Women’s traditional clothing
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The women’s hanbok has a high-waisted silhouette with a distinctive bell-like shape:
- Chima and Jeogori: the jeogori is a short jacket with a white collar trim (dongjeong), closed at the chest with long ribbons called goreum. The chima is a wide wrap skirt, pleated at a high waistband and falling to the floor. Read more on our hanbok page.
- Bridal and royal robes: for weddings and court occasions, women wore the hwarot (embroidered with peonies, phoenixes and other symbols) or the wonsam with striped sleeves, together with a small crown called the jokduri.
- Accessories: common accessories include the norigae, a knotted silk pendant with tassels hung from the ties or the skirt, and the binyeo, a hairpin of silver, jade or wood.
Men’s traditional clothing
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- Baji and Jeogori: men’s hanbok consists of a hip-length jeogori jacket and baji, wide trousers suited for sitting on the heated floor (ondol), tied at the ankles with ribbons called daenim.
- Durumagi and Dopo: the durumagi is a long overcoat for formal outings. The dopo is a wide-sleeved scholar’s robe with a rear flap, worn by Joseon-era yangban aristocrats.
- Gat and headwear: adult men wore the gat, a wide-brimmed black hat woven from horsehair and bamboo, placed over a topknot cap (sangtugan).
- Samo gwandae: the groom’s wedding outfit, which copies the dress of high Joseon court officials: a round-collared robe (danryeong), an embroidered rank badge (hyangbae), a belt and a winged hat (samo).
Wedding attire
At a traditional Korean wedding (jeontong honrye), the bride wore a hwarot or a wonsam, ceremonial robes that were originally worn by women of the royal court. Brides of all classes were allowed to wear them on their wedding day. The hwarot is richly embroidered with flowers, birds and other motifs that stand for long life and happiness. The bride also wore a small crown (jokduri) or an ornate headdress, and red dots were painted on her cheeks and forehead. The groom wore the robe, belt and hat of a court official, known as samo gwandae.
Today most couples hold a Western-style ceremony, then change into hanbok for the pyebaek, a smaller ceremony that traditionally honoured the groom’s family and now often includes both families. The couple bow deeply to their parents, who toss jujubes and chestnuts that the couple try to catch in the bride’s skirt or a cloth, a wish for many children. The mothers of the couple often wear hanbok too, traditionally with the groom’s mother in cool shades such as blue and the bride’s mother in warm shades such as pink.
Festivals and celebrations
Hanbok is most often seen on the big family holidays and at milestones in a child’s life:
- Seollal, the Lunar New Year, usually falls in January or February. New clothes for the holiday are called seolbim, which traditionally meant a new hanbok, and many families still dress their children in one. Children perform a deep New Year’s bow (sebae) to their elders.
- Chuseok, the harvest festival on the 15th day of the eighth lunar month, brings families together for ancestral rites and shared meals. Some families wear hanbok for the day.
- A baby’s first birthday (dol) is a major celebration. The child usually wears a colourful hanbok, often with saekdong sleeves and a traditional cap, and takes part in doljabi: choosing one object from a table, which is playfully said to hint at their future.
Traditional clothing today
South Koreans wear Western clothes day to day. From around the 1990s, designers also began making modern hanbok, sometimes called saenghwal hanbok (“everyday hanbok”), with simpler cuts, shorter skirts and easy-care fabrics suited to daily life.
Hanbok has also become part of visiting historic places. Rental shops near Gyeongbokgung and other palaces in Seoul rent hanbok by the hour, and visitors wearing hanbok have been able to enter the royal palaces free of charge. Many rental outfits use bright colours, shiny fabrics or modern details that differ from historical dress.
