“Why you buy hanbok??”
“It’s not that you wear it everyday right?”

I get that all the time. Collecting traditional costumes is always my passion. My family is very supportive. The most expensive clothing that my parents ever bought for me is the Japanese Yukata.

I was 17 years old then. I wore it for several occasions, chinese new year (once), multicultural day fashion and playing pachelbel canon in D on violin when I was in year 12. Too bad I don’t have the photos with me. I’m more than happy to show you how we played in the band in different traditional dresses.

I am longing to buy a Hanbok for 2 years. Of course that was my ONLY mission when I went to Korea.

We were dressed up during the kimchi making class. It was fun and we got to choose different hanboks.

You wear this kind in palace.

I don’t think I am allowed to take off the jacket like that. The hat belongs to the male though.

I did my research on prices and locations to get hanbok before I go there. And finally when we got the chance to go to Dongdaemum, we realized that we didn’t bring enough cash and no credit card.

Well done Cherry. Mom and I opened our purse in prayer. Oh great, 160,000 won in total. We were so worried.

There were many stalls selling hanboks at level 7, some are tailors and some were ready-made. I was so “captivated” by the colours.

I used my lousy Korean and sign language to bargain. With 150,000 won (about SGD 245), I can only get a simple design with no embroidery and the colour will also fade in one wash.

Furthermore, NO TRYING. Some colours of the jacket and the skirt just won’t go together. I wasn’t allowed to swap the colours too. And do you know how hard it was to tell the lady what colour I like? Instead of ‘PINK’, I had to say ‘PINK-OO’. Worse, some didn’t even know ‘Pink-oo’.

My last stop was this tiny stall. She was dealing with a group of customers and she looked very enthusiastic. She was very kind and patient. She dressed me up with MANY hanboks until I found the right colour. She can’t speak english at all. Surprisingly, I can understand what she was trying to ask me each time in Korean, and I answered in sign language.

This is the 150,000 won one. Very simple and no embroidery.

So this is what I have. Hanbok like this with embroidery and good fabric costs 200,000 won usually. I managed to convince her to sell me for 150,000 won instead. (after showing her that we did not have cash, credit card at hotel etc..all in sign language)

Hah! She gave me this pouch for FREE…Of course after asking her nicely lar(in sign language too)..

Posted under Hobbies , Travel | [9] Comments