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“One can live magnificently in this world if one knows how to work and how to love.” Leo Tolstoy’s poignant quote served as the starting point for South Korean fashion designer Rejina Pyo’s Spring/Summer 2023 collection, which was unveiled on the 28th floor of HYLO, a newly built office building in Central London this afternoon. Tolstoy wrote those words over a century ago, and Pyo’s interpretation of them inevitably explored the ways in which women are still navigating the overlapping spheres of life and work.
It’s a topic that many of Pyo’s customers will have been thinking about in the last couple of years, as the lines between work and home life—already particularly fluid for working mothers—disappeared completely. Most businesses are still navigating what a “return to work” looks like, and the traditional 9-5 uniform has changed accordingly. If lockdown taught us anything it’s that as women, we tend not to prioritise our comfort when it comes to getting dressed for work—high heels, tight-fitting pencil skirts, and the other trappings of corporate style are all starting to feel refreshingly redundant.
And so Pyo set about creating clothes for this new world order. There’s suiting, yes, but it’s oversized and slouchy with big statement buttons (and, if you’re feeling brave, worn with a pearl-embellished crochet headpiece). Trench coats are the perfect statement daywear, in a chic shade of teal or chocolate brown with a leather-look finish. Pencil skirts are replaced with wrap-around midi-skirts, styled with delicately embroidered T-shirts. For the working creative—some of whom, like photographer Diana Bartlett, walked in the show—there were cute tie-up tops, leather mini skirts, and playful sheer dresses with cut-out detailings. There was, simply put, something for everyone.
The key factor was that each piece was designed with comfort in mind. The key turning points in fashion, be it the rise of American sports-casual or Dior’s New Look, struck cultural nerves because they left women feeling freer to move, less encumbered. Pyo is the latest designer to take up that mantle—her heels aren’t too high, her tailoring isn’t too tight, her handbags are stylish but accessibly-sized. As a working mother of two it’s a choice that is emotional as well as strategic—and one that will no doubt strike a nerve amongst Pyo’s legion of fans.
