The first silhouette seen in the picture below tells you all the essential information without me even typing a word. This is all about Low Classic, a label from Seoul who just recently showed their collection on October 23rd 2012 precisely, which means it's a S/S 13 collection. I discovered the brand a while ago and couldn't stop singing its praises - design, branding, styling and more importantly, competitive pricing - all so utterly spot on, it almost makes me want to buy a plane ticket to Seoul straight away.
Scroll down at your peril as most of you might get frustrated by the final punchline. Low Classic is STILL damn difficult to get hold of outside of its native South Korea but fingers crossed that their international online store will be launching sometime next year because what's on their current Korean webstore is mostly smashing. Smashing as in "I'd do a smash and grab on all those pieces" with no editing or selection required.
Their S/S 13 lookbook is preceded by the famous letter to his "Immortal Beloved" from the composer Ludwig Beethoven, which explains the postmark prints, airmail envelope edging and of course the various cut-out lettering that displaces and distorts the sentence "Though still in bed my thoughts go out to you my Immortal Beloved" taken from the final part of Beethoven's letter. I'm hoping that the designers Lee Myeong Sin, Hwang Hyun Ji and Park Jin Sun didn't obtain their inspiration source by watching the first Sex and the City film one too many times (the character Carrie Bradshaw croons quotes this letter to Big in bed) but that they actually have a fixation with the mysterious recipient of these letters. This "Immortal Beloved" could do a lot worse than being dressed up in Low Classic's cleanly whites and streetsmart pinstripes and sheer checks. All in all, this is a startingly directional collection for a brand whose price points range from Celine-esque burgandy leather trousers at around £50 to c. 2002 Balenciaga-alike destroyed denim shearling jackets at £115. The innate bargain hunter can't quite believe that this much design can be whittled down to high street prices and having inspected some of Low Classic's pieces in person, the quality is as good as the likes of COS - a comparable brand to Low Classic. I'm waiting to discover some grave misgiving that would ruin this equation but I've yet to find it. In short, Low Classic, you need to give your e-commerce/web team a good push and give us a worldwide online store sharpish.
