Kim Nam-Hee, a Kookmin University (KMU) graduate of fashion design, is a representative of the brand Dolsilnai, which produced the hanbok event uniforms for the Korean athletes of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. This became a hot topic because it was the first time that hanbok uniforms were used in Olympic history. The Kookmin Review sat down with Kim to talk about it. The following are edited excerpts from the interview. 

What did you focus on the most when designing the Olympics’ first hanbok uniform?
At first, the Korea Sports Association for the Disabled was going to produce normal uniforms but after they came up with the idea to make hanbok uniforms, it asked for our assistance. Since they had little experience with hanbok, they found it difficult to design such a uniform. So, Dolsilnai accepted their proposal to participate as a hanbok specialist. The first thing we considered was the color of hanbok to express a thing effectively. Usually, white, celadon green, and deep blue are the colors used to represent Korea, but we thought about what other colors could serve the same purpose. So, we decided to choose iridescence as the representative color of Korea to use in the hanbok uniform.

Also, we tried to develop a form of a wooden flag and added the double chest folds which were worn as a bureaucrat- ic uniform of the officials through the Goryeo and Joseon dynasties, but we didn’t want our hanbok to be seen as martial arts suits. So, we considered attaching gold foil decoration to add a little glamor and represent winning gold medals, after  we completed the design of the jacket. Moreover, we tried to apply a new kind of design to the pants while adding daenim to maintain traditionality. The outer was a piece of clothing that the team wore during their admission and entry, so we designed it as a formal suit using high-quality yarn imported from Italy to give the athletes a more dignified look. Consider- ing the athletes’ long waiting time and the high temperature of Japan, we made the sokjeogori with functional fabrics that are breathable to help keep the team comfortable and in top condition. We also made the pants using fabric containing 70% natural materials to help reduce fatigue and spandex to promote comfort. We did our best with the fabrics to keep the athletes in great form.

What are the most memorable moments of your time at Kookmin University?
When I first entered the Department of Fashion Design, it was just a score that led me to enroll at a school. Also, I The book showed me that the most important thing was the way I live, which led me to think a lot about my attitude toward and expectations for the rest of my life. 

One day, I just happened to come across a hanbok, and it made me feel that I had finally found something I could do with my life while also contributing to society. After that, I passionately took classes that allowed me to focus on studying hanbok, and I became student president as well. After I realized what I wanted to do, my life totally changed. I started setting goals and planning my work. When I think back on my university life, I remember all of the very precious yet tough moments as well as the moment that I discovered what is the most important to me. Furthermore, since I am now living based on the dreams, I forged at Kookmin University, the moments in which those dreams came to me are the most meaningful memories I have of Kookmin University.

Are there any activities that you, as a graduate of Kookmin University, would like to recommend to Kookmin University students?
During my university life, I realized how much I loved nature and worked hard doing volunteer activities for rural communities. Although I do not actually work in agriculture, I feel like I am working to plow my own field. Some people may think of designers as people who are rather classy and only work at their desk, but that is not the case in reality. When I first started my own business, I experienced so many tearful moments moving the fabric around the market, delivering products, removing the thread, and doing needlework. However, I was able to endure those moments because I enjoy physical labor. So, I recommend that students participate in club activities that allow them to feel the comradery and sense of belonging that is possible during their school days and engage in various activities to find what they enjoy rather than focusing on getting qualifications or certifications. 

What was the reason for choosing hanbok over other types of clothing?
I frequently thought about what I had to do and what I could do so I read diverse books to find ways in which I could use my fashion major to contribute to society. This led me to think of hanbok. Western clothing was a required subject in my major, while classes on Korean clothing were offered as fourth-year electives that often didn’t have enough students to stay open, so I waited until my senior year wondering whether I would get a chance to actually study hanbok. It made me feel that Western-centered culture was weakening our independence and identity and motivated me to develop and preserve hanbok. However, when I started developing hanbok, I wondered why wearing hanbok had gone from an everyday thing for our ancestors to something for only special events for us today. So, I made up my mind to revive hanbok culture in daily life. And my first step was presenting a set utilizing hanbok not for parties but for the part of work clothes, casual clothes, and clothes for going out.

What kind of hanbok are you trying to make through your brand? What do you focus on the most when designing hanbok?
When I created the Dolsilnai brand, I wanted to make natural colored clothes, without using dyes, so that my clothes would be environmentally friendly. I believe that natural colors have their own beauty that Koreans have a special affinity for. However, we had to change our approach because our hanbok didn’t sell well. So, we tried making little changes, such as using natural colors as much as possible or incorporating pale colors to reduce environmental pollution. As soon as we gained popularity and our business grew, the number of franchis- es increased, and I started to feel a lot of pressure knowing that I was responsible for all of our workers’ livelihoods. So, I avoided doing anything too drastic or risky with the clothes we produced. Particularly in the clothing industry, brands need to be sensitive to the trends, and I want to keep changing along with those trends. This is why I consider meeting the needs of consumers to be the most important part of my business. What I emphasize the most is the sentiment of Koreans. Nowadays, discussions are underway about the origin and transformation of hanbok. Personally, I think it is impossible to precisely identify the origin of hanbok since we have always been engaged in continuous cultural exchange with other countries. However, the most important thing is that we are still wearing hanbok, because our sentiments and hanbok have changed according to our lifestyle, culture, and sentiment. I think hanbok has always changed according to the lifestyle of the times, and the current hanbok has changed according to our 21st century sentiment. This makes me feel that hanbok is a type of clothing that represents Korean sentiment, and that’s why I try to focus on when doing my design work.

When you launched your hanbok brand, what difficulties did you face and how did you overcome them? 
There were so many difficulties that I can’t even remember, but I can talk about some of them. For our ancestors, hanbok weren’t like the modern hanbok we have today, they were just considered regular clothes. In the past, Korean people called western clothes a suit, but as time passed, it was called clothes because people wore it more often than hanbok, which people wear occasionally. Then, it was called modernized hanbok, since the time of enlightenment after the Japanese colonial period. However, “modernized” means that it has discomfort, so it must be fixed. So, who work in the hanbok industry, including me, don’t like the word modern, and we feel that we are changing hanbok to suit the lifestyles of people today. I became a mother when I was only 25 years old, so I didn’t have any social experiences and it was hard for me to find work. I feared that it would be impossible for me to live the life I had dreamed of. That fear motivated me to make products at home and sell them, and I was eventually able to open an office. But the hardest thing I faced was my family’s objection to my career because of the social convention of women being housekeepers and supporting their husbands. 

Nowadays, many celebrities are wearing hanbok as casual wear, attracting more attention to hanbok. What would be needed to increase the popularity of hanbok?
Well, I think we need to make Koreans rediscover their love for hanbok first. Honestly, our clothes are the first thing people notice when they look at us, and what we wear also represents our national identity. Korea has a unique culture, and that culture gains more recognition the more we express our affection for it. This means that if we don’t constantly pay attention to our culture, no one else in the world will be interested in it either. So, we need to make efforts to show our love for our culture, and this will lead designers who love hanbok to develop better and a wider range of hanbok, ultimately leading more consumers to wear hanbok.

Lee Yeon-Jae
Reporter
yjlee05481@gmail.com