GOOMHEO’s “Twist” Collection: Mastering Modularity for the City Summer

In a season where the urban landscape demands lightness and adaptability, GOOMHEO’s latest collection, “Twist,” finds its strength in the subtleties.

Taking its name from a design language that embraces the barely-there gestures and blink-and-miss-it subtleties, “Twist” recalls Goom Heo’s early work—grounded in swaddled torsos, multi-layered ingenuity, and a spirit of constant adaptation. 

Presented in a lookbook by Thue Nørgaard and styled by Gerry O’Kane, the collection channels the raw undercurrents and latent desires of London’s urban parks, spaces caught in the crosshairs of metropolitan grit and lush escapes.

With “Twist,” Heo taps into a modular aesthetic, where clothes are designed to morph, crop, and shift as the wearer sees fit. Exposed zippers slash across the seams of washed denim jackets, offering the option to splay or crop as the mood, weather, or situation dictates. 

Skorts reveal themselves as adaptive pieces, primed to strip back into essentials that read just as seamlessly on sun-drenched concrete as they do in cooler shadowed groves. This season’s palette leans on murky, overdyed hues that nod to a cityscape washed in rain and shadow: burnished, double-seamed jackets and separates in deep asphalt or a sun-faded indigo, blending both pragmatism and Heo’s unmistakable twist of the unexpected.

If GOOMHEO’s core design language has always lingered in a certain tangled sensibility, “Twist” takes this theme to new heights. T-shirts, belly tops, and the almost sculpture-like vests arrive with ruched detailing that pulls the fabric along the triceps or navel. A beachy palette of soft sorbets and marine-dipped ultramarine indigo coexists with lavender-grey ombrés in the collection’s cotton two-pieces, bringing a freshness to the lineup. Knotted shoulders and calves play up Heo’s layered, always-tactile styling, while bloomer-skirt hybrids and midi culottes pair perfectly with oval-buckle stomper boots—bold yet grounded, finished with tube-contrast heels that add a hint of crafted edge.

Heo’s collection finds its heartbeat in plissé-textured jean jackets, paired effortlessly with high-rise shorts and classic, straight-cut jeans. The pieces bring a sense of direction, a silhouette that’s unmistakably GOOMHEO yet entirely wearable, setting a tone of quiet provocation while being entirely functional. Even the athletic-inspired pieces, from moto-skin tights to glossy, wrap-front track pants, are designed to flex with the wearer, balancing hard and soft, pragmatic and bold.

One of the collection’s most innovative moments arrives in the shirting. Generously cut and screen-printed with trompe-l’oeil spirals, the shirts and shackets radiate a sculptural energy that’s dynamic yet grounding. The standout shacket is emblazoned with a clawed violet hand, a motif that, in true Heo fashion, makes the everyday feel charged, almost mythic. 

It’s a twist that breathes new life into practical staples, a reminder that even the most prosaic elements of a wardrobe can thrum with complexity and style.