The Korean Clothing Style {Hanbok}

A young couple dressed in hanbok

Since their settlement in prehistoric times on the land now known as the Korean Peninsula, the Korean people have developed a wealth of unique cultural traditions related to the way they dress, eat, and behave at home. These traditions reflect the natural environment of their homeland, a terrain predominately covered by hills and mountains, bound by the sea on three sides and marked by four distinct seasons.

Clothing and Fashion

The Korean people learned to use various fabrics, such as sambe (hemp), mosi (ramie), cotton and silk to make a range of clothing that was not only attractive but also provided them with effective protection even during the harshest winters and the hottest summers. They made warm winter clothes using the technique of filling soft cotton between two layers of material, silk or cotton fabric, and sewing them together with fine stitching, and produced cool summer clothes with hemp and ramie. These clothes typically feature graceful lines and forms that create the serene aura characteristic of the traditional Korean clothes we know as hanbok.

Korea’s indigenous clothing, hanbok, has maintained its basic components throughout Korea’s 5,000-year history, while its styles and forms have evolved in various ways based on the lifestyle, social conditions, and aesthetic taste of the times.

History reveals that Korean people in the past tended to prefer simple, white clothes to clothing decorated with different colors and designs. That is why they were often referred to as "the white-clad people" among their neighbors who admired them for being a peaceful people. Nonetheless, Korea has also had a long tradition of enjoying colorful clothes with complex designs depending on the period and the wearer’s social status.

Today, Korea is home to many talented fashion designers who have earned an international reputation with their creative designs which combine traditional Korean designs and patterns with a modern artistic sensibility. The beauty of traditional Korean clothes has been introduced to, and praised in, many parts of the world thanks to the remarkable success in recent years of many Korean films and TV dramas including Dae Jang Geum.

Korean people today seem to prefer clothes inspired by modern Western styles to their traditional clothes, although some people still insist on wearing the latter on traditional holidays or for special family occasions such as weddings. Their love of tradition and yearning for the new sometimes led to the creation of attractive "modernized hanbok."

Now a household name across the world thanks to "Gangnam Style," a K-Pop song that shook the world in 2012, Gangnam-gu in Seoul is a large district where wealthy residential areas sit alongside high-end art facilities and Korea’s busiest fashion streets. The district now attracts numerous fashion-minded tourists from across East Asia and beyond with annual fashion festivals comprising international fashion shows and contests participated in by many rising designers.

Another fashion district in Seoul that enjoys an international reputation is Dongdaemun-gu, which has grown into a hub of the regional fashion industry, providing creative, affordable fashion items for youth and the young at heart. With its fully developed distribution and sales network, highly efficient production facilities, and throng of talented, aspiring designers, the district is now one of Seoul’s most popular attractions among foreign tourists.

Hanbok, the traditional clothing of Koreans

"Hanbok" (also called "joseonot") is a collective term for traditional Korean clothing. Though there have been slight changes in hanbok over time in terms of material, preferred colors, and the length of the skirt or jacket, the hanbok's basic format has more or less remained the same for the past 1,600 years.

Hanbok can be classified into ceremonial and everyday dress, each of which can be further classified by gender, age and season. All types of hanbok are created beautifully through combinations of straight and slightly curved lines. Women's hanbok in particular are recognized worldwide for the simple yet delightful harmony of their short jackets and full skirts. The jacket, which is put on one arm at a time, makes the upper body look very small, while the skirt worn wrapped around the waist makes the lower body look full, creating an attractive balance. The cut and drape of the clothing complements not only the Korean female physique but also flatters and fits most other body types as well.

Foreign celebrities (left to right: Nicolas Cage, Alice Kim, Britney Spears) wear hanbok on visits to Korea

The eight beauties of hanbok

The beauty of hanbok is found in the elegant flow of its lines and in its pleasing color palette. Just like the gently sloping eaves of a traditional Korean house, the harmony of the curved baerae (bottom line of the jacket's sleeves) with the sharp straight lines of the dongjeong (creased white lining of the jacket's collar) well reveals the subtlety and exquisiteness of traditional Korean aesthetics. The hanbok's attractiveness even shines through in the lovely lines created by the body's movement while wearing it—one of the reasons it enjoys such global attention. The hanbok is typically defined as having "eight beauties," as described below.

Hanbok Jeogori (upper garment) with dongjeong, baerae and Goreum (two straps of Jeogori

1. Beauty of structure

The women's hanbok, with its short jacket (Jeogori) paired with a full skirt, possesses a simple structural beauty and rhythmic flow that complement the body's movements.

2. Beauty of form

The hanbok radiates a natural physical beauty in its attractive silhouette and lines, which allow for unrestrained movement of the body.

3. Beauty of creativity

In contrast to Western clothing, which achieves dimensionality through straight-lined fabric and stitching techniques, hanbok is made with flat fabric in a linear shape that only achieves dimensionality when it is worn on the body. When placed on the human frame, the hanbok takes on a life of its own—one that is natural, elegant and flowing.

 4. Beauty of harmony

The hanbok features straight and curved lines, giving it an attractive flow representative of a uniquely Korean aesthetic. The graceful, harmonious movement that happens when the hanbok is actually worn is praised the world over.

5. Beauty of color

Hanbok colors are decided according to the "five colors theory" ("obangsaek" in Korean), which refers to the theory of yin and yang and the five elements. The hanbok commonly makes striking use of naturally-occurring colors.

Fabric dyed with organic ingredients enhances the hanbok's color aesthetic

6. Beauty of nature 

The curved line, one of the hanbok's most eye-catching features found in its full and loose shape, rhythm, and irregular proportions when worn, has a natural angle devoid of artificiality that creates a free-flowing effect and brings out the texture of the natural, hand-woven fabric.

7. Beauty of empty space

Some aspects of the hanbok design are left intentionally "empty," to be filled by the wearer uniquely, giving the hanbok a depth not commonly seen in clothing.

A bride's hanbok worn at a traditional Korean wedding

8. Beauty of personal character

 

The full shape of the hanbok emphasizes the wearer's authority and dignity. While this may have been impractical, it was nevertheless a feature that made hanbok a reflection of social status and propriety. The simple harmony of the color palette created by limiting the number of bright colors used places greater weight on the wearer's character over the hanbok's decoration.

 

Certain hanbok designs represented the social ranking of the wearer. The king, for example, was represented by the dragon and the queen by the phoenix. Tiger designs were used to represent military officials and were commonly placed on the shoulders, fronts and backs of their court robes. Civil officials were represented by the crane, an animal believed to be pure and resilient.

Hanbok, the most "Korean" dress code

Having coexisted with the Korean people ever since the beginning of their history, hanbok is a beautiful cultural heritage that all Koreans should be proud of not only for its historical value but also for its uniquely Korean artistic significance. The hanbok, which changes only slightly according to the season, social status and situational context, is highly regarded for its creative design and overall elegance.

Although the hanbok to some extent lost its place in Korean daily life due to the rapid inflow of Western civilization after Korea's opening to the Western world in the 19th century, it is still the most representative of Korean dress and a symbol of the identity of the Korean people.

Hanbok is now being blended with more modern forms of dress, opening up a new era of Korean clothing design.

Korean traditional clothing – the history of Hanbok in Korea and its modern usage. Hanbok patterns including wedding culture.

(credit :  Photos courtesy of Korea Tourism Organization and Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea )