Sohee Park, the fashion designer behind her label Miss Sohee has made a splash debut as guest designer at Paris Couture Week with her latest spring/summer 2025 Couture collection, making her appearance as one of the youngest and few female designers to watch.
Her collection – based on the culmination of sculpture, her South Korean roots, classical and modern art – is an ode to the artistry of haute couture. Her silhouettes this season are inspired by the traditional Korean Hanbok dress, which exemplifies the use of volume and vibrant hues of green and purple and drapery most dramatically and stunningly. She combines Korean artistry by using traditional Korean techniques.
One of the techniques, known as najeonchilgi (inlaying mother-of-pearl), she uses to create landscapes onto lacquer. In another technique, she uses embroidery inspired by a Korean folk art called Minhwa to showcase the beauty of history and culture. Her gowns are adorned with strategically placed jewels and embroidery that shape the body and add sparkle. They also have alluring flower motifs that pay homage to the delicateness of femininity and Korean floral and fauna.
In this collection, she tests the boundaries of traditional soft and gentle femininity by opening her show with darker and edgier designs, using black chantilly lace and leather corsetry.
Throughout her collection, black was seen paired with soft champagnes, rich purples and turquoise, and soft greens and pinks that were reminiscent of the trending coquette aesthetic.
She also made her designs stand out by offering a refreshing display of how she takes on the feminine form using her surroundings in nature. From shells to pearls to petals, she uses the ornaments’ foundational structures for skirts and corsets to add interest and manifest innovation that gives her brand a competitive edge in the marketplace.
Park’s designs were nonetheless romantic and stunning with how much she was able to successfully combine both dark and lighthearted female elements for a cohesive collection that simultaneously honors her Korean heritage and admiration for nature.
While haute couture fashion may be seen as being impractical and frivolous to some, according to Park, “What’s really special about couture is that there are no boundaries between art and fashion,” she said speaking days ahead of her premiere as a guest designer at Paris Haute Couture week. “And if you separate art and fashion, there are so many limits. It’s like sculpting on the body for me, or even painting – because these big silhouettes become a canvas.”
Park can attest to the notion that haute couture is about going beyond the realms of everyday fashion and bringing imaginative and meaningful designs and structures to life. She takes immense pride in her craft because she believes in the magic of storytelling and getting to work hands-on with clients to make them feel special for any occasion, including weddings and red-carpet events.
Her love for fashion and art stems from a long history of female generations who fostered that creativity within her. She grew up with a grandmother who embroidered with traditional techniques and a mother who illustrates and writes children’s books.
One of Park’s first experiences with high fashion was seeing Karl Lagerfeld’s Chanel haute couture collection on television at 14 years old. Park’s fascination with embroideries and draping in fashion design took her from her home in Seoul to another great city, London, for fashion design school in Central Saint Martins. Here, she got the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to intern with the infamous fashion designer, Marc Jacobs.
Upon her graduation in 2020, she released her debut collection, entitled “The Girl in Full Bloom,” on Instagram due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which halted having a proper fashion show at the time. Her floral-inspired collection went viral and jump-started her career as a fashion designer, with features in LOVE Magazine, celebrity clients like Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande, and design collaborations with Christian Cowan.
Park is one of the few emerging fashion designers who is swiftly making her impact in fashion through thoughtfully executed couture designs based on the duality of femininity, the long history of her heritage, and unconquered exploration into the beauty and structure of nature and art.
Her dedication to craftsmanship in couture techniques is one of the many reasons her designs are so jaw-dropping and are garnering fast attention. Park’s designs are a testament to the limitless possibilities that can happen between the intersection of fashion, art, and personal lived experiences. To Park, “this is more than fashion – it is art, storytelling, and a dream realized.”
