KB News Desk
Korea’s fashion legends who have contributed to shaping the K-fashion industry of today and their iconic works are on display in southeastern city of Daegu, a city known for the rich history of its textile industry.
A special exhibition titled “Fashion Designers: People who Lead Culture,” currently underway at the Daegu Textile Museum, offers a glimpse into the world of Korean fashion icons from as early as right after the 1950-53 Korean War until the 2000s when K-fashion rose to global prominence, fueled by hallyu, or the Korean wave.
This exhibition focuses on the role of fashion designers in shaping the evolution of contemporary fashion culture. The first part of the exhibition features the designers of the 1950s who persevered and cultivated fashion culture despite the harsh conditions following the war.
“While the nation was struggling with poverty amid the devastation of the 1950s, Myeong-dong was already witnessing the emergence of fashionistas donning fur coats and women working as dressmakers in small boutiques. Modern fashion culture had begun to take shape,” said Moon Jae-eun, curator of the Daegu Textile Museum.
“This was a period when Europe, recovering from the World Wars, was introducing revolutionary styles like Christian Dior’s New Look. Remarkably, even in the impoverished and tumultuous Korea of the 1950s, fashion designers were present and receptive to European trends.”
As the epicenter of Korean fashion, Myeong-dong was where global trends converged. It was home to the first generation of Korean fashion designers who, together with cultural influencers, introduced international styles to the public. The rise of dressmaking shops cemented Myeong-dong’s status as the heart of 20th-century Korean fashion.
Korea’s first fashion show
Nora Noh, 96, was born Noh Myung-ja. At the age of 19, she ended a marriage of convenience to a Japanese soldier who helped her avoid becoming a “comfort woman,” a euphemistic term for sex slavery forced upon women of colonies during Japan’s imperial period. She then adopted the name Nora — a character from Henrik Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House,” who is a housewife that leaves her children and husband to discover herself — and embarked on a new life.
After studying fashion in Los Angeles, she returned to Korea and founded the House of Nora Noh in 1952, catering to a limited clientele.
She pioneered the haute couture format in Korea, hosting the nation’s first fashion show at the Bando Hotel in 1956. Noh’s initial fashion show collection, influenced by renowned designers such as Cristóbal Balenciaga, Christian Dior and Nina Ricci, incorporated a distinct French sensibility into her designs. It is no longer extant but exists only in records.
In the exhibition, the designer’s “Arirang Dress,” worn by Miss Korea 1959 Oh Hyun-ju, who represented Korea at the Miss Universe pageant in the same year, is on display. The dress, a fusion of hanbok and Western dress, garnered significant attention at the event and stands as one of Noh’s iconic pieces, showcasing her reinterpretation of traditional Korean attire.
She also launched the first ready-to-wear clothing line in 1963 and consistently drove fashion trends in Korea. Her mini-skirt designed for singer Yoon Bok-hee heralded the mini-skirt era of the 1970s.
“Nora Noh has a special place in Korea fashion history. Although there were instances of women presenting fashion during the Japanese colonial period, Nora Noh was the first person to showcase their designs as a professional fashion designer,” Moon said. “Noh and her contemporary Choi Kyung-ja were pioneers in hosting commercial fashion shows and introducing Western-style clothing to the public through their dressmaking shops, contributing significantly to the spread of fashion culture throughout the country.”
‘Military Blanket Coat’
Choi Kyung-ja (1911-2010), a first-generation Korean fashion designer along with Noh, sowed the seeds of fashion in the country, earning her the titles of “grand dame of Korean fashion.” The graduate of a fashion school in Tokyo, she returned to Korea and opened a women’s clothing store called Eunjaok, the first Korean couture house, in Hamhung, now in North Korea, in 1937.
Relocating to South Korea in 1948, Choi pioneered fashion education by founding the International Dressmaking Institute. Her legacy further solidified with the establishment of Kook-Je Institution of Fashion Design in 1961, Korea’s first fashion school. Over her career, she mentored over 50,000 students, including fashion luminaries like Andre Kim, Lie Sang-bong and Lee Shin-woo.
This exhibition features the “Military Blanket Coat” designed by Choi, repurposing U.S. military blankets, a relief item during the Korean War when the country was in ruins and the population faced starvation. The coat has been designated as a registered Cultural Heritage.
“Celadon Dress” designed by Choi Kyung-ja is showcased at the Daegu Textile Museum. Courtesy of Daegu Textile Museum
Also on display is Choi’s innovative blouse made from surplus parachute silk after the Korean War, which was designated as Registered Cultural Heritage in 2022.
“Her ‘Parachute Silk Blouse’ may seem unremarkable by today’s standards, but it has been revolutionary with its ruffled design and sheer, see-through fabric, in an era when people primarily wore traditional hanbok or monpe, a loose-fitting agricultural work-trouser,” Moon said. “Its popularity was so immense that when parachute silk became scarce, similar nylon fabrics were used as a substitute.”
Choi’s iconic “Celadon Dress,” which was showcased at the first international fashion show held in Korea in 1962, has been inspired by the 918-1392 Goryeo Kingdom’s “Celadon Vase Inlaid with Crane and Pine Tree Design.” This dress praised as harmoniously blending Western aesthetic elements with the curvaceous beauty of Korean celadon, garnering significant attention. The dress featured a skirt adorned with cranes and pine trees, painted by artist Lee Se-duk.
“In the 1950s, Korean designers incorporated traditional Korean elements into their Western-style dresses, demonstrating a desire to showcase their cultural heritage. Despite using Western dressmaking techniques, they frequently employed ‘yangdan,’ a fabric used for hanbok, and incorporated traditional Korean colors and patterns,” Moon said.
2nd-generation designers
The 1960s was a pivotal decade for Korean fashion, witnessing the debut of a new generation of designers educated abroad and domestically. With Western influences on the rise, the traditional hanbok gradually gave way to modern styles like home dresses, sleeveless tops and hot pants, reflecting trends popularized in films and television.
The exhibition showcases a range of iconic designs, including Andre Kim’s “Velvet Dress and Coat,” his debut designs after graduating from the Kook-Je Institution of Fashion Design; Josephine Jo ‘s “Velvet Dress,” created under the tutelage of Pierre Cardin; as well as Lee Yong-ryeol’s “Colored Dress.”
“While many people believe Andre Kim studied abroad, he was actually one of the first students of Choi Kyung-ja. Growing up poor and breaking into a field dominated by women, he pursued a career in fashion. He presented a unique masculine image that was uncommon at the time, characterized by his feminine speech patterns. He was adept at catering to women’s preferences and often employed language that celebrated feminine beauty,” Moon said.
“His color choices and silhouettes were carefully selected to emphasize femininity. Those velvet coat and dress on display were some of his earliest designs when he first opened his shop in Myeong-dong. They actually belonged to Choi Kyung-ja’s eldest daughter,” the curator added.
Fashion as cultural expression
This exhibition highlights the creations of top-tier Korean designers who have become cultural icons. The works of nine renowned designers including Lie Sang-bong, Rubina, Sul Yun-hyoung and Pak Dong-jun, members of the Fashion Group International (FGI) Korea, are on display, demonstrating the essence of contemporary Korean fashion.
“The artworks showcased at the fashion show underscore the significance of high fashion. While ready-to-wear clothing also reflects a designer’s unique philosophy and values, haute couture allows designers to express their artistic elements without commercial constraints, serving as the ultimate representation of their design philosophy,” Moon said.
Designer Rubina, known for her emphasis on curves and three-dimensional tailoring, was a former model who transitioned into design in 1983. She rejected rigid silhouettes and instead favored a bohemian aesthetic that allowed for free movement. Her designs, often composed of lines and shapes, were intentionally unstructured to allow the wearer’s movement to define the silhouette.
Lie Sang-bong’s dresses inspired by the musical score of Korean folk song “Arirang,” left, and Korean poet Kim So-wol’s poem are on display at the Daegu Textile Museum. Korea Times photo by Park Jin-hai
Kim Hong-ki, a fashion curator who previously worked for the fashion shows of renowned designers including Andre Kim and Icinoo, said the Korean fashion industry has grown significantly alongside the rise of Korean culture, including movies and dramas.
“Designers like Wooyoungmi, who has flagship stores in Paris, and Kimhekim, who is gaining international recognition, are driving this growth,” he said during a recent lecture series highlighting the role of fashion designers at the museum.
“Fashion designers humanize clothing, using fabrics to embody the spirit of an age,” he added. He cited the examples of Coco Chanel who liberated women’s fashion with comfort and simplicity in an era bound by corsets in the 1920s as well as Yves Saint Laurent, who declared that aristocratic and expensive couture is not the language of our time, arguing that ready-to-wear is the future and introducing pantsuits for women in 1966, when France didn’t allowed women to wear pants in public.
“The role of a fashion designer is to think, predict and fight. It’s about revealing what’s to come, not what is now. In an era where 3D printers create clothes, we will live in a future where threads scan the body, weave directly onto the fabric and are cut. The important question today’s fashion designers should ask is what role does clothing play,” Kim said.
