Among Eudon Choi’s well-established signatures—deconstructed tailoring, clever adjustable details, wonky shirting—one of the most reliable is his eye for a pop of show-stopping color. Which is why the most striking thing when first looking at his resort collection was its more muted palette. Across the 36 looks, Choi focused mostly on cream and black, with touches of oatmeal gray and tawny brown. Only occasionally was there—shock horror—a splash of dusty blue or pink to leaven the mood.
The reason for Choi’s more restrained approach this season lay first in his source of inspiration: the lonely urban wanderers of Edward Hopper’s paintings, and the artist’s masterful ability to capture profound moments of inner turmoil, or contemplation. (The collection was titled “Night Shadows,” after an eerie etching of a desolate city street Hopper made in the early ’20s.) “I just wanted to tap into that feeling he evokes of the late afternoon or early evening, that ambiguity” said Choi. Given the day-to-night versatility of Choi’s clothes, what better metaphor could there be than that liminal moment between day and night?
Rather than feeling dour, the the pared back collection was refreshing: a palate cleanser between the main seasons, and a smart acknowledgment of how Choi’s clientele shops. Namely, that much of his appeal lies in the ability to combine clothes from across the seasons—that sleek, spaghetti strap shift dress would pair beautifully with one of his boxy blazers from fall 2023, say, and a playfully cropped Oxford shirt would offset a swishy skirt in a bolder hue from any number of his past collections. The more austere spectrum Choi worked with also happened to foreground what he does best: off-kilter takes on wardrobe staples that are somehow eminently wearable.
The dresses were a particular standout. A slinky see-through cotton organza gown featured diamond cut-outs tied with delicate ribbons in the same shade of deep, dusty brown, offering a more modest take on the trend for sheer eveningwear; an arresting trapeze dress was constructed from wide diagonal strips of rippling black and white fabric, seamed together with ribbon ties that brought both whimsy and a touch of something more suggestive. Most accomplished of all, perhaps, was a pair of structured dresses cut from Mikado silk that hit a sweet spot of relaxed formality. The stripped-back vision might have been unexpected at first, but on closer inspection, the internal logic of Choi’s world shone brightly through.
