Fashion and Popular Culture

Seoul is a very vibrant city with own sense of style and a distinct cultural scene. Here I offer some of my insights to the bubbly zeitgeist of Korea.

First off, everyone here is skinny. It must be food. America, turn your eyes to Korean refrigerators! As a generalization, Koreans dress “better” than most Westerners. When I say better, I mainly mean more formally. Of course this often translates to better in the way that they actually look quite good as well. An interesting feature is that couples here match their outfits. And I’m not just talking about genre or color coordination, but they actually wear the exact same item of clothing, like a t-shirt or shoes.

A very popular look for girls here right now is a very glamorous 1950’s lady-look. Think Audrey Hepburn. They wear pleat skirts, dresses, boleros and cute little cardigans. And high heels. Always high heels. Many of them clearly put a lot of time and effort into their daily dressing-up routine. I think they look quite nice.

There’s just one way to describe the way young men around here dress. Gay. No, not flamboyantly chic, nor stylishly metro, just plain gay. As my friend Brian put it, they make “Oscar Wilde look like a monk”. So we're talking big v-neck t-shirts, purple shirts with pop-up collars and jeans only to be worn by Ms Sixty herself. The look is completed by long hiply unsymmetrical haircuts that accentuate their relative femininity ever further. But hey, I ain’t one to judge. Make up your own mind, here's a pic of popular Korean actor Lee Jun-gi:


Koreans live under the impression that Korean culture is taking over the world. There is even a word for it: Hallyu. What is basically happening is that some Korean soap operas have been sold to Southeast Asia and a Korean singer BoA has been number one on the Japanese charts. At the Korea Times the word hallyu is mentioned on an average three times a day, usually utterly out of context. The term has come so big that even at Yonsei – one of the most prestigious universities in the whole of Asia – they teach an entire course on the subject. This is a direct quote from the syllabus of Understanding Popular Korean Culture and the Korean Culture Wave:

“Many people now look to Korea for inspiration in fashion, lifestyle and entertainment. It is not an exaggeration to say that Korea is setting new international standards in business, politics, and culture.”

I’m positive all you readers from outside Korea could not agree more with the above.

This is just my opinion, so don’t anybody get offended, but to put it bluntly: Korean pop music is terrible. They can’t sing, the songs all sound the same, and that sound is just bad. Sometimes in supermarkets I just feel like trashing the loudspeakers. I haven’t found a single song that I would like, me who is notorious for my crappy britney-bsb-xtina-nsync taste in music. Right now in Korea its cool for songs to have English names. Stuff like “Once in a Lifetime” or “Let’s Party”. But don’t let the tiles fool you; this only means thought that the first line of the chorus is in English. Or what do you think about this lyrical masterpiece by popular boyband Shinhwa:

“Can really be a shooting star? Can't stop the music!
Ddo uri ape yollyojin mirel wihe go-go.
Nege pilyohan kon, Energy wa noeui bitnan nunbit.
We're going higher to keep this hot parade.”

Shinhwa, the hottest boyband around.