Korean clothing has been greatly influenced by the many cultures that have lived or ruled Korea, and the west.
Traditional Clothing
The traditional garment worn by both men and women is the “Hanbok.” It has nomadic roots in northern Asia and was established during the Goryeo Kingdom (37 BCE- 668 CE). Its basic design has remained the same to this day! Its features consist of: a jeogori (저고리) the jacket, baji (바지) the pants and the chima (치마) skirt. However there are differences between the women’s and the men’s.
For men the Hanbok consists of two main parts: a jeogori (저고리): a long blouse-like top and a baji (바지), a type of traditional Korean pants. (baji (바지) is still pants in Korean.) Depending on what your status was in society, you got to wear your Hanbok made with different materials and colors. The kings, queens, crown princes, high-ranking court officials and ladies, and upper class people wore expensive materials such as silk and satin with bright colors like blue, red, green, and yellow. The middle-class and lower-class people always used fabric made from ramie, hemp, and cotton with light earth colors, for instance, brown, light blue, and green. These fabrics tended to last longer and withstand the hard labor and did not require such high care.
Here is Jung II-woo wearing different Hanboks:
This is a closer look at his head wear. The men basically wore their hair only in two styles, in a bun called the “sangtu” (상투) or down and loose, sometimes tied into pony tails.
For women, the Hanbok has the jeogori (저고리): the blouse-like top part but much shorter, and a chima (치마): a long skirt. (chima (치마) is still skirt in Korean today.) Some women also wore baji (바지) pants under their skirts.
Ha…! Isn’t she lovely! Here are a couple of more diagrams:
Most of the time, men wear another layer of clothing on top of them, which is generally known as durumagi (두루마기), or an overcoat. But there are other options for upper classmen:
Here are two great websites that will help you know the names of their items and many styles of traditional Korean clothing… there is a lot!
and I thought this was really sweet:
Shall we see Jung II-woo in traditional Korean Clothing one more time? Yes!!!
By the way if you have ever wondered about “Sageuks,” or Historical Dramas, this is a well written article that covers some of the different kinds there are… and how much historians dislike them as they distort the real history of Korea. Ha…seriously? Isn’t history always distorted anyways? One thing they all have in common is the “his” in the story! for they all overlook the “her.” I can tell you the history I was taught in Venezuela, is different to the history I learned in the USA, and I bet if I went to South Korea, I would learn a different “history” there too. Then according to what country has more power, the USA historians in this case would probably think the history taught in Venezuela and South Korea is distorted!
Never you mind… what a mess! How about some “herstory” for a serious distortion!!! Yeah…I’m laughing this hard now:
