Wooyoungmi

Founder background

Woo Youngmi was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1959. Her father was the head of an architectural firm, which allowed him to travel extensively, bringing home international magazines, which a young Woo Youngmi studied, growing curious about the world outside Korea. Along with her mother, who taught both art and piano, they did their utmost to use what they had to provide a creative environment for their five children. Wooyoungmi took up fashion studies at Sung-kyun-kwan University in Seoul. On graduating in 1983 she was selected to represent Korea in Japan's Osaka International Fashion Competition, and won. In 1988 Woo Youngmi launched the menswear brand Solid Homme, starting with one shop. Today there are 21 stores opened with Hyundi group, as well as others with Lotte, Shinsegae and Galleria. In 1993 Woo Youngmi and some young designer friends begin ‘New Wave’, as a platform for young designers to show their work. This paved the way for today’s Seoul Fashion Week.

Spread in Europe

Designer Woo Young-mi founded her eponymous brand WOOYOUNGMI in 2002. In 2002 WOOYOUNGMI was launched in Paris. Youngmi wanted to establish a designer brand that allowed her the freedom to design for the vision she holds of her ideal man. WOOYOUNGMI has shown on the Paris Menswear Week since 2003.

In 2011 WOOYOUNGMI became an official member of La Chambre Syndicale de la Mode Masculine.

Also that year the brand collaborated with London department store Selfridges on the event "My Coat, My Gift," Five young London creatives were asked to redesign the brands' best-selling Coat No. 51. The resulting designs were exhibited in a special pop-up at Selfridges, with a percentage of the sales of the coat during the event donated to charity.

In 2012, under the art direction of daughter Katie Chung, WOOYOUNGMI began collaborating with artists for the creation of their advertising campaigns. Artists to have taken part in this project, to name a few, are sculptures Guerra de la Paz and Korean sculpture Osang Gwon with his unique blend of sculpture and photography and painter Clemens Krauss.

In June 2014 WOOYOUNGMI launched an exclusive capsule with luxury online retailer Mr Porter. In September of that year Woo Youngmi was named one of 500 people shaping the global fashion industry by the Business of Fashion in their 'BoF 500' 2014.

Wooyoungmi today

Katie Chung, daughter of Woo Youngmi, was announced joint Creative Director of WOOYOUNGMI in 2014 and presented her first show in June '14 for SS15.

In 2014, The Korea Herald wrote that “WOOYOUNGMI has become the most successful Korean independent menswear designer brand.”

Founded in the 1980s, as of 2016, the fashion house Solid Corporation consisted of two men’s labels: Wooyoungmin and Solid Homme.

In 2016, GQ Magazine wrote that “having shown every season in the French capital since 2003 and broken into the western market with high-end stockists such as Selfridges in London and Bon Marché in Paris, Wooyoungmi has established itself arguably as the flagship Korean men's brand in Europe."

Founder Woo and her daughter Katie Chung handle design as of 2017.

Stores

Wooyoungmi has 24 stand-alone stores across Asia with one European flagship store. in Paris as well as being stocked in high-end department stores across Europe such as London's Selfridges and Paris' Le Bon Marché.