Koreans are obsessed with following the latest trends, and when it comes to trends, you can't forget about the role that fashion brands play in Korean culture. Now, I say fashion brand in Korea and you may be expecting some fancy, ridiculously expensive, foreign brand you've never heard of, but actually, Koreans all take up foreign brands. Heck, I hardly even know Korean brand names.
Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren, Coach, etc. are all loved by Koreans. But, being that these brands are American and they're being sold in another country, these brands are a whole lot more expensive there than it is here in America. So when Koreans visit America, they exclaim about how cheap the big name brand products are (while we Americans just shake our heads) and they crazily buy them up and take them back to their home country. So it's easy to take gifts to America, just get them a big name brand merchandise.
Of course, when it comes to international name brands in Korea, or for that matter, any other foreign countries, there are fakes. People make fake Coaches and what not, and if you have an Asian friend, you may have heard of this.
However, although Koreans are all about taking up trends, unlike in America, not having a name-brand clothing is not necessarily frowned upon. For example, let's say there's a certain winter fashion style that's trending now in Korea (and there always is), and as long as you take up that style, then you're good. It doesn't matter if it's not Calvin Klein or Northface or whatever. Of course, in America, it's not like you're considered living under a rock for not wearing expensive name brand clothing, there are always fashion style trends here too. But I feel like when I go to school, I have to wear something from like American Eagle or Hollister, but not necessarily take up some trend. Of course I do take up trends in general, like that pretty much annual trend of everyone where UGG boots, but it's like the focus is on what store name is stamped across your shirt. But Koreans are more about following the trend itself, not necessarily wearing the brand everyone wears. Am I making that distinction clear? So in "American terms", as long as you take up a trending style, it doesn't matter too much whether you got that trending outfit from Wal-Mart or American Eagle.
So I wish Korean clothing was more prominent in America. One thing I noticed for one is that it's more modest than the majority of the popular clothing worn here. And if I don't have to worry about where I buy my clothes from, as long as it's still cute and accepted by modern-day society, it would make things easier. Anybody else out there agree with me? (Seriously, I appreciate all the views but feel free to leave a nice comment! :D)
But I have to point out the factor that in Korea, you wear uniforms in middle and high schools. And then in elementary schools, it's not about store brands and the same thing can be said about America; most American students don't really care about what they wear to school until middle school.
Although I stated my pretty accurate observation that in Korea it's trending style > name brand, don't get the idea that Koreans absolute don't care about name brands. Like I said, they gobble up them name brands. In my blog post that I linked in the first paragraph, I mentioned how not having a Northface jacket in Korea has caused bullying issues. So yeah, name brands are big deal in Korea. It's not a good factor to have with their crazy obsession with following the trends, so this does put Korea in a bad light, but society can be harsher in Korea than it is in America. But hey, what country out there is perfect? Korea still has it's pros too. I still love So Ko!
(667)
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