Lee So‑ra returns to Paris Fashion Week

Lee So-ra’s Paris Fashion Week return became a TV storyline on April 26, when MBC premiered “Sora and Jinkyung” and centered her runway comeback. (chosun.com) The show follows Lee So-ra and Hong Jin-kyung, two first-generation Korean supermodels from the 1990s, as they try to get back onto a Paris runway in their 50s. MBC announced the program earlier this month and said the pair had not worked together in 15 years. (chosun.com 1) (chosun.com 2) Lee told the production team she had started practicing a faster walk to match current runway pacing, but said her hip still hurts and that she fears falling. She linked that fear to a 2011 femoral fracture that disrupted her career. (chosun.com) On the broadcast, Lee said she used a wheelchair for nearly six months and could not walk properly for about a year after the accident. She said pain-free walking, not just modeling, remains her main concern. (chosun.com) The first episode also tied her comeback to the way Korean modeling worked in the 1990s. Lee said she once survived for two weeks on one can of tuna a day, and described that period as a lasting trauma. (chosun.com) (mk.co.kr) That detail explains why the Paris challenge is framed less as nostalgia than as a test of whether Lee can return without repeating the physical costs of her earlier career. On the show, she said she first thought the idea was impossible. (chosun.com) (mk.co.kr) Hong Jin-kyung gives the project its second track: reunion. Lee said seeing Hong age “gracefully” pushed her to accept the show, and Hong said their in-person meeting made her wonder why she had waited so long to reconnect. (chosun.com) Episode 1 showed them assembling materials for a portfolio to send to Paris agencies, with veteran model Jung So-hyun drilling them through repeated walk practice. Sports Kyunghyang reported the premiere drew a 3% rating in the Seoul area, with the “walking hell training” segment peaking at 4.8%, citing Nielsen Korea. (sports.khan.co.kr) (chosun.com) Paris Fashion Week itself is not a single show but an official calendar of invitation-only runway presentations organized in Paris by the Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode. The federation’s calendar shows the women’s ready-to-wear season ran from March 2 to March 10 this year. (fhcm.paris) So the immediate story is not that Lee has already walked Paris this week. It is that Korean television has turned her attempt to get back there into a public record of injury, aging, and the old demands of model thinness. (chosun.com 1) (chosun.com 2) Lee’s opening episode ends with practice, paperwork and hesitation, not a Paris booking. The thread the show is selling is whether a model who once dominated Korean fashion can come back on different terms. (sports.khan.co.kr) (chosun.com)