By Honorary Reporter Fotini Chatzoudi from Greece

Nariman Talaal Salama thought of entering this year's Hangeul photography competition with the theme "Hangeul in My Daily Life." As an Egyptian fashion designer, she thought of making a trendy outfit with Hangeul (Korean alphabet) on it. She made the pants and bowtie and embroidered gold beads in a Hangeul shape on the bag.

▲ Egyptian fashion designer Nariman Talaal Salama made a trendy outfit with Hangeul (Korean alphabet) on it. (Nariman Talaal Salama)

In an interview on Sept. 21 via Facebook Messenger, she explained why she chose thin gold leaf material to add to the outfit and how she learned this method. "Through my studies of Hanbok (traditional attire) fashion, I learned how to put gold leaf on fabrics. This is an ancient traditional Korean craft geumbak used to decorate Hanbok through the use of patterns and shapes," she said.

Only those with royal status could wear Hanbok with geumbak. "I thought of putting a gold leaf on a modern outfit to connect the past with the present and future, thus restoring traditional Korean craft in modern clothing, not just for Hanbok," she said.

Salama said she made the outfit in the traditional method using molds, glue and gold leaves. "First, I drew Hangeul with glue on the pants and bowtie and placed the thin gold leaf. Then, with a brush, I started to scrape off the gold leaf so that the only part remaining was what was s stuck on the glue. Because it was a bit difficult and time consuming, I searched for ready-made Hangeul templates for sale, but couldn't find them. Nevertheless, I didn't give up," she said.

She found a place that makes customized plastic molds, saying, "After the store produced what I wanted, I completed the rest of the outfit."

It took her 90 hours over several days to make the outfit. "I had fun making it, plus I was very excited about the result," she said. "I wore it at a party and impressed my friends a lot."

Salama plans to wear it on Hangeul Day (Oct. 9) and eventually produce a collection of trendy designs with Hangeul on them.

enny0611@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.