A 100 Years Journey of Korean Face

Welcome everyone. *Spoiler alert: Female's style video below (For man, good experience bro)

Style change and so does the appearance of woman. However, can't you believe that historical and political background also affect the current trend during that time. Watch the video above and this post will explain more the background of each year style. Interested, click this post and find out more.
As Aziz said in the class (that skinny guy from Arab, remember?), style, appearance and standard of Beauty is always change throughout the time. Example, today long hair with pale skin is popular, However ten years later, dark skin with short hair might be the trend. My journey on youtube searching for interesting topic for blog end up in one amazing video describing Korean trend since 100 YEARS ago including South and North Korean. I will try to connect the background behind their appearance  in this video and hope it make sense and you like it.

1910: End of Kingdom Era

1910 is the last decade where Korean still enjoy their freedom and kingdom dynasty. Few years later, Japanese started their invasion and enslave all the Korean. As we can see from video, the looks of Korean is natural in this time and show a true beauty of Korean (No globalism affect the looks of Korea). Pale skin without red cheeks, single yet beautiful eyelids, and red lips decorate the picture of a top class lady during that time. Also seen in a lot of dramas, often woman wear Hanbok and that kind of hairstyle. Anyway, it feels relaxing to see this kind of trends around you.

1920-1940: Japan Colonization

Once a monk said that the one who survive in this world is not the strongest, but the one who adapt well. Fashion during the time adapt the Japanese high class woman style in order to look high class and differentiate that they are not a slave. As you can see, we can see transition such as short hair with hat (in 1930) with make up and pale skin. Not bad for a style, but sadly the culture left behind.

North Korean: 1950-Now

In 1945, Korean split into two sides, Republic in South (follow USA) and Communism in North (Russia). For communism, what matter the most is how you contribute the country and alive. They don't really care about their own appearance. In addition, to promote equality on every man and woman, North Korean only give you specific kind of Hair Style which is short hair. Short hair is not only promote the gender equality, but also give you mobility to fight and increase the chance of survival in the war. Yeap yeap, no variation on North, but short hairstyle is not that bad.

South Korean: 1950-1960

South Korean even though under USA and allow anyone to have the same hairstyle, but economically they are still low. Not only that, they were also in war with their own brother (Korean war), thus they don't have a luxury to even take care of themselves and focus more on survival.  In addition, during 1950-1960, the western clothing just recently arrived and not booming yet. Thus the trend is simple and similar as the year before without any effect from globalism.

South Korean: 1970-1990

South Korean improve "dramatically", but WHAT IS THIS????
Seriously, too much make up, too colorful, weird hippie hairstyle, and big glasses.
Alright let me explain. South Korean more likely to follow trend from outside and bring it inside. The new western clothing which is booming and improvement on economical status create a weirdest style in the world. Let's start everything from USA.

During that time, Hippie style is popular in USA. Designer use their own creativity and try to design the clothes of the "future". In addition, a television with color just created around 1960-1970 and yeah, this support hippie style around the world. A cool fact is the advent of this television bring out a new regulation of South Korean hairstyle and uniform for school. I can't really blame this style, but sometimes you don't need to imitate fashion from outside too much.

South Korean: 2000-2010

IMF collapsed the fashion industry but it recover on 1999 with more high class brand from western. Thus high class ladylike style in south Korean is popular. The only thing I learn from this is Korean is really good at imitating and improving it to the next level. For example, a ton of make up, plastic surgery for double eyelids, and glamorous hairstyle from saloon created a new style. And also in 2010, their fashion actually affect the world (example, tight jeans) due to K-wave. I don't really hate this style, but a lot of make up and plastic surgery is not my style.


To summarize, political situation, culture, and even scientific invention affect the style Korean woman greatly. For example, North Korean with their everlasting short hair and South Korea with their overly make up and plastic surgery to look more like western. As a man itself, I don't actually care about style of a woman (or even myself) and sometimes doesn't understand why they don't like comfortable style (I guess I am pretty dense man). Anyway remember, appearance is devious and a true beauty comes from inside :D

Reference:
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SWHjWtykns
Image: Images.google.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fashion_in_South_Korea