Rejina Pyo closed London Fashion Week with a runway show at The Aubrey, the new — and beautiful — restaurant underneath the Mandarin Oriental hotel.
Guests took their seats and were served cocktails and sushi snacks before models snaked their way around tables wearing Pyo’s easy-breezy vision for our autumn/winter 2022 wardrobes.
The London-based, Korean born designer was inspired by prohibition era supper clubs in American, and the convivial atmosphere of post-war celebration – something that feels pertinent for our post-covid world.
“People would pass booze along under the table, it was all about having a good time, and there was this camaraderie and this intimacy to it,” said Pyo post-show. Her idea was very much for the clothes to be seen on a variety of shapes and sizes in a situation in which her clients would likely wear them – out for dinner or at a bar.
And the collection itself was a beautiful mix of acid wash denim, knit vest tops and billowing trench coats (all of which had a throw-on-and-go daywear feel), alongside more evening-y silk taffeta off-the-shoulder A-line dresses and jewel-toned collared wrap blouses.
More masculine options came via softly tailored box suits and a chic matching bomber jacket and combat trouser sets, and the palette was, as it always is with Pyo, a pitch perfect smorgasbord of deliciousness.
The handbags, which came in pastel tones and two ultra-wearable new silhouettes, were particularly strong. A fuzzy felt tote sat alongside a curvy crossbody that came in full size, mini and a micro belt bag and featured the brand’s first ever RP monogram.
There was also a mesmerising two-tone silk weave fabric that shimmered pink-to-green on a shirt dress and a spaghetti strap midi. Pyo, who had developed the fabric with her suppliers noted its shape shifting colour reflects every woman’s duality. “The way it changes with the light is like how women change their mood,” she said. “It’s both sides of a personality, you don’t have to be one thing.”
Typically one for breezy shirting and suiting, Pyo ventured into bodycon silhouettes for the first time with a pale blue tie dye summery midi, a one-shouldered brown knit dress and two long-sleeved fluoro abstract print clingy dresses with asymmetric cut outs and a choker neckline. She attributes the change of mood to her recent pregnancy. “I wasn’t such a bodycon designer but there’s really something about embracing the feminine body as it goes through that transformation,” says Pyo, who was heavily pregnant at her show back in September. “I didn’t feel like hiding my belly, I wasn’t insecure about it. I don’t know if it was the oestrogen from the pregnancy or something but I felt like showing it off more!”
“It’s also partly the embracing of diversity that’s going on everywhere, it’s changed peoples outlook; you don’t need to be one type anymore. That’s why I think it’s a really good time to be a designer.”
