Fashion

Hey Everyone,

Hope you've been enjoying all our posts lately. Now that we officially know what day we're leaving (Friday, April 13th - my mom's brought this to my attention numerous times) it's almost like we're in a race to do and see everything we may have missed out on in Korea. Also, strangely it seems like if we don't write everything down we might forget about it all as soon as we leave the country. I'm sure it's not true, but the sudden increase in blogging is definitely due to us feeling pressed for time.

Anyway, I thought that I'd blog about the fashion in Korea because it's not only unique but sometimes absolutely and utterly hilarious. I'll start from the basics:

Sizes:
I went from being a size 3/4 to being a size 95 in Korea. It's not really the biggest size, since I did manage to find a size 105 (the baggier, the better for traveling). It's probably the first time in my life that I've actually not wanted to go shopping. Who wants to ask for a "size 95 please." (Actually it goes down more like this - I hold up 9 fingers and then 5 and then say "choo-say-yo" which means "give me!")

Shapes:
Also, it seems like clothes are intentionally made too small or too short. Really, I've seen t-shirts that literally look like a giant balloon and come down to your knees. And, I've probably seen some of the shortest skirts I ever have in my whole life. Andrew and I always laugh because if there's a girl wearing a short skirt there always seems to be a Korean boyfriend following closely behind to make sure no one's getting an eye-full. Funny.

Colors
It seems like the color swatch is somewhat switched in Korea. Men wear pastel pinks, blues, yellows, and purples. Women on the other hand wear black, red, white, orange, and brown. I mean what girl doesn't love a striped orange and brown balloon t-shirt that comes down to your knees? Whenever Andrew and I have gone shopping I have instinctively gone towards the "girly" colors only to discover that it was a guys t-shirt. I have yet to convince Andrew that pastel pink is his color.

Styles
Also, Korea gets a winter, and it really does get cold here sometimes (ot Saskatoon cold, I should add) but you still see girls sporting miniskirts when there is a blizzard outside (again, not a Saskatoon blizzard!). I usually saw these girls this winter when I was dressed in about 3 layers and a jacket on top of that. And I was still cold. These were the days that I wished that I could speak Korean to A) ask the girl what inspired her to wear a miniskirt in a blizzard, and B) If she would like to borrow a coat, or some tights, or let me buy her hot chocolate, or something.

Korean women definitely have a heel fetish. You will see them sporting heels in the strangest of situations - like running, walking up steep hills (almost hiking!), or yes, in the winter con miniskirt. They're really pretty and fancy, but as a girl who has pretty much lived in runners her whole life, I just can't understand it.

Sayings
This is probably the funniest and cutest part of Korean fashion. You will see the strangest (and often most inappropriate) sayings on shirts that absolutely cause your jaw to drop. The funniest part is that you will see these "cool" Korean guys that are sporting shirts that have random sayings in English that either don't make sense (at all) or are rather feminine such as "Cutie University." It makes me smile every time.


Anyway, that's all for tonight. Andrew's got a blog "schedule" for the next week, so you'll be hearing from us a lot more!

We miss you all so much!

Love, Tara
XOXO