing almost anything from her more recent collections.

All the same, I really like the graduate collection. A lot of the looks here bridge the gap between something child-like and something more senior. The look above with the grey suit does that perfectly, by taking a very business garment that we don’t typically associate with youth, and then manipulating it with details that feel more youthful and joke-y (and, of course, with very oblique text). My imagining is that the goal of these clothes is to express the sort of nihilism a lot of students get when presented with what they are working towards and sort of speaking to that aspect of youth rebellion. I can see that here, and of course, it comes up a lot in later collections as well.

Hyein Seo's FW17 — A look from Fall Winter 2017 - "Final Boss". The model here is wearing an oversized pale yellow sweater with long sleeves that has long seatbelt-like strands coming off random parts of the torso. It is worn over black leather pants and black athletic shoes. Pulled from Hyein Seo FW17.

Hyein Seo's FW18 — Three looks from Fall Winter 2018 - "Waste Land". There is a group of three models. The one on the left is wearing an all black ensemble with the shoulders jutting off her top in a very structural way. The one in the middle is wearing a long quilted military green bomber jacket over a long black athletic tee with a drawstring and black pants. The one on the right is wearing a large green puffer jacket over a black ruffled turtleneck and black pants. Pulled from Hyein Seo FW18.

Hyein Seo's FW19 — A look from Fall Winter 2019 - "Save Yourself". There is a group of many models wearing students' uniforms in a variety of disheveled states. Many have cigarettes in their hands along with cigarette boxes in their chest pockets. Pulled from Hyein Seo FW19.

The looks above, along with a great deal of Hyein Seo’s other collections and looks, exemplify rebellion. This theme is present in all of her collections, even the most recent collection (FW25, “Midnight Riders”) has a smidge of it in there. I think that as time has gone on, Hyein Seo has gotten better at worldbuilding and showcasing the idea of rebellion. When I was initially looking through some of her earlier collections, the theme seemed a bit heavy handed. Cigarettes, for instance, were a common object used throughout many collections to symbolize the idea of rebellion, but they were occasionally used so much (like in FW19, “Save Yourself”) that it felt almost self-referential. Overusing a symbol can make it sometimes like a shortcut to making some kind of statement, but I think there is more power in using it sparingly and conscisely.

Besides cigarettes, another common object in her collections is motorcycles. These also typify youth rebellion, but I like how they are occasionally used to bridge the gap into other themes and ideas that Hyein Seo might be discussing.

In the above looks, for instance, we can see a blending of youth rebellion with something of the aesthetics of futurism. To some degree, this collection reminds me of the film Akira, with the biker suits the models are wearing and their shape (and the motorcycle, of course). When I first saw these clothes and the way they were presented, I liked how they took the initial themes of rebellion that she started with and took that towards a theme that I am more familiar with, through her more current work. This collection reminded me of what first got me interested in Hyein Seo, while also showcasing just some really cool clothes and introducing me further to the themes permeating all her work.

Hyein Seo's FW25 — A look from Fall Winter 2025 - "Midnight Riders". The model here is wearing a slim white mock neck top (I think) with sleeves that stretch over her hands. It is tucked into some white biker shorts that appear to flow up and outwards, almost like a collar accentuating the waist. It's a bit hard to tell exactly what is going on here, thanks to the greyscale photo. Pulled from Hyein Seo FW25.

Here is another futuristic look featuring a motorcycle. This one feels to be primarily of the theme of futurism and sci-fi as opposed to rebellion with the shaping and the athletic nature of the clothes (or at least, top). This look is more akin to the clothes I showed at the top of this article, but that is partly the case because this is the most recent collection, being from Fall Winter 2025. There are still smidges of rebellion in some of the outfits in this this lookbook, but its mostly personified through things like biker jackets, leather cafe racers, and motorcycles, which is fairly different from the more standard “moody youths sulking around in aesthetically appropriate clothing” in the other collections.

The above looks (or imagery), on the other hand, are much more similar to the typical youth rebellion image we might have in our heads in the present moment. This feels both very current and like something I’ve probably seen, either in real life or in a movie. This collection is very reminscent of her inital collections, in that it is purely focused on youth rebellion, but this one feels much more obviously to be about that. Everything from the students’ uniforms, to the undone and disheveled nature of the way in which they wear them, and the motorcycles and cigarettes - it’s very clear what we are meant to see.

I personally think that the collections she has put out with more varied elements, touching on ideas both within and outside of youth rebellion, have been some of her strongest. For instance, I really liked Spring Summer 2019, “White Noise”, even though it was a notable departure from previous collections of hers in aesthetic and style.

Hyein Seo's SS19 — Three looks from Spring Summer 2019 - "White Noise". These are all achromatic looks. The model on the left is wearing a black athletic sleeveless crop top with separate black sleeves. It is worn with black fringed pants that have a fringed slit going across one leg. The look in the middle is all white, with a large oversized white mock neck top with black stripes on the raglan sleeves. The model is also wearing a black crossbody bag with a large hook holding it in place. The model on the right is wearing a black tube top with a white asymmetrical sleeve with eyelets and shoelace going through the arm-side. It is worn with a white baseball cap and black pants with some sort of strap with latches going across the front of the legs. Pulled from Hyein Seo SS19.

It goes as no surprise that I like achromatic looks, and I think that these are done really well. This appears to be the first collection in which the clothes are heavily or only achromatic, and part of that leads you to focus on other aspects of these clothes, like the silhouette, the accessorizing, and the negative space (or the space between clothes). This allows her more interesting ideas (like the white sleeve with laces and holes in the rightmost look above) to shine. These outfits also feel less costume-y to me, in comparison to certain older looks. While some of the looks in her older collections do express one idea really well, some of them feel very much so of a fictional world, and as such seem hard to imagine in real life. These looks, however, though they may be complex, feel very real to me.

While there doesn’t appear to be much obvious use of futurism or sci-fi in the looks of this collection, I think the idea of having achromatic or muted colors and focusing on the subversive aspects of each garment is present in all of her future collections (as we start to see more futurism). That focus along with these new ideas have created some of my favorite looks of hers.

Hyein Seo's FW21 — Three looks from Fall Winter 2021 - "Of Walking in Ice". These are three looks with larger shapes and wider silhouettes. The look on the left is an all black, techwear like outfit, with a mask like aspect of the jacket covering the model's mouth and a black hood jutting over their head. The model in the middle is wearing a large tube-like puffer vest in a greige color over a grey hooded jacket that looks much like the jacket on the left. The model on the right is wearing a black jacket zipped up to the neck with dark grey detailing on the body. Pulled from Hyein Seo FW21.

This above picture, for example, comes from a collection that takes some of those principles and combines it with themes of both the future and also of a post-apocalyptic world. In part, this has to do with the setting feeling very desolate, but I think it also comes through in the clothes. Part of that is just cultural association in which I associate the clothes with. The puffer vest worn in the middle, for example, feels post-apocalyptic because of the greyish brown color and large sizing. The black hooded jacket on the left covers so much of the face and head (and nose in particular), that it feels like it exists to block off toxins from the outdoors. There is futurism in the techwear-like feeling of these clothes, but thanks to the setting and some other thematic adjustments to the clothes themselves, the environment also feels post-apocalyptic.

Hyein Seo's FW22 — Two looks from Fall Winter 2022 - "Nausicaä". Both are all white with some natural off-white and grey-like colors. They both look very natural (as in "of nature", not "relaxed") and like they come from a futuristic society that is very connected with nature. Pulled from Hyein Seo FW22.

The above looks are also very futuristic, but this time also very much of nature. I think part of this is thanks to the name of the collection, “Nausicaä”, giving a lot away. Nausicaä to me primarily refers to the Ghibli film, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, but it could also be in reference to the character in Homer’s Odyssey. Given the fact that these clothes and settings appear to be “of nature”, I think we can say that it probably more closely aligns with the film, which makes sense to me, because all of these clothes look like they could easily have been pulled straight from the movie itself. They feel like something you would wear in a far off post-nuclear future where nature has taken over. Certainly the setting that was chosen to take these photos in helps to elicit that theme, but the odd shapes of certain garments, and the colors that looks like they have taken on the patina of nature, and even the occasional random additions to some clothes (like string coming off the torso of a jacket and skirt or the scarf draped across a person’s neck with pockets for your hands) feel just right in that world.

Something else I want to highlight about this collection and the previous is that, even though they are both very much of a fictional theme, again, neither feels costume-y to me. The designs speak to something one could wear without feeling like they are auditioning for a movie. I think that the ideas explored through these clothes don’t need to be subjected to fiction, I can see myself or somebody else wearing that white hooded jacket on the left in the picture above, and while it would certainly be a very avant garde move, it wouldn’t feel like you were lying to yourself. I can imagine people to whom this idea feels real and to whom these clothes would be really well suited.

I like the approachability of these clothes. In addition to how they don’t feel costume-y, it seems that these have a greater ease of being worn with other more basic garments. To me, that makes it easier for people to experiment with another side of fashion without going all in. Take that white hooded jacket again, for instance. It’s certainly very coherent with that natural setting, and even though the jacket is a bit aesthetically out there for most people, I can see that working with a lot of simpler clothes. To me, it would go great with straight white pants, and other simpler, cleaner looking clothes. I think it offers a great stepping stone to more complex and thought-out outfits if you wanted to try to wear it with other crazier clothes too.

All in all, I’m a big fan of Hyein Seo’s work and I really like the direction she and her team have been moving in as of late. While I may be relatively new to this side of fashion and design, I’m glad this was one of the brands I stumbled across first.