Séoul, rebel city

The latest Travel Book published by Louis Vuitton is a treasure. Soft sketches, like a caress on paper, a real invitation to the Korean journey.

A unique piece that we do not want to damage. And it’s funny, we find a lot of Japanese delicacy, while the authors, rather speak of Seoul as a city “dry and hard” …

Icinori, the author couple of this book is not Korean. Mayumi is Japanese, French Raphael. They met in Strasbourg on the benches of the Higher School of Decorative Arts in Strasbourg. They created Icinori in 2007. A Japanese-sounding name that does not make any sense.

They discover Seoul by chance. And will come back 4 times to design this book.

This Travel Book is a ride in a deeply vibrant Seoul.

Throughout the pages, we wander in the streets in motion, we discover moments symptomatic of Korean culture: enjoy a bulgogi, one of the most emblematic dishes of this peninsula, work a vase in a ceramic workshop, take an infinite time to prepare and then enjoy tea in one of the tea houses of Insa-dong. “We have highlighted the vibrations between craftsmanship and modern architecture, because if this city goes forward in a frenzied way, memory and craftsmen are there,” says Icinori. It is true. Seoul, insubordinate and rebellious, draws its DNA from its thousand-year-old culture.

We can also see the bustling heart of the city beating wildly, with these smartphone designs swallowed up in the crowd at Hongik University, these digressions on cosmetic surgery or this trendy stroll in the Myeong-dong shopping district. In this Travel Book, it is both the extreme Korean sophistication that springs, but also “a multitude of postcards, small details, to kimchi jars placed on the roofs of houses or even the most people poor people who sleep in chic neighborhoods. We opened our eyes and kept a strong point of view, “says Icinori.

The graphics of Icinori slap. With a strong sense of aesthetics. Their prowess is to have been able to draw on the old, the customs, which are the foundation, the foundations, the soul of Korea to better transpire the modernity and the exponential energy of contemporary Korea. Recognize him: it’s a talent to tap into his memory to build his future.

Seoul is now a hectic city, city of early adopters, trend laboratories for luxury brands around the world; a young city, curious, resolutely turned towards the future, literally buried by new technologies. But you just have to wander around certain parts of the capital still steeped in the old, to understand how much she also knows how to make sweet eyes to her past, and do not deny it, quite the opposite.

This book is a sweet and silky ode to Korea, all finesse. By two authors who are not native, but have perfectly understood the contradictions of a city that knows how to be loved.