Since its founding in 2013, each of EENK’s collections has represented a chapter of the label’s ‘Letter Project’, pondering a theme in line with a particular letter of the Roman alphabet – K for Knit; U for Utopia; Y for Yesterday, and so on. FW24 marks a full-circle moment in the Seoul-based luxury brand’s conceptual trajectory: Z for Zero to One.

Gesturing towards concurrent notions of completion and new beginnings, the collection sees brand founder Hyemee Lee contemplate the value of ‘zero’ in East Asian philosophical traditions – Taoism in particular. While in Western cultures, the figure is typically perceived as a cipher for absence, Hyemee highlights its antithetical connotations of abstract plenitude – a state of non-being in which the boundaries between the individual constituents of a wider whole dissolve; a state of everything-ness, rather than nothingness, if you will.

It is this intrinsic relationship between ‘zero’ and ‘one’ that serves as the collection’s conceptual underpinning. Notions of how a whole is defined by the individual components it comprises are expressed through innovative experiments in colour, texture and couture-level detail.

Tufted overcoats envelop the body, cutting bold silhouettes that are the result of a clumped-together mass of woollen fronds. The fabric becomes a material baseline throughout the collection, appearing across trims, bandeaus, a chain-appliqué dress and even a pair of men’s shorts. A cocoon coat illustrates the collection’s central theme through its composition – a gauzy tissage – while a bobbled skirt is crafted from three-dimensional roses, each painstakingly crafted from individual organza petals.

A brushed coat shimmers with metallic fibres and a pencil skirt and split-hemmed cigarette pants come speckled with glinting crystal embellishments; individual sparkles come together to create an uplifting visual texture, recalling the innumerable mass of stars that populate the all-encompassing night sky. This sense of infinity, of endlessness, is alluded to through ballooning, couture silhouettes – from convex skirts comprised of fused strips of champagne satin to swollen bishop-sleeved coats, garments take a ‘0’ shape.

While prior chapters in EENK’s ‘Letter Project’ have demonstrated an intuitively eccentric approach to colour, Zero to One sees Hyemee resort to a binary palette of black and cream. Novel territory for the brand, this visual restraint allows for a more concentrated consideration of form and its relationship to the collection’s philosophical preoccupations.

Despite this opening of new horizons, the importance of building on a foundation of heritage is strongly alluded to in this season’s accessories. Traditional Korean sartorialism is subtly invoked by way of a leather ankle boot with a contrast upper – nodding to beoseon – while a slouchy shoulder bag with a belt detail offers a modern interpretation of the botjim, a bundle-style bag historically worn as a backpack. Proudly distinct as individual entities, when brought together, the collection’s pieces amass to create a robust whole.

Mahoro Seward

Senior Fashion Features Editor at i-D

EENK는 24FW 시즌 Z for Zero to One 컬렉션을 통해 브랜드의 새로운 시작을 알리고자 한다. 이번 컬렉션은 작은 것들이 서로 합쳐지는 방식인 제로(zero)와 원(one)의 순환에서 영감을 끌어낸다. 만물은 무(無)에서 유(有)로, 또다시 무로 돌아가기를 반복하는 실체가 없는 것이라는 철학, 그리고 도는 그 모든 생성과 변화의 과정 그 자체라는 동양의 도가사상에서 영향을 받았다. 서양의 무는 아무것도 존재하지 않는 말 그대로의 무를 뜻하지만 잉크는 우주와 개인 간의 경계를 허물고 무한한 가능성으로 나아가는 세계관이 담긴 동양의 무에 집중했다. 무는 자아가 없는 우주로, 여기서 사물들은 함께 모이고, 개인과 집단의 경계는 해체된다. 이러한 의미에서 무존재는 원(one)을 낳고, 하나의 조건, 즉 통합의 조건이 된다. 꽃잎 하나하나가 모여 한 송이의 꽃을 이루듯 작은 오간자 조각들을 덮어 완성한 소재는 둥글게 부푼 실루엣의 점퍼가 되고, 가느다란 실들이 빽빽하게 모인 풍성한 페이크 퍼는 드레스와 재킷 등 다양한 아이템으로 탄생했다. 작은 운성이 연상되는 글리터를 장식한 밤하늘 같은 벨벳, 꽃 모티프로 꽃밭을 완성한 니트, 여러 개의 리본 테이프가 만들어낸 프린지 디테일 등 여러 대목에서 0에서 1로 나아가는 의미를 담아내기 위한 시도를 거듭했다.