Hanbok school uniforms to be shown at V&A Museum in London

Hanbok-inspired school uniforms, created as part of a project led jointly by the Culture Ministry and the Ministry of Education, will be shown in an exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum.

The Culture Ministry said Tuesday that it has delivered a number of hanbok uniforms and a certificate of donation to Rosalie Kim, curator of the Korean Gallery at the V&A Museum. The samples include hanbok uniforms for boys and girls.

The V&A Museum plans to hold its “Hallyu! The Korean Wave” exhibition from November 2022 to June 2023, introducing how the Korean Wave became a global phenomenon through the success of K-pop, Korean films and TV dramas.

The upcoming exhibition will also feature other hanbok looks, including those worn by K-pop stars and more traditional forms of hanbok, too. Hanbok has recently been creating a buzz with K-pop stars such as Blackpink and BTS sporting hanbok styles.

“It is a great opportunity to introduce the beauty of hanbok to the world at an exhibition on Hallyu at the V&A Museum,” said the Culture Ministry’s cultural policy officer Lee Jin-sik. “We will work with the museum to introduce various forms of hanbok, from traditional hanbok to daily hanbok.”

The Culture Ministry, Ministry of Education and Hanbok Advancement Center launched the hanbok-inspired school uniforms project in 2019 to promote wearing hanbok in everyday life. Eighty-one hanbok uniform looks have been designed, with some 34 schools to adopt hanbok uniforms in 2022.

By Im Eun-byel (silverstar@heraldcorp.com)