The new-born DL XS capsule collection travels 5,500 miles for a voyage to an unlikely architectural inspiration. ‘The Yangok’ isn’t perhaps the most quintessentially Korean, alongside the traditional Hanok village and Buddhist temples. It isn’t the most contemporary, either, overshadowed by post-modern high-rise glass buildings in the mega city. Its oversimplified name (meaning simply ‘a western-style house’) feels somewhat nonchalant and almost transcendental, considering the bruised colonial history that it has witnessed.

Aesthetically awkward like a modernist mutant, and unassuming in its overall appearance, the Yangok still boasts its own undefinable charm. As though time stood still, the wood-panelled interiors would invite you back to a nostalgia that feels oddly warm and cinematic.

The rattling glass-paned sliding windows and rust-hinged creaky doors have ample quirks. The concrete corridors of vertically challenged social apartments bear some resemblance to Futureland from The Florida Project – a little bit blunt, yet playful.

 

The new-born DL XS capsule collection travels 5,500 miles for a voyage to an unlikely architectural inspiration.