Hanbok Designer Innovates Tradition
KOREA TIMES
04-21-2010 17:01
 Modernized hanbok featuring layered lace skirt matched with “jeogori,” or traditional jacket, designed by Kim Young-jin / Courtesy of Tchai |
By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter
Kim Young-jin, an elegant hanbok (Korean traditional costume) designer, has twisted traditional outfits with taffeta silks and laces into luxurious and feminine haute couture.
Her designs feature romantic, cute and sometimes humorous elements rather than sticking to the regular, conventional images of grace and elegance. She mixes skirts from the Three Kingdoms with jackets from the Joseon Kingdom, while matching the traditional jacket with a puffed lace skirt.
In her gallery-atelier nestled in Hannam-dong, Seoul, her colorful and adorable hanbok hang along with other artworks such as paintings, jewelry and sculptures she has collected over the years.
She prefers to be called a “contemporary” hanbok designer rather than a “modern” artist because she creates the dresses for those who are living in these times in accordance with their current needs.
“When it comes to the modernization of hanbok, people lean toward a casual and comfortable conversion so that it can easily be worn day to day. But I pursue the popularization of hanbok in a different way by turning it into an example of perfect haute couture for a special occasion,” she said in an interview with The Korea Times.
Now, Kim, director of her boutique brand “Tchai (Difference),” is turning her eyes to the more challenging sphere of bedding items she calls “Solco-On” that adopts “ondol (hot-floored room)” aspects of the traditional heating system, into the mattress in collaboration with Solco Biomedical, the medical appliances company.
She used the red rose color in the bedding fabrics to express the warmth of the Korean traditional heating system. “Solco and I share something in common. While I want to create fashion trends through hanbok, Solco wants to promote the ‘ondol’ system through modern technology,” she said.
The bedding item is a new product that adopts a self-regulation heating system to a new memory form, which is placed on a bed or couch.
The designer said that collaboration with other fields always inspires her to create new designs and patterns. “There is nothing better than the ‘ondol’-inspired beddings adorned with the hanbok-tinged designs to represent Korean cultural products in the global market,” she said.
Her venture in beddings is not accidental because the rising designer has attempted to make tradition-inspired brands from costumes and accessories to any fabric items such as pillows, blankets and cushions.
“I have thought about why Korea doesn’t have internationally popular brands such as Shanghai Tang. We can promote Korean luxury brands through traditional but chic designs using the hanbok,” she said.
Nevertheless, Kim pointed out that many hanbok designers seem to be trapped in a standardized concept of hanbok, just recreating the ancestors’ costumes.
“Keeping tradition is good. But I don’t like the idea that many Westerners love our traditional clothes just because they’re oriental and exotic. I don’t like that kind of appreciation. I want to compete with other international designers in the same format but with a unique motif of the hanbok. So I don’t want to emphasize Koreanness or tradition on that sense,” she said.
Kim said it is a pity to see hanbok-wearing declining in the Western-dominated culture of Korea today. “We are living in such a materially rich society compared to the past poverty-stricken era. But we are losing our spirituality more than ever,” she said.
Nowadays, as the concept of slow food is in the spotlight due to the popularity of well-being, fashion should be the same, she said. Although ready-made clothing is already replacing tailor-made dresses of the past, it is still worthwhile to go back to the slow and time-consuming process of making the dress. “We can wear a hanbok at special occasions such as parties and weddings. Hanbok should be appreciated as a contemporary, high-end outfit,” said Kim.
In her 20s, she was a thespian who also directed plays and made the costumes herself and then worked for Cerruti 1881 and Louis Vuitton as a supervisor. While working for the Western brands, she suffered an identity problem, searching for the outlet to create a more Korean-familiar look.
“The experiences from my previous career are helpful for me to form my philosophy when designing new clothes. Theatrical experience made me analyze the characteristics of the wearer while giving me insight on the various uses of textiles,” she said.