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- Gorgeous-looking hanbok worn at weddings
- During the Joseon Period, commoners were allowed to wear royal family attire only once in their lifetime - on their wedding. In other words, hanbok worn at weddings originate from the royal family. The wedding hanbok in the photo was the one worn by the upper class people.
- The wedding hanbok worn by the groom was modeled after the official attire worn by the three chief ministers - yeongeuijeong, jwaeuijeong and ueuijeong. It was comprised of jajeok danryeong (purple-colored durumagi), gwanmo (hat) and waist belt. The waist belt is made of ivory and called seodae. The shoes worn with this hanbok are called mokhwa, which has a wood board attached to the sole and a red line put on it.
- The bride wore a red durumagi called hwalot, with rainbow-colored sleeves (saekdong), and they did their hair with a dragon head-shaped binyeo called yongjam. Peony (symbolizing wealth), swallowtail butterfly (many children), mandarin ducks (conjugal harmony), sea and mountain (life without hardship) are embroidered on the sleeves. Though it cannot be seen in this photo, it was customary to insert two phrases in dark blue - “iseongjihap” (wishing for harmony between the married couple) on the front and “baekbokgiwon” (endless blessings) on the back. The hwalot is not all that the bride wears. Under the hwalot, the bride wears a yellow jacket and a red skirt, plus many layers of undergarments.
- The hanbok Koreans wore throughout their lives
- Koreans wore an array of hanbok during their lives. A newborn baby wore a baenaet jeogori (a jacket for newborns without neckbands and gussets). On the first birthday or dol, the child wore a saekdong jeogori (rainbow-striped jacket). Saekdong is the sleeve of a jeogori (jacket) or durumagi (overcoat) made by patching cloth of various colors together or by dying the sleeves with different colors. The saekdong originate from the obangsaek (red, white, black, yellow and blue) highly emphasized by Koreans and indicate the five directions (east, west, south, north and center). The five colors were thought to drive away misfortune and evil. Recently, many families have their children wear this saekdongjeogori (colorful jackets) on national holidays. It can easily be seen that adult women also like to wear it on national holidays. On the seonginsik (coming-of-age ceremony), the relevant youngsters wore a gwanryebok (coming-of-age ceremony clothes). It is said that they changed clothes three times during the ceremony.
- Suui (shroud for corpses after dressing) show that the shrouds used by upper class families were made of satin, while those by commoners were made of silk. Until the mid-Joseon Period, there were no special designs for the suui but rather the deceased family put on the body a full dress that the deceased wore. (Refer to the photo of the shroud found in a tomb of the Cheongju Han Family.) Toward the end of the Joseon Period, a new custom was adopted of wiping and then clothing a corpse for burial. Thus, the shroud was made for the procedure. Corpses were prepared fro burial, dressed, and tied with a cloth called ‘yeompo.’
- During the Joseon Period, hemp cloth was rarely used to make a suui. Nowadays, many families use shrouds made of hemp cloth. In the past, family members of the deceased wore white or sosaek (the color of the cocoon yarn) or wore clothes made of hemp cloth. Nowadays, they wear black suits as in western countries, which is regarded to be in contrary with our tradition.
