You think trends in America are irresistible to follow? Well, that's at least doubly magnified in South Korea. One person wears something new to school, and the next day, everyone's wearing it. I hate to admit it, but that is hardly an overstatement.
Earlier this year, my friend in Korea sent me a package of all sorts of gifts and one of them was a dress. At first glance, it looked like a cute dress, but when I took a closer look, I realized it was a style I've never seen before. I guess the best way to describe it in words is that it's a sweater-dress. You can click here for a visual of it, it's similar material to the sweater on the far left, only mine is more of a tan color and it's a dress. Hmm, on second thought, mine's not as furry, but it's the closest picture I could find. I was going to wear that dress the next day upon receiving it, and my mom mentioned something about how this style won't be trending in America until at least a year later, but I still wore it to school the following day. Nothing really happened except for one boy asked me, "What exactly are you wearing?" I mentally answered him with a "Don't make fun of it, your girlfriend will be wearing something like this next year."
So as was evident in the provided example above, it can be difficult at times to wear clothes from Korea in America because America is so behind Korea's trends. Take a look at the clothes trending in South Korea here, and by the way, just because my dress was unusual in the sight of American's (for now), that doesn't mean the rest of the clothes in Korea are like that. I mean it makes sense that new trend-setting items seem foreign at first and then once everyone takes it up does it become normal and accepted. However not all of the trendy clothing in Korea will be strange to Americans, at least, I don't think so.
Back to my point that America is so behind clothing trends, I can point out specific examples. Back in early 2009 Korea, bright, colorful pants/skinny jeans were trendy but if you were to wear them in America then, you would be counted as a weirdo. But now, if you were to wear a pair of bright blue pants to coordinate with your outfit in America, it's no big deal. I mean 2009 and now 2013, that's a pretty big gap isn't it? Then some other time, maybe a year or two ago, I was out shopping with my mom and either myself or my sister (I have horrible memory at times) wanted a certain style of sandals and my mom, who by the way is more Korean than I am, said, "This is now a trend here? This was a trend in Korea long time ago." Hash tag Korean-American probs.
The final opinion of mine that I would like to conclude with is that I'm not always 100% satisfied with Korea's obsession with trends. Trends start with a snap of two fingers in Korea and it ends almost just as fast. In this blog post as a whole, I only touched based on fashion trends, but the scary sweep of trends in South Korea goes for anything else - hair accessories (when I visited Korea in 2009, hair pins you can find in hair salons were a trend), certain cell phone accessories, catchphrases, 먹방 (muck-bbang) is another trend these days and it's someone who eats a lot, so eating a lot is a trend (don't ask - but hey, I like it, it gives me an excuse to eat away!), etc. Like I touch based on already, trends are weird at first but they become the norm as soon as everyone else around you are a part of it, so muck-bbang may seem extremely mysterious to you but the trend affect has done it's job on my brain - a muck-bbang, someone who eats a lot, seems to be alright by me.
Okay, now this paragraph will be the conclusion (why do I always talk so much?), back to my point about not liking Koreans' obsession with trends. It can be a lot of pressure in America alone to have to be updated with the latest popular thing and what not, but remembering my last visit to Korea, the pressure was way more overwhelming. And what are trends that people obsess over them to the point that those who do not take up those certain trends become outcasts? Seriously, the recent bullying issue of schools in Korea had something to do with owning a Northface jacket. Really?? So one of my disdains I have for South Korea is their superfluous obsession with following trends, and I wish all of society in general, regardless of in which country, would not be so attentive and judgmental regarding trends.
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