WHEN I was called upon to be a judge for a hanbok fashion styling competition, I was admittedly delighted. Having been exposed to Korean arts and culture while leading a delegation of Malaysian artists to an international competition in Jeju, and from other visits to South Korea, I was familiar with clothing reminiscent of the late Joseon Dynasty of the early 20th century. More than three decades ago, hanbok was popular but as time went by with fluctuating fashion trends, the designs have changed tremendously alongside Korea’s turbulent history. The younger generation have even begun evolving the hanbok to make it more wearable.
The rainbow colours, shapes and even curves and materials of hanbok are being applied to other contemporary forms of clothing. Despite its beauty and history, the use of traditional hanbok was largely limited to formal functions or traditional holidays. To help preserve such a distinctive heritage, the concept of a Hanbok Festival was conceived which also acted as a showcase of various elements of Korean culture and tradition. Such a festival is popular with tourists and tends to attract the younger generation into modelling the hanbok. A Hanbok Festival was recently held in Malaysia on February 3 & 4 at the LIGHTBOX.
Though the venue lies outside the borders of Kuala Lumpur, it was easily reachable by a ride on the comfortable, gleaming MRT trains to Sungai Buloh station and a few minutes drive from there onwards. We arrived at this brick-style 4-storey building which is a popular centre for gatherings and community events. An entire floor is dedicated to a hall capable of hosting several hundred guests with ease. Since its opening, the LIGHTBOX has developed as a platform for local and international artists. For festival goers, there was a café offering coffee and cakes, booths with Korean products for sale and food trucks on site. A special guest artist was invited from Kuching, none other than the sweet- voiced Angelina Bong who is a visual artist and poet with an impressive international portfolio. She was there to exhibit her paintings and to share her poetry, some of which supplements her artwork. Needless to say we were in awe of her words which captured much of our imagination.
The passionate Bong also conducted a workshop on beaded embroidery upon paintings during the two day event. The festival kicked off with an awesome drum performance, following which the lights went off and Angelina Bong emerged from the dark into the spotlight in a pretty pink hanbok. All were silent as she recited a self-composed poem which tells the story of a royal princess from the Joseon Dynasty seeking her lover and finding him in the modern world. This was an allegory for the traditional hanbok moving into the contemporary age. The highlight of the event, the Hanbok Fashion Styling Competition saw 23 participants styling models in hanbok of diverse colours and patterns complete with accessories, hairstyle and make-up. The models in this competition were mostly students from Inti College.
The judges of the competition were hanbok master Han Jin Hee, stylist Swing C from Runway Productions, Abdul Wahid bin Mohd Shariff who boasts over 40 years’ experience of teaching fashion design and myself who has choreographed fashion shows both locally and internationally. Overall, we were impressed by the striking parade of both traditional and contemporary hanbok. The winner of the Hanbok Fashion Styling Competition was Mohd Azim Umar and his model, the tall and beautiful Sasha Aziz. Succeeding the competition was a fashion show featuring traditional forms of hanbok paraded by 15 finalists of the Runway Supermodel Search Asia 2018, organised by Runway Productions.
All pieces as seen in the competition and show were created by hanbok master Han Jin Hee from South Korea. It was indeed a humbling experience for stylists and models to interact with this lady whose creations have been featured in hit Korean dramas and worn by renowned artists; including Im Yoon-ah of Girl’s Generation, ZE:A’s Im Si-wan and actor-model Hong Jong-Hyun. In her speech, Han explained that the festival is a means of retaining their Korean identity and culture; and gave an insight into the background and significance of the hanbok.
Six finalists of the Runway Supermodel Search Asia 2018 were announced by catwalk guru Benjamin Toong at the conclusion of the fashion show to add further excitement to the Hanbok Festival held at LIGHTBOX, Sungai Buloh. With Chinese New Year in the air, it is an interesting bit of trivia to know that the Koreans do celebrate the Lunar New Year as well. The equivalent holiday is known as Seollal and falls on the same date. February 16, 2018 will in fact be a day of mutual celebration across China, Mongolia, Tibet, the Korean peninsula and Vietnam.
