"In the year I arrived in Paris in 1987, I saw minhwa for the first time at the Guimet Museum. Seeing paintings that had not received much attention in Korea hanging in a French museum, I decided that someday I would express in clothing the colors and beauty unique to Korea." -Designer Yang Hae-il
Designer Yang Hae-il will present a collection themed on minhwa and the five obangsaek colors at the Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet in Paris on Oct. 6 to mark the 140th anniversary of Korea-France relations. The event was arranged as the two countries agreed to expand cultural, educational, and people-to-people exchanges at the Korea-France summit on Apr. in, and as the Guimet Museum designated this year as a Korea-focused program year, continuing related exhibitions and performances.
After graduating from Esmod Paris, Yang worked at French fashion houses including Torrente and Paco Rabanne. Yang took part in producing outfits for former first ladies of France and Korea, and since 2017 has unveiled a collection each season during Paris Fashion Week through the brand HEILL. Yang has steadily reinterpreted minhwa in contemporary fashion, using, for example, munjado in 2018, the taegeuk and chaekgado in 2019, and a tiger motif in the 2026 S/S collection.
The event combines Yang's prêt-à-porter collection with a K-beauty and K-pop stage. Beauty art director Director Oh Min is in charge of hair, makeup, and stage direction.
Director Oh Min is a hair designer and beauty art director who has overseen more than 4,500 backstage operations at domestic and international fashion shows and events for over 30 years. At the 2002 World Cup eve festival, Oh handled hair and makeup for more than 100 models, and at a fashion show held at the Victoria and Albert Museum to mark the opening of the 2012 London Olympics, Oh directed hair and makeup with the theme of dancheong.
Yang and Director Oh collaborated from the planning stage to consistently infuse obangsaek from minhwa into the clothing and hair and makeup.
Music is by music director Oh Joon-seong. Oh is a composer who worked on OSTs for Hallyu dramas including Boys Over Flowers, City Hunter, The Master's Sun, and Hwarang.
◇ Minhwa encountered at the Guimet, on the runway after 39 years
What stands out in this show is the method of translating Korean traditional aesthetics into contemporary fashion. Yang interprets the obangsaek—blue, red, yellow, white, and black—and minhwa iconography into modern ready-to-wear. Having first encountered minhwa at the Guimet Museum in 1987 and worked with Korea's native colors and stories since, Yang returns to the same space after 39 years.
Yang said, "Now, 39 years later, I am deeply moved to present works imbued with Korea's colors in that very space."
The collection also weaves in, as a narrative motif, the story of the woman Rijin, positioned at the boundary between Joseon and France, and between tradition and a new world.
Yang said, "This collection was especially inspired by the story of the new world and freedom that the Joseon woman Rijin experienced in France. I wanted to express Rijin's story—living between Joseon and France, between tradition and a new world—through the colors of obangsaek and minhwa."
◇ Beyond products to production… K-fashion and beauty on one stage
Another pillar of the event is the attempt to frame K-fashion and K-beauty not as individual goods but as a single cultural image.
Korea recorded $11.4 billion (16.1378 trillion won) in cosmetics exports in 2025, rising to the world's No. 2 exporter. Rather than product promotion, the show focuses on presenting Korean aesthetics by composing clothing, hair and makeup, shoes, accessories, eyewear, fragrance, and music under one theme.
Another goal of the event is to establish itself not as a one-off commemorative stage in Paris but as an international cultural event that moves to a new host city each year. The organizers said they have prepared a format in which Korean brands in various fields participate under one cultural theme, and that starting with the Paris event, they plan to move the host city every year.
Yang said, "The beauty of Korea that once hung on walls as paintings will this time be worn by people walking. It is very meaningful that a dream cherished in Paris 39 years ago continues here again in a new form this year, the 140th anniversary of Korea-France relations."