If the ‘FFF’ in FFFPOSTAL SERVICE stands for ‘Future Family Friend’, what kind of a friend are we talking? Last week in Paris, as most of the city was still dithering about whether to collectively love or hate J. W. Anderson’s sophomore Dior collection, an enigmatic streetwear label from Korea presented its debut European show. Getting to know its titular companion proved more a matter of fiction than familiarity.
To enter FFFPOSTAL SERVICE’s world is to enter an intergalactic, cyberpunk adventure. Imagine Daft Punk’s Interstella 5555 (2003) in full monochrome; Ghost in the Shell (1995) before the neon hits: this is the futuristic, exaggerated world of baddies and goodies, quests and side-quests, plots and subplots. Ever the fantasy nerd, creative director Jonathan Choe has a particular fondness for remodelling his most beloved fictional characters in the image of his own brand: the pacifist princess from Nausicaä and the Valley of the Wind (1984), for example; or Alice, the superhuman test-subject from game series Resident Evil.
That precedent considered, AW26 marked a turning point. Somewhat tentatively entitled PILOT, Choe’s debut Parisian show brought storytelling in-house, making a point of the brand’s European inauguration. While FFFPOSTAL SERVICE’s major following in Korea hasn’t yet translated into European stardom, Choe has no qualms with asserting his plan to make the brand a player on the global stage.
To mark the moment, PILOT departed somewhat from the usual technological dystopias to present a collection of beginnings. Yes, there were still the face coverings explored in all different shapes and sizes, Gummo-shock hair, tactical vests, and enough zipped and buttoned pockets for an entire post-nuclear pantry. But these characters were equipped, confident; the shapes cut were upright. As Choe tells me after the show, this was truly “the first episode of a series, a saga.”
Most notably, this season’s shift away from military references towards something more murkily utilitarian was tactful. The camo-print pants of previous seasons—for many today, a grim and tone-deaf reminder of today’s reality—was replaced by a more phantasmic vision of what ‘uniform’ can be: twisting silhouettes which exaggerate the body’s form in some places while buckling it in others; headwear remodelled to feel more like prosthetics than removable accessories; coverings and drapes that serve to shield and shroud rather than to accentuate.
It’s in the grey zone (and grey it certainly is) between utilitarian aesthetics and comic-kid fantasy that FFFPOSTAL SERVICE thrives. Too often it’s assumed that functional clothing can exist only within, or because of, daily realities; practicality, albeit beautified, comes at the expense of imagination. Where will I put my keys? Will I be warm enough? Choe’s characters have no such concerns. The designer invites us into a fictional future universe, complete with fictional characters—but the clothes these characters wear are real, tactile, rooted in their creator’s deep understanding of textile and material.
When I ask why he chose to come to Paris, Choe’s answer is simple: “Because this is where dreams are made.” I think here he inadvertently hits on the crux of his own collection, for FFFPOSTAL SERVICE juxtaposes the most extreme fictions with the most extreme realities—a true fabrication of fantasy. I wonder what comes next in its saga.