A Budget-Friendly Guide to Korean Fashion Pt. 1: Street Style

If you’re anything like me, when you see what Kpop idols wear to the airport, or while just going to the store, you think, “dang, I wish I could look like that”, but you know the outfit is head-to-toe designer labels, and you don’t have a small fortune to spend on a completely new wardrobe. Fortunately, I’m here to tell you the staples of different types of Korean fashion, and that there is absolutely a way to achieve those iconic looks without breaking the bank.

Along the way, I’ll throw in some Korean vocabulary pertaining to clothing; also, I’ll include a few fun and important facts about the differences between Canadian and Korean fashion culture

Obviously, style is whatever you make it, and there is no one right way to create a look, so please don’t feel pressured by what you read here today. This first part of my series will just be breaking down the types of outfits generally worn in this style; feel free to go out and make it your own!

All that being said, let me tell you about how I’ve been slowly turning my closet into a veritable tribute to different types of K-Fashion, without— if you’ll pardon the pun —losing my shirt!

Korean Street Fashion | 홍대

Often referred to as Hongdae Street Style in Korea, but certainly not limited to those in the Hongdae area (considered to be the most fashionable part of Seoul), the simplified term “street fashion” may sound strange to the Western ear unless you’re tapped into the world of fashion already.

This highlights the first major difference between Korean and Canadian clothing culture: while we’ll go out wearing almost anything up to and including pajamas unless we have a good reason not to, Koreans consider their appearance highly important, therefore, even casual clothes are picked out and put together with a style in mind.

Street Fashion is a broad term, as there’s no one type of article or accessory to easily establish the style; however, I’ll let you in on what are generally considered to be staples of the style.

Generally speaking, Korean-style Street Fashion is gender-neutral, with looks featuring baggy clothes that obfuscate body shape. It’s trendy to wear matching t-shirts, hoodies, and jackets with your romantic partners!

So where do you get this kind of stuff for a decent price? Well, I personally love KORE, a street fashion company owned and operated by Koreans (but based out of LA, so shipping to Canada isn’t nearly as expensive!), not just because their clothes are high-quality and size-accessible, but also because they work their Korean heritage and culture into the designs. I was actually lucky enough to visit a KORE pop-up store while I was in Las Vegas for BTS’ Permission To Dance shows and managed to buy a wicked transparent concert bag!

Women who dress in Hongdae Style tend to pair loose-fitting tops with tight pants or leggings, and in the warmer months, it’s common to see them wear the same baggy shirts with shorts so short they’re hidden above the hemline. Sometimes a belt is worn at the waist to emphasize body shape, or to give the impression of wearing a skirt. Another stylish way to dress is combining tight tops (crop tops are super in-fashion right now) and baggy bottoms with lots of straps and/or chains.

Showing off bare legs is key for girls, not only because it complements the style, but also because it allows for showing off cool shoes and boots (generally speaking, there are no high heels in Korean Street Fashion; rather, anything with a big platform and high-top sneakers are the go-to for footwear).

Here’s another difference between our clothing cultures: while Korea would be considered more modest since it’s rare for women to show cleavage and bare shoulders, when it comes to the lower half of the body, you can put your legs on display as much as you like!

Now, I will admit that finding cool, K-Fashion-able footwear in a size and style you like can be challenging to do with limited funds; however, good things come to those who wait, and if you shop smart you can totally afford it. My trick? Shop for boots in the summer, and for shoes and sandals during Boxing Week. I should also advise you to be careful about which websites you trust. Sadly there are a lot of fast-fashion websites out there that will steal pictures from other vendors and then ship out poor-quality copies, if you ever actually get your order at all (I was taken in a few times before I learned my lesson), so find reviews before buying anything if the price seems too good to be true.

There are two websites I get almost all my fashionable footwear from: Canadian company ShoeFreaks.ca, and UK-based company Dolls Kill. While it seems at a glance that their stock is primarily goth, rave-wear, and various kinds of alternative punk, you may notice that a lot of these styles have similar elements to those seen in Hongdae fashion. Wait for their sales and free shipping events, and you’ll get more bang for your buck.

Men are likely to pair baggy shirts with baggy bottoms for an oversized Hongdae look, but lately skinny jeans are in vogue, creating a contrast in their style in the same way girls do. You may also notice that when it comes to guys’ clothing, most of it is black on black on black. There are of course deviations (plus plenty of grey), and different sub-genres of street fashion that incorporate more color. Typically though, bright colors are reserved for girls.

When it comes to accessorizing your street style, the general rule is: the bigger, the better. Thick and chunky chains— worn as necklaces and bracelets; or clipped to the sides of pants —are definitely main staples of street fashion, and they don’t need to be expensive, or even made of metal! Colorful plastic chains are in-style. Complement your jewelry with oversized sunglasses, dangling earrings, and chunky statement rings.

The other most common accessory for this style is hats. Bucket hats are extremely trendy for both men and women; however, girls tend to lean towards cute, colorful, embroidered or printed bucket hats, while guys favor those with wide brims that go down far enough to more or less cover their eyes. Other hats you often see in Hongdae Style are snapbacks, dad caps, and knit beanies worn high on the head.

For budget-conscious accessories, the easiest thing to turn to are fast-fashion websites like Shein and Wish (especially Wish if you want knock-offs of luxury brands), but since the merchandise is often created under morally questionable conditions, I have an alternative. You might be surprised to hear that stores for teen girls, like Claire’s and Ardene, have an awesome accessory selection (with plenty of gender-neutral items) and frequent (if not permanent) BOGO sales, but that is in fact where I get stuff like sunglasses, jewelry, headbands, and hats. Sometimes you can even find cool shoes there.

An interesting similarity between Canadian and Korean fashion culture is our tendency to prefer dressing in layers. Not only do we all know you can come up with much more unique and flattering ensembles when you build it up in layers, but because both countries sit at nearly the same longitude (on opposite sides of the globe) and that means we experience similar weather. If you’re reading this, you may know what it’s like to try dressing for a spring day that’s 10C when you leave for work, 18C on your lunch break, 25C when you head to dinner, and 14C by the time you head home.

Now, if you’ve read through this whole post and thought, “But what if I WANT to wear the cool name-brand stuff?” Like I said earlier, patience is a virtue, and if you exercise yours, you can totally rock some expensive brands for cheap. How? The store Winners is my first go-to; they carry overstock and out-of-season clothes from brand names, and sometimes you can find them marked  to less than half the original price. The catch with Winners is that the stock and sizes are completely unpredictable, so it’s advisable to swing by every three or four months to have a better chance of finding something you like in your size. I’ve also come to love the Canadian store One of a Kind (there’s one in downtown Ottawa I’ve visited several times), because every month they pick a limited selection of luxury brand items to put on sale, meaning you can get clothes and shoes from big-name streetwear companies, like Yeezy, Anti Social Social Club, Bape, Off White, Kaws and more, for 20-60% off.

And that’s a maybe-not-so-brief look at Hongdae Style, aka Korean Street Fashion! I hope that some of the suggestions I made above will help save your wallet when you want to dress like a fashion genius strutting the streets of Seoul. I also hope you found today’s post informative and entertaining enough to join me again for the next installment of this series on K-Fashion.

You can find the original posting here