Arrested For Wearing A Short Skirt

There is so much unrest in NORTH KOREA that fashion is not the first thing that comes to mind. That’s why it’s amazing to see that MORE WOMEN ARE WEARING SHORT SKIRTS and high heels, going against all the rules. A beautiful portrait of a silent resistance

 

- Agnes Michot

North Korea and fashion: not a match made in heaven. Most people living in this communist dictatorship have a lot more to concern them than, say, the length of a skirt or the height of a pair of heels (like whether enough food is on the table, for example). And yet you see them walking in the capital of Pyongyang more often: young women in flouncy skirts or hip pants, wearing elegant heels or tall platform soles, with a fake designer bag on their arm – rebelling against the strict clothing regulations, which represent an anti-capitalist style. Women are not allowed to wear trousers (specifically not jeans because they are a symbol of the US, enemy of North Korea), have holes in their ears, wear their hair short, expose their décolleté; dresses above the knee are prohibited, as are high heels; and on public holidays they are obliged to don the traditional robe. Although the country is promoting gender equality, the North Korean woman has no (clothing) freedom of choice and is handed over to the conservative beauty of the male political elite.

Secretly, everything is for sale

The rules are strict, yet the market for prohibited products is booming. And for wealthy women in the circles around North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, there is access to luxury department stores with an incredible assortment of goods. How all the precious Western products end up on the shelves of these stores is remarkable, as punishment for the North Korea nuclear and rocket deals involves a strict embargo on, among other things, luxury Western products.