Hanbok at Work and School
Date Feb 11, 2022
The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism (Minister HWANG Hee, MCST) together with the Korea Craft & Design Foundation (President KIM Tae Hoon, KCDF) are staging a special exhibition on wearing Hanbok[1] (traditional Korean clothes, literally meaning “Korean clothing”) at work and at schools. The exhibition will be at the Culture Station Seoul 284[2] from February 9 (Wed) to 24 (Thur). This event will also provide customized consulting services to schools, companies, and organizations which plan to introduce wearing Hanbok at schools and at work.
In this exhibition, visitors can see 30 pieces of Hanbok clothes that can be worn at the places, including tourism spots and accommodations, which are considered main contact space for promoting Korean cultures to visitors. Also 15 pieces of Hanbok school uniforms, which were loved by students and their parents, will be displayed to give ideas how wearing Hanbok as school uniforms will look like.
The Hanbok to be exhibited were developed fully considering working environment for the workers at tourism-related industries, including hotels, restaurants, tourism spots, and transportation so that workers can work comfortably while showing the beauty and charm of the Korean traditional costumes.[3]
Since 2021, MCST has been carrying out a project to promote wearing Hanbok at work, especially focusing on cultural and art institutions where there are many opportunities to meet the public and tourists. Currently, 12 institutions including the National Hangeul Museum, Busan National Gugak Center, King Sejong Institute Foundation, Miryang City Hall, and Jongno-gu Office have introduced wearing Hanbok at work.
In addition, MCST and the Ministry of Education (MOE) signed Memorandum of Understanding in 2019 to promote Hanbok Project. As a result, a total of 81 pieces of Hanbok were designed, considering comfortability and beauty of Hanbok for students to wear at schools. In 2020, 15 schools introduced Hanbok as their school uniforms and another 19 joined in 2021, reaching 34 schools in total both in middle and high schools in Korea. In April 2022, new schools can join wearing Hanbok as their school uniforms.
In particular, this exhibition is special in that it opened window for consulting services for those who want to introduce Hanbok school uniforms at schools. The relevant procedures and methods will be able to ask at the consulting service desk. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, reservations are required in advance. However, on-site consultations will be available for exhibition visitors on February 11 (Fri) and 18 (Fri). Consultation is available on Mondays and weekends.
[1] The Hanbok can be traced back to the three Kingdoms of Korea period (1st century BC-7th century AD).
[2] Culture Station 284 restored the prototype of old Seoul Station to become a platform to create and interact with Culture, Art, including various exhibitions, performances, and workshops.
[3] Five designers, including Kwon Hye-jin (Hyeon), and Grand prize winner, Eun-Chae Yoon from Chungnam National University of the Design Competition in 2021, participated in designing a total of 95 types of Hanbok clothes, with a series of advice from workers at the hotel industry, professional Hanbok and fashion designers.