Fashion Ecologies: The Hallyu Phenomenon

What is Hallyu, and why is it challenging the global currents of culture today? How does this wide-reaching wave rewrite the rules of fashion? In this deep dive, we uncover the complex relationship South Korea has with this international phenomenon and where everyone else stands in this conversation.

- Charmaine Tan

When a prestigious art institute like London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) puts up an exhibit dedicated to the rise of South Korean pop culture, it is crystal clear that this "K-wave" is no fad nor collation of South Korean drama, film, music, beauty and fashion that have found popularity in regions near and far from its place of creation, all to evince the cultural powerhouse's profound and widespread influence on the world and there are no signs of this force loosening its grip just yet.

V&A has always had a special relationship with South Korea as compared to its peers - it was the first British institution to publish a book about Korean art in 1918; it inaugurated the European tour of the National Art Treasure of Korea exhibition in 1916, and the institution houses the first permanent gallery devoted to Korean art in London. With this in mind, the significance of such an exhibition ("Hallyu! The Korean Wave") multiplies tenfold. In other words, Hallyu has now acquired the decadent respect one might also give to South Korean traditional art, for its challenge of global currents of pop culture is nothing short of a marvel to behold.

It is not news. In fact, it has been happening for the past two decades, the "K" label slowly dominating cultural conversations in music, film, beauty and most recently, fashion or luxury fashion, to be specific a landscape traditionally guarded and Eurocentric in activity.