The Prospectus

o A provisional title : What is fashion of Korea?

o What on a PERSONAL level is interesting/compelling/meaningful to you about your project?

As an international student from Korea who has lived in Seoul for most of my life in New York, I wondered about question of diversity, especially this question: "What is unique about contemporary Korea?" Of course there were countless unique characteristics, but the reason why I wondered about this question was that I always "felt" that Korea always seemed to follow the trends that were seemingly set by the foreign countries. It did not seemed to create its own trend or to have own aesthetics.
In the fashion approaches course, I realized fashion choices can reflect a lot about the person's state of mind, perception of the place that one lives in ,..et cetra. By asking many international students who has lived both in Korea but also in foreign countries about why they would wear certain clothes more comfortably in New York rather than in Korea and vice versa, I wanted to see what does "Korea" make people feel, how that location influences not only the fashion choices but also the mood/emotions of people.

o What kind of thinker are you? How does the project reflect what kind of thinker you are?

I believe I am a type of person who likes to "relate" different pieces of evidences to form a larger argument. For example, this little project of accumulating what Korea(or Korean society) makes people feel can be used to discuss the issue of acceptance of diversity in Korea which I believe is the umbrella problem that links many societal problems including high suicidal rate ,malicious internet rumor problems, education system problems.. et cetra

o What do you want to get out of doing this project?

o How it might be build on or depart from (or both) the work you’ve done so far in college, school, life?

o Discuss a few moments the course. How might they inspire your project?

As I mentioned in the above question, I wanted to gather primary sources of evidence or narratives that shows Korean society's atmosphere and traditions restricts and discourages diversity and uniqueness of individuals. Diversity and richness of fashion is something Korea look up to in other cultures, but Korean society does not seem to realize diversity in fashion and in culture starts from accepting different personalities and fashion of individuals, not just well-known designers. There are of course, some prejudices about fashion in America as well, as Ryan's interview shows. But it was in a suburban area of America, and Ryan became more freed from it when he went to college, and is consequently happier.

The fashion apporaches course motivated me to think fashion as a tool for social change.

The biopower of fashion and Nan Enstead's article I read during this course made me to think that the biopower of fashion and enacted wish images that clothing have would be a great source of emancipation of individuality that could be surpressed within restrictive education system. The stressful and restrictive education system encourages school violence (both verbal and physical). Since fashion could be a great way to let students to express their dreams and desires, it could also have an educational value.

Inspired by the film "Pepe" and Sally Singer's video (which I found online after the class she led),I was motivated to research more about the thrift stores and different ways to promote green consumerism in fashion.

o If your project could be anything it would be a… [map/walking tour/film, etc.] If you are thinking of writing an essay for the project, what kind would you like to write? Personal? Lyric? A formal analysis within your disciplinary area?

For this project, I did it through blogging, since I believe it is the best way to share this story or evidences I gathered.

Valerie Lee - my sartorial autobiography

My early fashion choices were mostly made by two people - my aunt who studied textile design in Philadelphia and my mother who is a self-called college fashionista.
I remember when my aunt came back for vacation to Korea during her college years, she gave me clothes from Benetton, and GAP. "You can just tell it's from U.S.! " Every family members would say something like that, as a way of showing their gratitude and appreciation. But it was not just a way of saying thank you, but also a statement of a fact. At least it seemed so to me.

My aunt always smelled so elegant, fresh and was so stylish. I was not old enough to know what fashion was in the most common sense, but always felt that my aunt was more refined and "cultured" than other family members who had not lived abroad. Even the simplest thing - a stripped button down shirts and jeans she put on seemed somehow better than the others.
The yellow trench coat from Benetton was also something that I loved to wear. I felt more elegant than my peers. It was something about the fact that it came from abroad that gave me the confidence.

When I went to Canada, however, I realized the clothes that I bought from Korea was also something that can be admired by my foreign (Canadian) friends. Two particular items that I remember were a round neck long sleeve shirt that had very intricate print on with warm tone of coral pink which was unusual to come by and a black zip up hoodie that had rainbow bands that accentuated the linings of the hoodie. Both items were from Banila-B, a fashion brand that many girls of my age and above coveted. So since before I went to Canada, those items were my favorite causal items. When my Canadian friends started to admire those two items, they became my special occasion clothes. And from then, I started to appreciate Korean clothes better.

While I came to appreciate Korean brand clothes, I did not feel as comfortable in my Korean clothing as I did in my yellow rain proof jacket that wrote "CANADA" in black on the front. When I wore that with jeans, I just felt just the same with rest of the crowd. I also started to envy girls who could pull off the v-necks; at the time, I couldn't really wear v-necks without wearing anything underneath because I did not have any cleavage to show off. I thought to myself Koreans must like something detailed and flashy more than simple outfits such as jeans with v-necks because we have less curves. However, this theory that I made was something value-neutral - I wasn't ashamed that we were less curvy; I just thought there were two different ways to dress and be fashionable.

Another transitory moment in my fashion life came after I got accepted to NYU. Wanting to be the "Newyorker" that people already started to identified me as, I started to pay more attention to fashion. When I searched for New York Fashion on the most popular Korean search engine(that was a mistake, looking back), many internet clothing shopping malls came up.
When I logged into the websites, pictures of the products were adjacent to, or were overlapped with pictures of celebrities who were casually walking on streets, wearing something that was similar or identical to the image of actual product sold on the website. I bought multiple items from such website, such as my distressed light blue jeans, my grey/pink stripped cape sweater and a double breasted jacket with a clock brouche on.

When I went to New York, I realized my dress was a little bit off. I concluded that I lacked many black items or just dark neutrals in general. The black wrap up sweater and black leather jacket from Armani Exchange were the first clothes that I purchased in the city. The black sweater not only was in black, but was a wrap up sweater, which was unfamiliar to me but many people on the streets seemed to wear on a daily basis.

Some of my friends find that my interest in "looking like the people on the streets" (utility boots, parka, dark neutrals..etc) contradicts my confidence in Korean culture. Their questions are not surprising to me, given the fact that I love to let people know about my country. Since I was in Canada, I thought of myself as a citizen diplomat; I am among the privileged group of Koreans and it is a responsibility of mine to draw attention to Korea, which is still relatively unknown apart from the issues related to North Korea and wars.

Dressing up more like a "typcial newyorker" is an essential factor which helps me to approach wider range and larger number of the local foreign area that I was living it. As Franz Fanon, a representative thinker on the issue of decolonization and psychopathology of conlonization wrote in his book "The Wretched of the Earth", the first thing people see of one another is each other's color (race). Although deny that his judgment on another being is influenced by skin color, and tries not to let that factor influence his mind, I still think the skin color inevitably influences one's first impression on another. The clothes that one is wearing would be the next to the skin color, since clothing is a "second skin", meaning it is closest to the physical body itself. When I dress up as a "New Yorker", I present myself as someone who is fully capable of appreciating, and assimilated to the local culture. Once I give off such impression to others I meet in New York, they would not think I am proud of Korea just because I am biased, narrow minded patriot of her mother country. But when I dress up in a Fobby way, (FOB is a acronym of Fresh Out of Boat, referring to foreigners who just arrived in the local area), people are more likely to think of me as a naive, narrow minded person.

That is why I came to mix and match the items that I brought from Korea with the dark neutrals that I purchased in New York. In the picture below, I am wearing my pink/grey cape that I got from Korean internet shopping mall with the clothes I bought in the City.





Another transitory moment came with the fashion approaches class that I took in the second semester of my sophomore year. Reading Walter Benjamin and watching film about Bill Cunningham, I realized there is a deep relationship between my inner desires and the clothes I choose to purchase and wear and that putting on clothes can be like "writing a poem with clothes". For example, I was able to explain my obsession with a brand "Freepeople" right before the start of my second semester. I spent the summer vacation (before my second semester started) in a small liberal arts college in Vermont called Middlebury. There, I wore skinny jeans and t-shirts - the summer casuals that I wore in Seoul or in New York. During the time I spent in middlebury, I regretted so much I didn't have any sundresses or clothes that would respond to the lovely gentle winds of Vermont. Freepeople's store atmosphere and the catalogogue picture conveyed the life style that is close to that in Middlebudy - free and close to nature.

The t-shirt dress that I'm wearing in the picture below is from Freepeople. Although it is not the exact type of sundress that would respond to the winds of middlebury, I purchased it because the asymmetric cut of the dress made me look like a green leaf. There certainly are not enough greens in the area I live in, and if I could be a leaf itself in a city like this, it would be the best way to feel close to nature.

Julie Han - Sternie with an Artist's Heart

Julie Han (20)

Julie dreamed of being an artist since she was very young. When she started her freshmen year at NYU, she took Art History courses and scored a fashion related internship. When she saw what it was like to work in fashion industry, she realized many fashion designers struggle for a long time before they succeed financially.

Julie studied abroad since she was in middle school, and knows how much her parents invested in her education. She did not wanted to let her parents down by becoming a poor unsuccessful artist. So she started to take economics and mathematics class and transferred in to Stern school of business.

When I asked Julie to help me out with this project, she was more than willing to help. She wished that she could have took the fashion approaches class as well. I could see that she was still interested in fashion and arts.

Below is Julie's New York look. She says that New York is "free in its fullest sense". In the city, she can be as creative and wild as she wants to be. Although she also likes to "dress-up" in a semi-formal look with trench coats and suits, she says she prefers casual.



When I asked her if she would wear the mesh shirt in Seoul, she said she would certainly not, because it would reveal too much skin. "I think if I wear this, people would stare at me in the subway or something. In New York, I think I feel more comfortable to reveal more skin."

She also said that in Korea, she feels that the waists needs to be accentuated and would feel dressed down if she were to wear just leggings and oversized button down shirts.

Below is Julie's Seoul Look. In Seoul, she feels more comfortable in cutesy and feminine tops with jeans.

Hyun Yang Koo - The Sex and the City

HyunYang (26) is my cousin.

She recently passed the bar exam and visited New York as a gift for herself. Although she is not an international student, I thought it would be interesting to interview her because I would know more exaggerated image of New York City in a perspective of a tourist.

I asked HyunYang to send me three pictures : 1. Picture of her "imagined New York Look" 2. Picture of her "Actual New York Look" 3. Picture of her "Seoul Look" and the description&explanation pertaining to each picture.

1. Off shoulder dress with chic black high heels and jewelry is her imagined New York Look. HyunYang says her image of New York is heavily influenced by the TV series Sex and the City. For her, New York City was glam and success. It was also why she picked New York as her gift to herself after her first success as an adult.

The suitcase she brought to New York this January was filled with mini skirts, heeled boots and jackets - they were alternatives to her ideal glam look.

2. But even her alternative new york look - mini skirts with winter blazers were too thin for the winter. So she had to cover her thin silhouette with thick parka that she bought in SOHO. On her first day in the City, she wore the thick parka with red pumps and leopard scarf. Although her feet was freezing and the leopard scarf was very thin, she wore it through the winds of the streets. And as a result, she was photographed by a fashion blogger on the street!

3. In Seoul, she "dress-up" her imagined new york look which is rather one-toned by matching detailed and cute accessories and bags.

Rei Jhin - How a Butterfly Dresses Herself

Rei Jhin (20)

Rei lived in eight different countries for a period at least over two years in each country. Rei spent her adolescence in Nepal, from age of 10 to 14. There, she made her many closest friends. In Nepal, she loved to wear tie-dyed sundresses. She remembers when she wore tie-dyes or vivid colored clothes, she would shine as bright as the sun. She was also used to wearing tank tops with sport shorts.

Rei recalled a moment when she met her relatives for the first time in several years at the international airport when she came back from Nepal: "I was wearing a tye-dye top with jean shorts when I saw my aunt and uncle at the airport. I was really shy because I hadn't seen them in such a long time. I bowed really politely, but my uncle turned around to my aunt and whispered something to her ears. After my family and aunt and uncle set around the dinner table, my aunt whispered something to my mom. After everyone left, my mom told me my relatives thought I dressed very "mindlessly". Now that I think of it, my uncle must have been really bothered when I bowed down, revealing my bra.




Rei soon enrolled in to a high school in Korea, where she has to wear a uniform. She completed her school-look by adding scarfs and a hobo bag she purchased from Nepal. When I asked what those items meant to her, she said "I guess they were like... a statement items that distinguished myself from others within myself.. you know what I mean? It was more for reminding myself, rather than telling other people." When I further asked her what it means to be "herself" rather than everyone else, she said "more free-spirited", "creative" and "memories of Nepal". (Image of the hobo bag similar to Rei's above.)

As her best friend, I know that Rei was always stressed and sad that her histories and friendships seemed always incoherent and separated from each other. She felt she was forgotten, and disconnected from the places and group of people she tried so hard to mingle with. As soon as she started to belong somewhere, she was forced to leave and start the same process again in a different country.

But no one really notices that Rei is having hard time adjusting to a new environment, since she is so good at it. She is an expert at reading what the local social "atmosphere" is. I haven't seen anyone who disliked her or thought she was "weird" or "awkward".

I asked her if she used clothing as a way to help her to assimilate into different cultures that she encountered. She said there were times that she wanted to buy more clothes so that she would perfectly fit into what she imagined as "Seoul look". However, due to budget restraints, she had to invest in the most versatile and symbolic item that represented Seoul.

For her, it was a Chiffon floral patterned dress in pastel/neutral color. "I thought my out fit was too.... gender neutral. It was way too simple, too casual. As I enter Korean University, I felt I needed to be more feminine". She also mentioned that she would picture herself with a more flashy, detailed flat shoes. Preppy cardigan was also another item that made many of her already owned item look closer to the "Seoul look" - it made many outfits dressier. But she always seem to wear her Pashmina scarf and the hobo bag with almost everything she wore.

After a year in a Korean University, Rei transferred to Monash University in Australia. She kept in touch with friends she met in Korean University using Facebook. She uploaded photos of her in Australia, including some party photos. Although it was in a joking tone, many friends left comments saying that she was an embarrassment of the country(Korea).

Regardless of what her university friends in Korea says, Rei is more than happy to be free to be herself in Australia. "Here, I can be as wild and weird as I wanna be and people love me for it." (Image of her wearing a paper-clown dress).

Ryan Chun - Korean guys dress like gays?

Ryan Chun (21)



Ryan was considered a "free-spirited boy", a slang referring to a person who could careless about the rules and eyes of others, in Korean high school. After a year, he transferred to a private high school in the states.

He liked to dress up in so-called dandy style - bright color checkered shirts, layering with preppy cardigans or a fashionable sweat shirt on top and khakis on the bottom. Recalling his past visits to America, he decided he better "tone down", so he packed several "plain man-to-man shirts (man-t0-man shirt referring to a sweat shirt material round necks)" and less colorful shirts.

When he dressed up in his toned-down look in his high school, many people came up to Ryan to ask where he had gotten his clothes. At first, many came up to him because they were impressed by his clothes or were simply intrigued by unusual style. However, as months past by, Ryan became tired of the question. Moreover, there were kids who would ask him again and again, just to make fun of the fact that all of his clothes were from Korea. Ryan said "I felt that people were identifying me simply as a Korean boy, not Ryan". His conspicuous Korean clothes that drew others attention made people to signify him merely as, or over-simplified his identity as a boy from Korea. In other words, wearing clothes from Korea that he thought of as fashionable was like wearing a name tag called "Made in Korea" all over him.

But it was not just the fact that people remembered him as "a Korean boy" that made Ryan upset enough to abandon his style. As his clothes represented Korean, and he came to represent Korea in his school, the students came to further identify what he wears, eats or prefers as a "Korean thing" too. Since he dressed up in a dandy style, a style that many of students would identify as what gay guys would like to wear, students started to generalize that Korean guys dressed like gays.

Although Ryan is not against homosexuality, he did not like how he was making people think that Korean guys are like gay guys. With this factor on the table, he finally went to Hollister and Abercrombie and bought many colorful t-shirts and sport shorts. He paid special attention not to buy blacks or greys ; he also refrained from buying t-shirts with anime and especially the black/grey shirts with manga characters on. These factors each would represent "emo", "manga-nerd" and "emo+ manga-nerd Asian". Colorful shirts from Abercrombie or Hollister would represent him as a typical American kid. After dressing up in his sky blue Hollister shirt, he said, "I guess I felt more comfortable around other guys when I changed my style. At least I don't have to deal with those stupid questions anymore, you know? I also became less self-conscious."

I asked him, "But would you wear those Hollister and Abercrombie shirts in Korea?"
He answered "Hmm.,.. I guess I did when I came back to Korean during summer vacation while I was still attending American highschool. At the time, many of my friends in Korea were also in my shoes so we wore the same thing anyway. But if I dressed up in those shirts again I would feel like I'm in a elementary school."

In Georgia Tech university, he feels more comfortable in his old Korean style clothes. He assumes it is because he is now comfortable who he is, and what his tastes are. Besides, there are many Korean guys in the university, so he can careless about what other people think as long as his group of friends think of him as fashionable.