Got Style: Korea

Here is a post I wrote when I was maybe six months into my year in South Korea about fantastic fashion in Korea. I'd like to add hiking attire to the list of great, iconic Korean looks.

Feeling Inspired to Dress:

My looks during the BADGER BLOGGING BLITZ

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True, the South Koreans have a particular style. I've been trying to decide how to best embody their fashion sense into words. Eighties are back; leggings, wool socks, tennies, and oversized shirts. Name brands such as Northface are prevalent but worn less presumptuously than the coasties back home. Bright, blinding colors and sweaters are important. One of the sixth graders wears collared-shirt and sweater combinations impeccably. Big and noisy hair accessories, flip-billed caps, and thick-framed glasses are everywhere.

School uniforms are themselves a style. I feel pretty confident that Korean kids spend most of their adolescent lives in these uniforms. So they show up in K-pop videos, part of the groups' costume and overall look, targeting and embracing the 'study hard' culture. Flash forward to the professional life and the Koreans really push the polished envelope. I recently watched "Gossip Girl Couture," a short video about the wardrobe in the TV show Gossip Girl, and the expensive, primped, but effortless looks are similar to how I see the professional Korean.

So, like everywhere else, Korea has a style. Even two people that have completely different looks and motivations for what they are wearing seem to have this "Korean" undertone to me. This isn't a new phenomena - where we live and the culture in which we live affects how we look, how we sound, even how we walk.