Most artists and designers generally start working on a white canvas; however, the team behind Korean brand Songzio explain that they start their creative process on a black one. Curious, isn’t it? That unique approach heavily inspires their collections, which have been amassing cult followers since the brand’s foundation in 1993. Now, the brand has debuted in Paris Fashion Week to introduce their new Fall/Winter 2024 menswear collection, titled Night Thieves and inspired by antiheroes. Equal parts exciting and dangerous, we got backstage with photographer Theo Frémont and Crush Services to see how fashion transforms after the sun sets over the horizon.
As you might have guessed already, black is the main character in Songzio’s F/W collection – just like it’s been for the past decades. However, there are also bright pops of colour in red and yellow, as well as some white looks, breaking from the black-dominated colour palette. These fiery hues are probably a nod to what first sparked the Night Thieves collection: a painting of Prometheus, the Greek mythology character that stole the fire from the gods and gave it to humans, allowing them to develop a civilised society. But that came with some fatal consequences like chaos, disorder, and rage. Thus, Songzio’s collection marries oposite concepts like villains and heroes, darkness and light, symmetry and asymmetry, softness and hardness.
In the same line, Songzio bridges the East and the West through the garments silhouettes, featuring a lot of cocoon-like shapes, dolman-style sleeves, and materials like leather, bouclé, tweed wool, knits or metallic fabrics that give the overall looks a sculptural aura. Some of the most striking garments are the shiny outerwear pieces like a couple of oversized bomber jackets.
It’s also important to note that, for the Night Thieves collection, Songzio has teamed up with sportswear giant Reebok, which allowed for the Korean brand to explore an avant-garde side to activewear, marrying the casual and the formal, the functional and the aesthetic.