Traditional Costume

As we can see from the magazines, advertisement or media, Koreans are always fashionable as in their costume, hairstyle and so on but the Korean traditional costume is all time favorite for Koreans and even foreigners. Hanbok always caught my eyes whenever I see it. I gone through an interesting interview section with my friend’s mother but she refused to appear in the video nor photography.

            Hanbok is the traditional Korean dress, which is in vibrant colors and made by silk. It had been change by the mixed foreign influenced throughout the years. Korean usually wears it during the traditional festivals and celebrations and government officials. There are different types of Hanbok for man and woman. Hanbok is characterized by the colors, lines, texture and decorations. White is the basic color for Hanbok, the colors change according to the season, status and clothes’ materials. Royal family wears Hanbok with the golden leaves printed on.

Chima Jeogori

Lines, colors and decorative fabrics determine the beauty of Hanbok. It emphasizes on the curves, which reflects the dignified and virtuous. Jeogori is the upper garment of Hanbok which cover the upper part and arms and wear by women, and goreum is the belt to tie the jeogori. Chima is the skirt, but it more like a dress because it from shoulders until toes. Chima is wear under the jeogori. Hanbok helps to cover up the deficiencies on the body. Shorter people will look taller, thinner people will look more plentiful. It enhances the beauty of women. Normally they use brighter color for upper garment and darker color for the dress. The ensemble is called chima jeogori

Jokki is a type of vest while magoja is the outer jacket, it wears by man and it is good in keep warmth and easy to wear. Magoja originally is a male garment but later becomes a unisex one. The differences between man’s magoja and woman’s mogoja are, man’s magoja is longer, it does not has overlapped column on the front, so s both sides of the bottom are open. Baji refers to pants. They were usually baggy in traditional man’s Hanbok. Durumagi is a variety of po (robe or overcoat) that was worn to protect the cold. It had been widely worn as an outer robe over jeogori and baji.

According to Mrs. Kim, Hanbok origins from Mongolia. Hanbok was designed to ease the movement. They are more baggy and loose clothing. The basic structures of Hanok remain unchanged until today. Which are jeogori, chima, jokki and mogoja. But later, they had change to become shorter and tighter and closer-fitting styles that would use less fabric.

In the traditional films, Long braid is what we commonly see. Korean had to knotted their hair until they are married.  Man’s hair was knotted in a topknot and woman’s hair was rolled into ball shaped. Man wore a hat according to their status in society. Higher social status woman wore gache (wig) like what we saw in western past century film.

In Korea, festival costume is a must have in their wardrobe. The parents wear Hanbok and the children wear subdued colors’ Hanbok for their new year celebrations. Children had to gone through some celebration during one year old. Boys usually wear light-colored clothes, usually is pink clothe with blue edge, purple pants and blue singlet. For girls, they wear dark green or yellow Hanbok.

            After the interview, I realized that wearing Hanbok is time consuming, so Korean just wears it in the special occasions. Therefore, a simple yet comfortable Hanbok has been made for the conveniences.  There is a wide range of design yet the price is affordable so it has successfully attract the tourists. 

Written by: Khoo Wan Yi