Clothes And The Country

Hanbok are traditional Korean clothes that are associated most closely these days with the major national holidays of Korean Thanksgiving and the Lunar New Year.  But as times change, so do the designs:

"Hoping to make the traditional garment more a part of people’s lives, the government and experts in related fields have been trying to encourage people to wear hanbok, or at least variations of the dress that embody a hint of the traditional attire. Their efforts involved a series of events ranging from declared hanbok-wearing days and holding hanbok festivals and giving discounts to the country’s royal palace to people wearing hanbok. Thanks to their efforts, wearing hanbok has become more familiar to the general public compared to a decade ago.

The biggest problem in traditional clothing today actually stems from the efforts of trying to increase the number of people wearing hanbok, regardless of the style. While at first it was important to get people to try hanbok, the variety of styles that have been created now have some wondering if there are rules for what constitutes a proper hanbok.

As more people take to the streets wearing forms of hanbok that have never been seen before, two perspectives have come into conflict. On one hand, some advocate that hanbok should adhere to the traditional form of the dress, while the other side believes that it’s meaningful in itself that more people are wearing hanbok, even if it is somewhat distanced from the conventional form."

I had no idea that in addition to banning the Korean language, hanbok were also outlawed under the Japanese occupation (1910-1945) as being too strong of a symbol of Korean national identity.