Wear Korean Traditional Dress
A breakable arrangement of pastels on aerial bolt fills the acquiescently lit amplitude of the “Couture Korea” exhibit, currently on appearance at the Asian Art Building in San Francisco. The three-part exhibition is the aboriginal in the United States to admit Korean appearance as an art form, announcement the affluent beheld anecdotal of acceptable Korean appearance by exploring the altered appearance of “hanbok” and its evolution.
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Hanbok is the name of the acceptable Korean apparel beat during premodern times, afore the all-embracing adjustment of Western accouterment at the end of the 19th century. The acceptable accoutrements is characterized by the use of cottony and affection as able-bodied as airy silhouettes — involving draping and layering — that accustomed for the abandon of mobility. Added than a simple announcement of claimed taste, hanbok was beat in variations to announce differences in class, age, gender and occasion.
The aboriginal area of the affectation displays the reconstructions of acceptable hanbok beat during the Joseon aeon (1392-1910). Hanbok, in its best acceptable sense, embodies a altered faculty of sartorial breeding with agreeable colors and aristocratic silhouettes. Such breeding derives from the artlessness of the basal apparatus of appearance at the time. The archetypal accoutrements for women was the anorak (jeogori) and brim (chima) ensemble, while men akin adequate pants (baji) with their jeogori. Subdued colors were adopted by earlier and higher-class men and women, while ablaze colors with baroque patterns were generally adorned by courtesans or accouchement for appropriate occasions.
Accessories, such as hats or ornaments, were additionally of civic acceptation during the Joseon period. Hats for men adumbrated altered chic or status; for example, a man of the aristocratic chic (yangban) would abrasion a horsehair hat as allotment of his academic attire, alike at home. The accessory chaplet (norigae) was advised a awful coveted affluence account for women, and these served as symbols of abundance and power. Similar to today, appearance was a access of absolute antagonism that permeated the civic fabric.
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After an addition to hanbok, the eyewitness is led to the additional area of “Couture Korea,” which showcases Western and Eastern reinterpretations of the acceptable Korean attire. This area appearance two designers who were aggressive by the attenuate adorableness of Korean aesthetics: Jin Teok and Karl Lagerfeld, the arch artistic administrator of Chanel.
Asian Art Museum/Courtesy
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Jin Teok’s avant-garde interpretations of hanbok affectation her acute compassionate of its textile, anatomy and pattern. She plays with the abstraction of contrast, aggregate these acceptable motifs with avant-garde elements such as denim or Western-style dresses. Such juxtapositions advance in her work, giving them a faculty of complication that blurs the boundaries amid the East and the West, as able-bodied as avant-garde and traditional.
The 2015/16 Chanel Cruise accumulating was additionally aggressive by acceptable Korean aesthetics, although added beginning in its access than the accumulating of Jin Teok. Specifically, Lagerfeld chooses to draw motifs from both accouterment and nonclothing elements anchored in Korean tradition. He masterfully weaves the bright patterns of bojagi, or wrapping clothes, as able-bodied as the aerial images of mother-of-pearl lacquerware, with apparent elements of the Chanel identity. By accumulation a avant-garde couture character with acceptable clothing, Lagerfeld creates addition out of an absurd harmony.
The approaching of hanbok and its aesthetics are explored in the final area of the affectation as a adventure that is ever-evolving. Hanbok continues to affect abreast designers such as Im Seonoc and Jung Misun, who booty hanbok and position it in an absolutely new arena field. These designers both aim to charm the hanbok attending with avant-garde materials, abnormal from the acceptable bolt in adjustment to arch the accomplished and the future.
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The “Couture Korea” affectation is an all-encompassing anecdotal of Korean aesthetics, told in fabric. Although the adventure lacks the developments in hanbok styles in the 20th century, it still accomplishes its ambition of visualizing its history as an art form. The affectation is a aqueous and alternate space, area anniversary area in the affectation is audible yet connected. Collectively, the spaces in the building admonish us that appearance is added than what is worn; it is a absorption of civic nuances and a bequest that continues to inspire.
“Couture Korea” is on appearance at the Asian Art Building until Feb. 4.
Contact Jennifer Jeong at [email protected].
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