Some final thoughts about Korean fashion: While wandering through the streets of the major shopping areas like Choengdam-dong where stores like 10 Corso Como, Daily Projects, Mue and the European brands are located, or Shinsa-dong where Blush, Addicted, GeekShop, and MSK Shop cater to a young customer–I noticed that on the whole (independent of age) Korean women are far more conservative in their dressing habits and style than the men. Navy and black dominated–rarely did I see any women wearing colors. Pants worn with jackets or cardigans dominated over skirts and dresses, save for the schoolgirls’ uniforms.

Similarly, most of the actresses that came to the shows were not dressed in particularly fashionable clothes. The actress Gong Ho Jin, who is considered a fashionable actress, wore a grey wool coat, a long black tunic and black pants to the pushbutton show. Even the funky platinum blond Joni P, the female half of Steve P & Joni P, wore black pants and coats on the two occasions I saw her visiting her colleagues’ shows.

This explains a lot about the clothes that designers showed during fashion week in Seoul. Surely the designers here respond to the consumption pattern, especially those more focused on the domestic market. That Lie Sang Bong, Doii and Jaehwan Lee proved an exception to pure commerce is due to the fact that they vie for an international audience. Competing in the international arena requires that their approach to fashion mirror their contemporaries in Paris (where Mr. Lie has shown his collection for the past decade, where Mr. Lee was educated and trained, and where Ms. Doii worked with the Parisian fashion houses after her graduation from Central Saint Martins). I spoke to Jaehwan in French and to Doii in English. I can’t say that about many of the designers that I visited.

Click through to see multiple looks from all the designers mentioned.