PARIS, Feb 24 2008 /FR/ --- White smoke on the runway, techno music mixed with opera, reflections of moving lights as in a vision seen through water, the set is ready for Lie Sang Bong’s shimmering celebration of Fall 2008.

The first look confirms it: Korean star and princess, “popera” singer Kimera is at the heart of the inspiration for the designer coming every season from the “quiet morning country” to the City of Lights to present his collections.

A black ample tee shirt dress is printed with a pattern already seen on Kimera’s first album “The Lost Opera”, released in 1984. Just like the Korean diva remixed the tradition of popular opera aria in her very own way, Lie Sang Bong gives in the following silhouettes his vision of wild creatures as seen by the prism of his culture and of the couturier’s craft interpreted for today.

Roundness expresses femininity in its very essence. This might be why, season after season, the designer covers his designs with circles, treated as embellishments in many ways. Some circles are even becoming three dimensional to cover a coat for a startling effect, particularly when worn by Lisa Cant.

Shortened and modernized kimonos inspire bright coats and dresses embroidered by nuanced flower patterns. White chrysanthemums or many-coloured lotus on black, pink roses on white…

And the stress is here on garment architecture with delicately quilted wide bands to terminate ample sleeves and give them movement.

Intricate inlays and double coating of upright flounces border the shoulderline and the neck for a blossoming effect drawing the attention on the face.

Some short sleeves are made squared on top, as if the shoulder was wrapped in a parcel. Imagination, technicality and precise tailoring are allied to the best dressmaking here to the point that the question can be asked: is this ready-to-wear or couture? How is it possible to repeat at an industrial level such a detailed craftsmanship?

How can these recomposed white feathers be placed side by side? Is it a fabric that comes this way and is then worked regularly and embroidered with threads of various colours? The questions kept arising, exit after exit, as marvels of technicality came out on the runway one after the other.

Like some haute couture, the collection could be judged kitsch by some. However, the flamboyant vision Lie Sang Bong proposes for women, is certainly making a fashion statement: passion can sometimes push the limits of possibilities with patience and fantasy.

Another illustration of this phrase was brilliantly expressed in the finale, which marked the come-back of Kimera herself, live on the runway singing “Caruso”, as the models paraded behind the Korean diva, before Lie Sang Bong took his deserved bow.

Jean Paul Cauvin

Photos by Olivier Claisse – Courtesy of Lie Sang Bong