Hanbok; Out of Step

Hanbok, Korea’s traditional dress, is made up of a short jacket and a long, full skirt. Around Seoul’s palaces, wearing rented hanbok has become a familiar part of sightseeing. Visitors move through historic grounds in garments associated with the past, often stopping to photograph one another.

Traditionally, hanbok was worn with leather shoes or simple rubber shoes. Beneath the skirts in this series are trainers, sandals, slippers, and heels. Chosen for comfort over a day on foot, these modern shoes are often assumed to remain unseen. With each step, the skirt shifts and they come into view.

That small reveal brings two parts of the scene together: elaborate dress shaped to evoke another time, and the practical shoes of a present-day visit. The contrast can be faintly comic. Repeated from one pair of feet to the next, it also records how the past is worn and encountered amid the crowds moving through Seoul’s palaces.