KPC3455-3458: The style of the hanbok

Back in September 2019, Korea Post issued the commemorative stamp The Style of the Hanbok featuring depictions of women’s hanbok in different periods to promote hanbok’s beauty. This year, Korea Post is issuing another commemorative stamp The Style of the Hanbok featuring depictions of men’s hanbok in different periods from the mid-Joseon period in the 1500s to the Korean Empire in the 1900s.

Despite many foreign invasions and migrations, hanbok has developed with its basic elements intact. Men’s hanbok is dressed with its basic garments jeogori (upper garment) and baji (pants) along with outerwear po (long overcoat). In addition, there are some other accessories to wear with baji, such as heoritti (belt), daenim (ankle bands), beoseon (socks) and sinbal (shoes), and men also put on a hat that matches their po when they went out.

This commemorative stamp shows the history of traditional men’s garments from various periods in reference to traditional clothes collected by the Seok Juseon Memorial Museum of Dankook University. During the Joseon period, strict regulations were applied under social hierarchy, and men from the ruling class put on various official clothes to maintain their status. During the 1500s, various types of po came into popularity and its heyday was marked by men wearing loose-fitting, even oversized hanbok. The commemorative stamp features men wearing dapo (men’s coat with short or no sleeves), outing/formal attire worn by sadaebu (scholar-bureaucrats) during the Joseon period. It has short sleeves, and men dressed by pairing with cheollik (men’s robe with pleats) or jingnyeong (straight collared coat) underneath. In the 1600s, which was marked by extreme chaos due to three invasions, including the Japanese invasions of Joseon, hanbok got smaller in size, and people began to wear it taking size and dimensions into consideration. Furthermore, the previously popular po disappeared, and new trends, such as dopo (nobleman’s coat with extra back panel), changui (men’s coat with center back slit) and jungchimak (men’s coat with open side seams), became popular; it was a period when people were sensitive to changes. Men featured in the stamp are wearing dopo, which established itself as clothing representative of sadaebu during this period. From the 1700s to 1800s, practical clothes comfortable for physical activities were popular, such as jungchimak which was worn as simple outing clothes by bureaucrats, and baeja (vest with no or short sleeves). As Western goods flooded the country after its opening as a result of the Japan–Joseon Treaty of 1876, hanbok became more practical. During the Gabo Reform of 1894, the country sought to simplify clothing and recognized durumagi (slim coat) with narrow sleeves as a type of formal wear, which has since then become a major form of men’s outerwear until the present. You can also check out men wearing plain durumagi without patterns during the 1900s.

As described above, hanbok has shown changes in line with contemporary trends as clothes that reflect life in different periods while maintaining its basic style unique to Korean menswear—wearing po on top of outfits and embodying the Korean practice of ye (禮), a Confucian concept of decorum. We hope that this commemorative stamp serves as an opportunity for many to enjoy the beauty of men’s hanbok from various periods and reflect on the value of hanbok.