KOREA FOUNDATION

Stroll around the nebulous alleyways of Seoul’s Bukchon Hanok Village, and you’ll find groups of young people dressed in vibrantly colored robes of streaming silk almost everywhere. Some of them are just promenading about, the girls’ long skirts blowing gracefully with the wind. Others stand before beautiful old gates or in front of quaint shop windows, smiling brightly into their smartphones as they snap selfies, which they immediately upload onto Instagram or Facebook. In a quiet café, a group of young women in traditional clothing enjoy a cup of coffee, their florid, flowing attire contrasting delightfully with the modern, minimalist surroundings.
   Korea’s folk dress, the hanbok, is back, and in a big way. The owner of a hanbok rental shop in Jeonju, a historic southwestern town and popular weekend destination, told local media that during the week, between 200 and 300 people rent hanbok from his shop. During the weekend, the number climbs to 500, about 90 percent of whom are young women. In Seoul, a recent photo exhibit of people wearing the hanbok at Gyeongbokgung Palace got about 500 submissions from the public. Hanbok outings are becoming so popular, in fact, that the trend is invigorating shops in Seoul’s historic downtown neighborhoods, according to the Jongno-gu Office.
   Foreigners are joining in the fun, too. The owner of a hanbok rental shop in Seoul’s artsy Insadong district told Yonhap News that the number of his customers had grown 30 percent from last year, with the number of customers from Southeast Asia continually increasing. Many foreigners try on the hanbok as a way of experiencing something they can only experience in Korea. Some fans of Korean pop culture, however, come to Korea with a pre-existing love for the garment, acquired through historical dramas such as Dae Jang Geum.
   Social media-savvy young people are driving the trend. At the time of writing, a search of the Instagram hashtag “hanbok” turned up over 350,000 posts. Go to the Facebook page of a young Korean woman, and there’s a strong possibility you'll find a selfie of her in hanbok. Many young women are taking their hanbok when they travel overseas, too. While some don the hanbok as a way of creating a special memory, others wear it as an expression of individual identity.
   There is concern that the current popularity of the hanbok is nothing more than a fleeting, social media-driven fad, but as hanbok designer Kim Yeong-seok recently told the Ministry of Culture’s Policy Briefing website, “Even if it's just a fad for taking photos, the return of the hanbok to popular culture is a good phenomenon because it's an opportunity for people to become familiar with the clothing.” At last for now, it seems that the hanbok, once considered a thing of the past, is once against being worn with pride, and young people themselves are building a trend through which knowledge of Korea and its culture may spread.