Lie Sang Bong Spring 2016

 Though Lie Sang Bong has showed during New York Fashion Week for over two years now, Bong is still not a household name in American markets. And that is unfortunate because Lie Sang Bong should be.

Season after season Bong delivers innovative collections with an eye toward retail viability with the spring 2016 collection, perhaps, being the most consumer friendly collection presented stateside. Though other collections have been fashion-forward and stunning with great editorial worth, at times the collections were more fashion as art than fashion as commerce.

Not this time around!! Bong is one of the few designers this season that successfully combined the continuing trends of diaphanous fabrics, micromesh, graphic 3-D digital prints and athletic wear as throughout-the-day wear in one collection.

For spring 2016 Lie Sang Bong created a collection that used simple, white silhouettes as the core color and structure of this collection. With each look Sangbong built on the simplicity of easy, light, casual sportswear married with his unique acuity for embellishing simple silhouettes with graphic and floral cutouts. And though the silhouettes at first glance seem simple in truth they are not. Only a seasoned craftsman can make complicated, asymmetrical silhouettes embellished with cutouts and layers on top of layers seem effortless and move with such ease and freedom.

What was also great about this particular item is that Lie Sang Bong presented familiar silhouettes in ways that were reimagined, causing reflection on the structure as if he created something that was entirely new. Standouts in the collection were Lie Sang Bong’s asymmetrical white culottes, white oversized shirt and white pant with floral organza cutouts, and blue and white graphic inspired trench.

—William S. Gooch