Geez, how fast time flies — I can’t believe it’s been nearly a full year since the previous Chuseok, or Korean Thanksgiving, which is among the biggest holidays of the year.

The actual day falls on Sunday, but the holiday weekend kicks off today, which means lots of traditional Korean foods and desserts (like the customary rice-cake songpyun), special holiday television programming (movies, family-friendly fare), and yes, lots and lots of hanboks. Particularly, stars dressing up to wish people a happy holiday.

Check out the stars in all their hanbok finery >>

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Prospective Miss Koreas lined up on August 1 to participate in the 2008 Miss Korea Hanbok Fashion Show & Cultural Performance. The event, which took place in the Grand Ballroom of Seoul’s Namsan Hyatt Hotel, precedes the the 52nd Miss Korea Pageant, which kicks off on August 6.

The reigning Miss Korea 2007, Lee Ji-sun, recently competed (but failed to make the cut, alas) at the Miss Universe Pageant in Vietnam last month. She was, however, a key part of the fashion show, dressing in a royal hanbok with formal headdress, partnered with actor Go Joo-won (below, they are the first two in the top row).

Via Hankook Ilbo

RELATED POSTS

• Modernizing the hanbok
• Happy Chuseok!

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Love the hanbok-inspired dress, hate the clown makeup and the cultural pandering.

“Fashion designer” Nicky Hilton arrived in Korea to launch her clothing line in Korea. Well, at least Paris wasn’t with her. At Seoul’s Coex Intercontinental Hotel for a press conference, May 22, 9am.

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I don’t really care about fashion much, and I don’t blog about it, but I saw various mentions on the interwebs of Canadian actress Sandra Oh’s above tribute to the hanbok, or traditional Korean dress, which she wore to the SAG awards earlier this week. The look was deemed worthy fodder for fugging on Go Fug Yourself (here it is again on Chosun daily).

The Fug Girls did backpedal from their scorn when they realized her dress was a take on a national costume; they were probably afraid of seeming culturally insensitive or ignorant or whatever. I don’t think the dress is ugly, but it’s not really all that interesting either — neither as a gown in and of itself, nor as an innovative new take on the hanbok. It’s just so LITERAL. There are ways to modernize the hanbok more cleverly. Making the bow really really big isn’t the only way to make something seem fashion-forward. And there are Korean designers doing it better. See what I mean after the jump.

SONG OF THE DAY

Sorea – “사랑바라기” (wishing for love), from the soundtrack for drama series Goong S.
[ zShare download ]

Modernized hanboks, ooh pretty >>

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Tomorrow is Chuseok, also called Hangawi, which is the Korean version of Thanksgiving and one of the largest (perhaps the largest) holidays in the Korean calendar. That means a break from work, lots of traditional food, including the customary Chuseok songpyun dduk (a type of sticky pounded-rice cake with a sweetened sesame center), family time, and paying respects to ancestors and elders.

And what would a festive holiday season be without horrendous traffic, clogged travelways, and tons of special family-friendly television programming?

It also means lots of photo ops for celebrities as they don the traditional hanbok dress.

Here we have actress Seo Ji Hye looking pretty in her hanbok — which is a flattering look on her, as you can also check out in the cute two-episode drama (also starring Super Junior’s Choi Shi Won) The Story of Hyang Dan. She’s one of many mostly female celebrities whose pictures can be found everywhere these days, in the Chuseok season.

(Random) SONG OF THE DAY

Fanny Fink – “민트 하늘의 꿈” (Dream of mint sky) [ zShare download ]

Check out other actresses looking pretty in their hanboks >>

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