Korean Costume
01 · Historical Records
Korean traditional costume is centred on white, which symbolises purity, goodness, nobility and sanctity, presenting a plain and elegant style; the Korean people are for this reason known as the "white-clad people". In the early twentieth century, with the penetration of the modern economy, machine-woven cloth and fabrics such as silk and satin began to enter the Korean-inhabited areas, and under this influence the colours of Korean costume also became diverse. The greatest characteristic of Korean traditional costume is the oblique front, with no buttons, fastened by tying long cloth ribbons; men's and women's dress are entirely different, with men wearing trousers and women wearing skirts. Korean traditional costume was gradually formed by the Korean people through long-term production and life, and retains the distinctive features of Korean folk costume.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Men's trousers are roomy in both the crotch and the legs, with cloth ribbons tied at the ankles, making it easy to sit cross-legged on the floor; the short jacket worn by women reaches the chest, while the long skirt reaches the heels. Korean costume takes homespun linen and homespun cotton as its principal raw materials, and is made by flat cutting; when worn it appears simple and bright and full of variety, perfectly expressing the beauty of line — straight and curved — of the dress. The colour scheme of the costume follows the principles of yin and yang and the five elements, using the colours of the garments and the textures of the fabrics to present different styles, so that contrasting colour matches and analogous colour matches each bring out the best in the other.
Cutting the slanted front without buttons
The front opens on a slant with no buttons, secured by a long tie that both closes and shapes the silhouette.
Wide men's trousers and the sitting tie
Men's trousers are cut wide through the seat and leg, tied at the ankle so they sit well when folded-legs are assumed.
Matching short jacket and long skirt
A jacket to the chest is paired with an ankle-length skirt, the two chosen in coordinated colours.
White dress for festivals
Plain white dress marks purity and gravity, and the simpler the colour the more solemn the occasion.
Motifs drawn from festival rites
Patterns are drawn from festival and wedding scenes, so each garment begins with the occasion it is meant for.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Korean costume takes the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture as its most concentrated centre of transmission, with the flatland Longjing area and the mountain villages on either side of the Tumen River each having their own approach: in the level plains, where it is easy to work in the fields, the sleeves and trouser ankles are neatly tightened; mountain households, because the climate is colder, mostly wear a waistcoat or apron over the long skirt to keep out the wind. Dress for festivals and ceremonial occasions has its own strict proportions. At the Elders' Festival and family weddings, women's short jackets and long skirts, and men's wide trousers and long gowns, are changed into as matching sets; the colours are mostly plain white or pale white, accessories are sparingly used, and plainness is preferred to gaudiness. The cutting of the costume is inseparable from the source of the cloth. In the past homespun linen and cotton predominated; after machine-woven cloth came in, the patterns and colour schemes still followed the old methods, so that the same garment often combines a newly cut form with patterns handed down from former times; the two coexist, which has instead become the common appearance of Korean costume in Yanbian.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
In addition, it has also inherited many characteristics of central-plains dress of the Sui and Tang periods, and is of extremely important value for the study of the history of costume. Yu Yulan (official archive record of the associated inheritor): Female, of Korean ethnicity, born in March 1955, native of Yanji City, Jilin Province. From childhood she learned the making and embroidery of Korean traditional costume from her mother Jiang Shanyu; in 1980 she opened her own clothing shop, and from then on has devoted herself to the making, transmission and development of Korean costume. She frequently goes into communities and villages to learn skills from veteran artists, and later established her own clothing factory. Over the years she has actively taken part in various publicity and display activities for Korean costume, paying attention to collecting material bearing the distinctive style of the Korean people from ethnic festival and ceremonial activities and applying it in costume-making. Representative inheritor of the national-level intangible cultural heritage project Korean Costume, fifth national batch. She lays stress on summing up the spiritual content of Korean costume and passing it on to her apprentices, having trained more than twenty exceptionally skilled students in succession, and has confirmed the fourth- and fifth-generation inheritors of the family.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Yu Yulan 05-3045
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。