Woo Young Mi
Designer, Wooyoungmi
Her sporty menswear is infused with a forward-looking edge and is sold through her own stores and leading global retailers.
Born in Seoul to an architect father and an art and piano teacher mother, Woo Youngmi was fortunate to find a creative outlet at a time when the country was brimming with post-war political unrest. In 1978 she entered the Sung Kyun Kwan University in Seoul to undertake fashion studies, and on graduating in 1983, she was named the winner of the Osaka International Fashion Award. The first female designer in Korea to design men’s ready-to-wear, Woo launched her first menswear label, Solid Homme, in 1998, opening a small boutique in Seoul, followed by her namesake brand Wooyoungmi in 2002. The label, primarily inspired by art and architecture, offers detail-orientated menswear, often with a futuristic edge, and has been showing in Paris as part of Men’s Fashion Week since 2003. In 2011, Wooyoungmai becomes a full member of the French Fashion Association, La Chambre Syndicale. Youngmi’s younger sister Woo Janghee joined the company after completing her studies in fine art in 1989. Youngmi’s daughter, Katie Chung, became joint creative director of the brand in 2014 after completing a BA at London’s Central Saint Martins.
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What is The BoF 500?
The people shaping the global fashion industry, curated by the editors of The Business of Fashion, based on nominations and on-the-ground intelligence from around the world.
