From the journal.
Recipes, culture, hanbok, and the meaning behind Korean traditions. Written by Eric and Mrs. Lee Youngsook, posted as we cook and source.
The Ghost Stories Korea Inherited
In The Wailing (2016), the mudang begins her kut. Drums quicken, a rooster is struck, and the mountain village stops breathing…
Korean CultureWhat Korean Horror Knows About Us
Korean horror runs on a different engine than American horror. The American film delivers shock with sound design and jump cuts…
Hanbok GuidesWhen to Wear a Hanbok
You have a hanbok in the closet (or you are thinking about one) and you want to know when it is right to wear it. The short…
Hanbok GuidesThe Garment That Carries a Country
Walk through the National Museum in Seoul and you can trace a country through its collars. The wide, structured yoke of the…
Hanbok GuidesThe Order a Man Dresses
Bottoms first. That is the sentence Eric's father used before every Chuseok dinner in Seoul, and it is still the sentence Eric…
Hanbok GuidesThe Order a Woman Dresses
The 치마 goes on before the 저고리. This is the first rule, and it is the one most people get wrong the first time. Skirt, then…
Hanbok GuidesDressing in Order, the Men's Way
A groom stands in front of the mirror in socks and a white undershirt. His father hands him the 바지 first, then the 저고리, then the…
Hanbok GuidesDressing in Order, the Women's Way
Mrs. Lee lays the pieces on the bed in order. Underskirt first, then 치마, then 저고리, then the tie called 고름. She has done this for…
Hanbok GuidesWhat Men Wear Now
A father in San Mateo pulls his own father's black durumagi from a garment bag. It was tailored in Seoul in 1978, worn twice…
Hanbok GuidesWhat Hanbok Has Always Meant
Morning light in the studio hits the silk first. A jade 치마 hung on the wall catches it and holds it, the surface not shiny but…
Hanbok GuidesWhy Hanbok Still Means Something
Hanbok carries cultural weight that most clothing does not have to carry. A wedding hanbok is the same garment family as the…
Hanbok GuidesThe Tassel at Her Waist
The 노리개 on Mrs. Lee's writing desk is small, no bigger than a plum, jade knotted onto crimson silk cord with a short tassel at…
Hanbok GuidesWhat Goes on the Doljabi Table
The doljabi is the small ceremony at the heart of the dol, the Korean first birthday. A low table is set with a handful of…
Hanbok GuidesWhy the Child Reaches for Something
The child crawls toward the table. The grandparents lean forward. The camera is already recording. In a moment a small hand will…
Hanbok GuidesThe Cloth That Carries Everything
Mrs. Lee keeps a small stack of 보자기 in a drawer beside the linen napkins. One is pale celadon, pieced from silk scraps left over…
Hanbok GuidesWhat the Fabric Tells You
The Hanbok 101: Brief History, Different Fabrics, and How to Maintain Them A Brief History on Hanbok A hanbok holds two materials…
Korean CultureAsia's Traditional Dresses, Side by Side
A guest at a Bay Area wedding last summer wore a saree, sat beside a friend in an áo dài, and greeted the bride's mother in…
Korean CultureSixteen Hundred Years, One Image
A reader emailed the studio last spring with a simple question. Where does the hanbok come from, and can you show me. Eric sat…
Korean CultureWhat Traditionally Korean Really Means
What does it mean for something to be “traditionally Korean”? A magoja hangs in Mrs. Lee's studio, dated 1978, in a color that…
Korean CultureThe Wrap Skirt and the Tassel
A linen wrap dress in soft indigo lay across the fitting-room bench, a small jade 노리개 resting on the collar where it had been…
Korean CultureMore Than Clothing, Less Than Costume
Hanbok is the dress Koreans wore for the everyday and for the ceremony, and the same form held both. The court wore silk. The…
Hanbok GuidesThe Hanbok That Doesn't Date
Traditional hanbok holds a silhouette no other piece of clothing carries. A short jacket tied at the chest with a long ribbon. A…
Hanbok GuidesFrom Crown to Hem, the Silhouette
Watch a scene from Mr. Sunshine and look at how the actress moves. The 저고리 sits weightless at the collarbone. The 치마 pools…
Hanbok GuidesHanbok for the Whole Wedding Party
A Napa vineyard, late Saturday afternoon in October. The bride is in ivory silk. The mother of the bride is in a soft green…
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