How to Kill a Fashion Week

A Public Letter to the Honorable Mayor OH Se-hun,

Seoul Fashion Week is dying. Yet it was an ongoing, amazing success over the last decade, with global faces and races all over the Dongdaemun Design Plaza twice a year, and was receiving glowing attention in international fashion media from outlets such as Vogue USA, GQ, High Snobiety, and most importantly, Women’s Wear Daily. In fact, Seoul Fashion Week was going to be branded “WWD Seoul Fashion Week” in March, 2020.

I first met you on October 24, 2008, when you were Seoul mayor the first time, and busy approving the DDP into existence, and also visiting Seoul Fashion Week to oversee a session with foreign fashion industry people at the SETEC center. I was in the audience when you offered encouragement and support behind the goal of helping put SFW into the world’s eye as one of the top 7 fashion weeks in the world.

SFW accomplished that goal, in my estimation, by around 2017 or so. It would be a shame to watch one of Korea’s most actually globalized and successful events fail and fall back into obscurity. More specifically, I am writing you because the changes in the administration of Seoul Fashion Week after restarting the normal event in October 2022 is presently killing what had actually become one of Korea’s most astounding hallyu successes.

It is a Scout Korea Jamboree-level debacle. The only difference is that it is a slow, quiet death, since the evidence of the disaster doesn’t involve ambulances and foreign attendees in the emergency room. It’s a slow motion failure that only those experienced in the event can see. And most industry insiders are too afraid to speak out. But as both an insider and outsider, I felt it absolutely necessary to write you this public letter, out of the public interest in doing so, to help the only major world fashion week that receives a great deal of taxpayer/government support to operate not die.

Last season (March of this year) was my 31st season covering Seoul Fashion Week as official press, having covered the event as official press since October, 2007. I am quite certainly the longest-active foreign journalist covering the event, and I was one of the first non-Koreans to cover and report on Seoul Fashion Week in English and one of the first street fashion photographers in Korea. I am also a professor and writer and published the first book about contemporary Korean fashion culture in 2009, called the Seoul Fashion Report. Over the past 31 seasons, I have covered SFW under the auspices of outlets from The Korea Times and Korea Herald, The Japan Times, Huffington Post USA, CNN Travel, and others, with my work also appearing also in Women’s Wear Daily, Modern Weekly in China, Rolling Stone India, German Glamour, Chungang Sunday in Korea, and other significant venues that represent Korean fashion culture all over the world. In this way, I’ve considered myself a part of the effort to highlight and research about Korean popular culture as something essentially important for the world to know about.

Back in 2009 when I was covering SFW for CNN, it was possible to discover “new” and hot designers from colleagues' recommendations on the day of their shows and give them some of the international spotlight. Now, this is impossible.

Since reopening at the tail end of Covid in October 2022, the event has become an unmitigated disaster, harkening back to the days when you could not find a single member of the global fashion media in attendance, foreign models were rare, and Korean street fashion was still a bit of a secret. Empty seats at runway shows, all major foreign press I’ve seen starting to come every season over the years since 2014 — almost none of this is to be seen recently.

What had become, from around 2016, one of the most successful, global events on the Korean peninsula had, by last season, become one in which almost no overseas press could get a press pass, and it had become an absolute chore and arduous challenge to even be able to photographically cover a fashion show. After the return to normal SFW in October 2019, one of the only remaining Korean runway photographers I knew told me that his buddies at Vogue Italia had been denied press passes. Let that sink in. Vogue Italia. Italian. Vogue. From that season, none of the familiar faces from international outlets were there. I saw no buyers. No buyers' room. No buyers in the line (generally, over the last 31 seasons I’ve been covering SFW, press and buyers are placed in line together, and buyers are seated allowed along with VIPs. Where were the buyers (whom I didn’t run into over the last two seasons? Maybe they’re secretly there, or operating in some stealth mode?

And the reason I was given for the sudden changes? 1) SFW was suddenly popular. 2) There were too many requests for press passes. 3) Way too many foreign press had apparently applied. And 4) Covid (despite all restrictions being lifted by the city) meant that they had to limit the number of photographers. This, despite the fact that shows were being still seated normally, shoulder-to-shoulder, and masks were no longer required?

3:26 PM, October 15, 2022 — normal seating at an SFW show, despite “corona restrictions” supposedly limiting the number of photographers who could be in the runway pit and despite mask requirements having been lifted by the city.

During a normal Seoul Fashion Week (going back for me all the way back to the days of the “Seoul Collection” in 2007), it’s a scramble to get ones’ printed and issued press passes first (which usually meant standing in line outside the door from 9AM) to be able to rush down to the press room to grab a good table with the most nearby outlets, and from around 10am there are no spots left at all.

A normal SFW press room at 11:21 AM on October 18, 2018.

To prepare for some possible changes after the covid restart in October 2019, I called the first number listed on the SFW official site the day before the first shows, when the press passes would be distributed, like every year. The person on the line (apparently the number of the Seoul City-hired PR agency) said that they didn’t know when the registration booth in the ground floor cafe would open and that I should call Seoul City, which was the second number on the site. I did, and when I explained my situation (in fluent Korean), the middle-aged woman on the line, who had been already noticeably flustered from the first when she picked up the phone, started actually screaming at me that she didn’t know. And that “This isn’t my responsibility! How am I supposed to know that?!” In shock, I politely replied that I had already called the PR people and they had told me to call this number. She continued screaming at me, and between her shrieks, I calmly explained that “most seasons, the registration booth opens either at 9:30 or 10 am most and I would simply like to know the official time” She snapped at me, “So come around then.” So I told my team to arrive around 9 am at the registration booth. It was, much to my chagrin, empty. No one arrived until around 10 am, and also surprisingly, there was only one other press person there to pick up a pass. I panicked, thinking that I had somehow missed something, and got my pass and rushed down to the press room. It was almost completely empty. This didn’t seem like an event “overwhelmed by an unprecedented number of press registrations.”

The SFW press room at 1:10 PM on October 11, 2022. Not only was around 1PM the peak time of any SFW day, I had to rely on my own extension cords to get power at a center table farthest from the door. The bags to the far right, by the door, are the teams of both a local Korean entertainment news organization and two members of the only two international photo agencies who managed to get in. The rest of the is a smattering of other local press like me.

The SFW press room at 11:29 AM on March 16, 2023. The person on the left closest to the camera is our team member.

Also, for the last two seasons, press passes no longer grant access to shoot runway shows. In October 2009 when I covered SFW as a freelancer for CNN, my press pass granted me access to all shows as a photographer and had all the shows’ days and times and location conveniently printed on the back. At most major media events on planet Earth, an approved member of the press is granted access to all major aspects of the event in question so that it can be covered and shown to the world. The same was true at SFW until the last two seasons when I was told — after going through the same press application process as I have for 31 seasons (since fall 2007) — that press passes no longer granted access to shoot fashion shows. Staring at the press room worker in disbelief (since this had not been explained to me beforehand), I was told that in order to shoot a show, I had to negotiate individual show access passes with each individual designer beforehand. The press pass only allowed access to the press room and to watch a show. Which creates several separate but related problems:

1. No more discovery. In every other season of Seoul Fashion Week I’d attended, I had the opportunity to network with other fashion journalists, buyers, and even ticketed show attendees and be recommended hot, new designers whose shows I would decide to shoot. On most SFW days, my interns would hear from people at/outside shows about fresh new designers who were making small, underground waves and whose shows I absolutely should not miss. I would decide to shoot them by simply going to the press line before the show and finding my space in the runway pit, which has its own internal hierarchy and social organization. It was easy and organic to find out who was hot yet not well known and see their talent on the runway speak for itself. Nowadays, this fundamental function of the fashion week — as a networking event designed to foster the cross-pollination of people and ideas — does not exist at SFW.
2. Fashion designers must now become mini-PR agencies. SFW has until now handled press and house photography passes and all other aspects of access to the shows. Over the past two seasons, a new protocol has evolved. So, in order to be efficient, designers are opening large Kakaotalk chats to handle all the dozens of press (or NOT press — just random people not vetted in the SFW press approval process) who want the separate, nightclub-style wristbands that now grant access to shoot runway shows. Which the designer now has to physically distribute to all the people they want to have shoot their show. The new process now involves (because this is Korea) each person in the group chat introducing themselves to the room, and then the designer (or the designer’s staff member) makes an obligatory chat announcement thanking everyone for their interest until they decide who gets in and on and on. Shouldn’t a top fashion designer just be able to worry about his or her show during fashion week??? Why do they have to individually promote thmesleves to the press during a fashion week for which major PR agencies have already been hired???
3. Now, I’m also a PR agency. Just to shoot, say 8 shows on a given day, a press photographer has to navigate 8 separate Kakao chats, go do 8 separate wristband pickups, and waste an immense amount of energy doing what a single press pass should already allow. Just think — there are 30 shows this upcoming September 2023 SFW. Do I have the time to contact 30 separate designers to pick up 30 separate wristband pickups inside 30 Kakao chats? I do not. This is the kind of access, after getting vetted through the press registration process, that a press pass should allow.
4. Most shooters in the runway pit aren’t even press anymore. They’re just random, local friends or connections of the designer, which now, the designer is deperate to have if they want any pictures. This is what we have now instead of Vogue Italia.
5. New designers don’t get seen. If you’re a new, relatively unknown designer, you don’t have the resources to do all this. So you’re gonna get empty seats in your show. (note the pictures towards the end of this letter).

With a press pass that allows me to shoot a show, one should be able to walk from the press room with heavy gear across the hall and shoot the show, instead of wandering around dark parking lots and loading docks, trying to find the person holding my house badge. In my first attempt, several tried and failed, missing the show altogether.

And even anectdotally, after the Covid blip, I don’t see a lot of important people anymore —especially international press . A friend shooting for a major agency who was always in the runway pit for the last few years before covid asked me last year via Instagram DM if there was some kind of new policy against foreign press after Covid. She and her peers have all started giving up even applying, especially now that press passes do not allow you to shoot in the runway at all anymore. Why? Is it still “because of Covid?” The press room is nearly empty every season now. “Too many foreign press?”

Yang Hee Deuk, 2007. I had no idea who this designer was at the time since this was my first time shooting SFW, so I was just shooting each show of the day, like most photo press was. This kind of organic discovery has now been made impossible by the new SFW rules.

This is a major loss. To be blunt, if there’s no press — especially international press — then essentially the event didn’t happen. Now, I was being told “You don’t really neeed to shoot runway shots, anyway.” And I should simply “use the house press photos, which are all free to approved press. Why do you need to shoot runway?” While that system may seem very nice, if you are truly a professional doing serious work, that’s a huge barrier to coverage. If I’m a reporter for Getty or Reuters, if I didn’t shoot that runway shot, I don’t own the copyright and hence can’t sell it. So why would I come? If I’m Vogue Italia, I need to have a Vogue Italia shooter take the shot. Now, while SFW providing a bank of photos may be nice to an occasional freelancer who needs some photos for an article, for heavy fashion media coverage, this system isn’t helpful at all. It only prevents the production of content around Korea’s premier fashion event.

My many complaints to the SFW organizers and staff have largely fallen on deaf ears, and I have been told at every level of contact with SFW that “Seoul City made the rules so there’s nothing we can do, you have to talk to them.” But whenever I do talk to Seoul City staff, I am left with the conclusion that they have zero interest in the event succeeding as a major moment of networking for the Korean fashion industry. In fact, I would have to describe their attitude as the result of an interest in seeing the Seoul Fashion Week event actually fail.

That is the only logical explanation I can come up with as I look back upon the near-decade since Seoul Fashion Week began in 2014 under the aspirational vision of the Seoul Design Foundation when the DDP building was opened to the public when the overseas press was a rarity and global fashion media ignored SFW as a matter of course. As we approach 2024, international press is a rarity again. If this is the case, isn’t this a complete waste of trillions and trillions of won and countless years of effort on the part of many othergovernment officials, industry experts, and hard-working creatives? Mayor Oh, you know quite well how much time, effort, and money has been expended on this realm of hallyu, in Korea’s name. Was it all for naught?

The total budget in 2018 to promote Korean fashion overseas by the Ministry for Culture, Sports, and Tourism through the Korean Cultural Contents Agency(KOCCA) was 6,752,000,000 KRW or approximately 6.1 million USD (KOCCA, 2018), in a single year. Since 2014, have we all not just wasted nearly ten times that, or a decade’s worth of that amount of taxpayers’ money? Because of these various, nonsensical regulations that actively discourage press coverage and even attendance at shows, this is the new result and reality at Seoul Fashion Week: empty seats.

11:52 AM and just before a scheduled 12:00 show by Jimin Lee, a new SFW designer.

In a telling incident during the first in-person SFW after Covid in October 2022, my intern was rushed to a fashion show, after being desperately approached by an SFW staff member, because there were almost no one in attendance for the show, and no one covering. The organizers wanted our entire team to drop what we were doing and go cover the show, but I refused because I was already busy outside with my team covering street fashion for that day. I simply asked my intern to take pictures of the show itself, in a different kind of coverage. As she arrived, about 10 minutes before the show began, most of the seats were empty, and most of the efforts of the staff were to find random people from outside to attend the show and shuffle them around into the front two rows so that the show looked as full as possible. Rather than doing that, perhaps the staff’s efforts could have been better spent not actively preventing the press from covering the show, and not having a policy in which registered members of the press were prohibited from shooting shows. This entire incident now reminds me of the mistakes made at the world Scout jamboree, with the staff working hard to make last-minute adjustments and shift things around to cover their obvious mistakes.

Making the runway look full by conscripting random people outside of the show and strategically shifting the seats around. Until Covid, runway shows would regularly have to turn people away and runway photographers were all professionals jockeying for prime positions. Now, they’re just gone.

As we think about bureaucracy in the time of the Korean Jamboree, there is a clear public interest in writing this story. Although I’m a foreigner, I’m also a taxpayer, and I’ve done years upon years of work documenting the Korean fashion industry and fashion culture, covering and creating content around Seoul Fashion Week across 31 SSs and FWs, and doing my part to help bring about the success of global hallyu. I am simply writing this public letter to enlist the help of a mayor who I know once cared a lot about this global event and its contribution to the national success of Hallyu, to help stop this slow Jamboree-ization of this once highly successful, global fashion industry event.

I implore you to do something to help prevent this event from being killed, before SFW becomes a small-scale, struggling, local industry event again that no longer attracts any international attention and becomes another Jamboree-style cautionary tale across the world of how to kill a fashion week.