we are the bourgeoisie and we're coming to town- beep! beep!

I have honestly considered myself to be at least a decently fashionable person throughout my ever delayed awareness of how to look cool. This is not to say I have always looked cool, nor that I am even generally accepted as looking cool even when I think I do BUT, holy crap, I have to say the population of Seoul has by far the most amount of cool looking people I have ever seen in my life. 

After arriving, my fashion sense looked immediately paltry, completely out of step, and totally boring. Before arriving, I thought at least a few of my outfits would funnel me into "ooo, an American wearing American clothes from America!" admiration, but to my somewhat biased dismay, they have not. I am not exaggerating when I say that Korean women (and men) dress in utterly beautiful ways. They manage to pull things off that I don't think westerners would even know how to put on. Like take a few of these pictures I am shamelessly reposting on the internet (it is a bit difficult and creepy as a foreigner to attempt publicly taking pictures of women in a country you've only been in for one month):

 These are not the best examples, but if this at all peaks your interest, go here. This site readily displays pretty much everything I'm talking about and I'm not exaggerating when I say 8 out of every 10 people you see in Korea are dressed as the pictures so adequately display them. 

Also, an interesting side note for this link: 

I found out about it by meeting its owner and her friend at the bars two weekends ago. Her friend, whom I did a terrible job of drunkenly trying to woo, is the model in most of the pictures. Cute right? I just discovered that researching for this entry. 

Anyway, continuing with the impeccable national sense of style that dominates Korea, it is completely within reason that I admit to my love of girls with undeniably sophisticated yet eccentric fashion. Basically anything evolved from Mod (big buttons and high waisted skirts anyone?). In America, this type of sighting was rare and usually highlighted the day. Here, it is literally every 10th girl you walk by. It has essentially been the biggest incentive to adjust my wardrobe accordingly and make myself look a whole lot better in the process (by better, I am of course strictly talking about standards I feel I can more subscribe to a lot more openly, i.e. in Korea, I wouldn't be typecast as 'hipster'). The trends here may be sweeping the globe and clearly represent offshoots of American cultural identity, but here, people just know how to look good with them in a distinctly Korean way. With the country being as small and condensed as it is, it actually seems to be less difficult I think for corporate dominance to set into the practicality of everyday expression (i.e. dressing yourself). America has trends that are unique and fresh in themselves, but far too often get pigeonholed into specific crowds and age ranges. It isn't like that here, and its apparent just walking down the street. I mean seriously, there are 40 to 50 year old Korean women dressing in ways that look fresh and new. I've never seen anything like it. 

Now, throughout this entry, I purposefully avoided talking about a very specific trend here. Just so all seven of my readers will be fully engaged and on the edge of their seats wanting more more more, I will devote a later* blog to it with loads of example pictures just so I can say... to be continued.

so, here it goes...

To Be CONTINUED

*like, a couple weeks from now.

p.s. one free totally awesome souvenir to anyone who can guess the inspiration for this blog's title