SFW Spotlight: pushBUTTON

Designer Seung Gun Park launched the Korean fashion brand pushBUTTON in 2003 with supposedly no previous fashion training. Impressed yet?
He has been compared to Jeremy Scott , and while I wouldn’t go as far as to say that ( plus I think Ha Sang Baek is much worthier of that comparison) I do like what I have seen from this label so far. His Spring 2011 collection shows how the brand is maturing from previous seasons. I’m not usually into maturity when it comes to fashion brands that originally caught your eye by being playful and silly, but in order for pushBUTTON to gain international credibility as a top Korean brand it is necessary.
Seung Gun Park has managed to hit every spring trend nail on the head with his collection( according to Harpers Bazaar). Eclectic Chic CHECK! ( see: his new spin on the classic collared blouse) Bold Colors CHECK! ( see: the eye catching green print) Printed Matter CHECK! ( see: orange/black plaid and green leafy print) Pajama Dressing CHECK!( see: well, practically the entire collection) Minimal White CHECK! (see: you get the idea) pushBUTTON is definitely one to look out for in the seasons to come.
Check out the rest of the pushBUTTON spring 2011 collection HERE!

pushBUTTON will be showing at Seoul Fashion Week on 3.30(Wed.) at 3:00 as part if the Fashion Take-Off portion of SFW. The show will be at the Kring building on the 2nd floor.

You can buy pieces from the spring 2011 collection of pushBUTTON at Boy+Supermarket in Apgujeong Rodeo

To see some of his past work click HERE!
and HERE! This one also has an interview with the designer^^
XXcory

CORY 3.26 splatter

Outfit breakdown:
Orange sweater- Untage
B&W spatter shirt – vintage
Grey bodycon dress – American Apparel
Black bow belt – vintage
Stockings – no brand
Shoes – Supermarket

I know, I know … I’m cheating on banana milk with strawberry milk DON’T HATE ME>< It just went better with the makoli^^
On to the outfit….
I got this shirt about a month ago at the Dongmyo flea market for practically nothing. I was so excited, it was every bit as 80's printed, oversized, and shoulder-padded as one can hope for from a vintage market dig. Until yesterday I couldn't work it in to any outfit. FINALLY! In the end I just threw it over a tight dress, wrapped a moderately skinny belt around my waist, put on some warm stuff and called it a day!

Tip: Dongmyo flea market is located at Dongmyo station. Opens after 2 pm. Be prepared to dig!

Tip: Keep an eye out for little stands that sell tights and socks around the busy areas of the city. They have really cute styles and they are cheap enough to not feel gutted if you get a run in them! I recommend the one near A Land in Myeongdong and the one near Giordanos in Gangnam.

XXcory

CORY 3.25 orange cardigan

Now that I have managed to get another iPhone, not only are my friends rejoicing because they can ACTUALLY contact me now but I can finally get started in the street fashion section. I will be compiling shots of fashionable people I spot around Seoul and will be posting them weekly. In the meantime though, I will blog the occasional “Cory’s street style” shot. Hopefully they will give you an idea of how trends in Korean fashion can be interpreted, where to buy each piece or at least where to find something similar! Plus, I would love to hear some feedback^^

Outfit breadown:
Black oversized pompom hooded sweatshirt – handmade
Mohair tube scarf – unknown
Orange cardigan – Untage
Black&white striped tank – H&M
Nylon tricot lapis blue leggings – American Apparel
Mustard colored socks – unknown
Studded black platforms – Supermarket
Bag – H&M

It’s been cold lately in Seoul despite a a tease here and there of Spring weather so I was glad to have this cardigan to keep warm. I modeled for the S/S 11 lookbook for a Korean brand called Untage a couple weeks ago. They specialize in outerwear, t-shirt and leather accessories. Anyways, the designer let me pick a piece I wanted to have and I immediately knew it was going to be this orange sweater. Orange is a huge trend for spring and I had NOTHING orangeㅠㅠ The cardigan was delivered to me yesterday along with the cute socks we used in the shoot ( that’s where the mustard socks came from). To check out the brand click HERE . The designer told me they were still updating the lookbook so check back if you want to see my pics^^.
I made this hoodie just before I went to Tokyo because I was sick of all my other jackets ( see: THIS!) and I knew it was going to be chilly there.
The shoes are from Supermarket a shop with a couple locations around Seoul. There are 2 Apgujeong Rodeo locations, one is small but has tons of great shoes and the other is Boy + Supermarket which we posted about awhile back..this place is a must-go!! There is also a Supermarket in Myeongdong. 한번 꼭 가보세용!

XXcory

Seoul Fashion Week F/W 2011-12: Preview

The Fall/Winter 2011 season of Seoul Fashion Week is merely a handful of days away and the organizations site is still in a state of inaccessibility to Mac users like myself and I’m sure tons of you guys too. Here is a little guide for you for the upcoming (next week!) season. Be sure to check the links! If a designer interests you, unlike other fashion weeks around the world, in Korea you can actually buy tickets to see the shows at SUPER reasonable prices (see the link at the end of the post and get a Korean friend to help you^^). Just don’t wait too long to order your ticket, the only problem with the tickets being so cheap is that they sell out fast, especially for the famous designers. With each designers name I have put a “w” for womenswear, an “m” for menswear and both if its, well, BOTH! Some designers just do accessories, so I will specify what kind to expect. Ladies, don’t hesitate to click on the menswear links too, they are some of the best of the week (not to mention plenty of eye-candy on and off the runway). For those of you that like Korean celeb sitings I will put “@” next to the shows where you can usually spot the most celebrities either watching the show or IN the show!

Now more importantly, the shows I recommend will have “^.^” next to them, and the designers I have yet to see but think will put on a great show will have “*.*”

Look forward to more posts on Seoul Fashion Week within the next couple weeks! If you are not in the area to go to any of the shows I hope you use this as a resource to keep up with the famous, hot, and/or up-and-coming Korean designers. If you see anything you are interested in feel free to ask for more information on where to buy it. I will do my best to find out for you^^

(I fixed the links…enjoy!!)

3.28 Monday

12:00 – KIMSEORYONG m

13:30 – CY CHOI m

14:30 – D. GNAK by KANG.D m

16:00 – Jehee Sheen m

17:00 – GENERAL IDEA m @ ^.^

18:00 – GEAR3 BY SEAN bags

19:30 – SONGZIO m @ ^.^

3.29 Tuesday

12:00 – RESURRECTION by JUYOUNG m @ ^.^

13:00 – INSTANTOLOGY m

13:30 – chan+ge by Lee Hyun Chan m

14:30 – beyondcloset m ^.^

15:30 – leigh m

16:00 – GROUNDWAVE m

17:00 – ROLIAT m

18:00 – ALANI m

19:30 – CARUSO m

3.30 Wednesday

11:00 – VanHart Homme m@

12:00 – unbounded AWE m

12:30 – THE CENTAUR w ^.^

13:00 – HAYLEY KIEL bags

13:30 – MVIO m

14:30 – jaehwan*lee paris w

15:00 – pushBUTTON w *.*

15:30 – UJU&CO w

16:00 – DEMOO PARKCHOONMOO w

16:30 – GRANGE YARD w *.*

17:00 – Steve J & Yoni P w ^.^

17:30 – RIETTA

18:30 – ANDY & DEBB w

20:30 – KwakHyunJoo Collection w ^.^

3.31 Thursday

11:00 – Lie sang bong paris w ^.^

12:00 – manuelle et guillaume w

12:30 – LEYII w

13:00 – Acid funk!

13:30 – IMSEONOC w ^.^

14:30 – La Lumaca Di Lucione w

15:00 – the studio K w

15:30 – SELEN HEE w

16:00 – KAAL E. SUKTAE w ^.^

16:30 – Lilee w

17:00 – JOHNNY HATES JAZZ w ^.^

17:30 – suecomma bonnie shoes

18:30 – Y&M YANGSUNKSOOK

19:30 – jardin de chouette w ^.^

20:30 – Jain Song w @ ^.^

4.01 Friday

11:00 – TROA w

12:30 – RANG

13:30 – Doii Paris w @ ^.^

15:00 – NOHKE J w *.*

16:00 – ENZUVAN w

17:00 – LEQUEEN BY MILL & I w

18:30 – MISS GEE COLLECTION w@

20:30 – how and what w

4.02 Saturday

11:00 – Fashion Story JUNG HUN JONG w

13:30 – AN YOON JUNG ANS w

16:00 – CHOIBOKO w

18:30 – MOONYOUNGHEE w

If there is no link or other information it’s because no matter how hard I searched, I found NOTHING ㅠ.ㅠ

For tickets CLICK HERE!

The shows for this seasons Seoul Fashion Week will be held at SETEC ( Hangnyeoul Station) and Kring which is within walking/bus/ cheap taxi distance from SETEC

XX cory

I Think I’m Turning Japanese

After the standard questions EVERY Korean asks me when we meet for the first time (generally in this order)….”Where are you from?”, “How old are you?”,”Are you a teacher?”(notice “What’s your name?” is not included in the first 3 questions…that comes 5th or 6th)….they will no doubt ask “Why did you come to Korea?”. Because I dont seem to have much of an answer for this question, what occasionally follows is ” Well why did you come to Korea and not to Japan?”…and for this I dont have much of answer either…it just happened that I knew LESS about Korea…and this interested me.

However, one of the main reasons I wanted to move to Asia was to travel. In the several years I’ve been here I have left the country alot…but have only really gone to 3 other countries…mainly because I always end up going to Japan (5 times to be exact). Everytime I go I have a great time, and go away from it thinking that Japan is a great place to visit but maybe not as great of a place to live ( and I also am thinking how ridiculously hot the guys are…i mean seriously) . The reason I have always felt more comfortable in Korea over Japan is that while I often find that in Korea the random people that pass you on the sidewalk or are around you on the subway or bus are rude (according to western standards), its really easy to make friends with Koreans…usually because they are so enthusiastic about talking to you. I have alway found this to be the complete opposite in Japan. For example, if someone bumps into you in Tokyo…they hurridly appologize, sometimes bowing a little in the process. Despite how nice people seem to be, in the 5 times I’ve been to Japan, I have not managed to make a single friend. After my last trip, my view has completely changed.

If you live in Korea and haven’t been to Japan yet, specifically Tokyo, well then you should get to it. Its a nice contrast to Korea life, and not as expensive there as everyone says. Other than paying for my ticket there, I spent very little money…and could have spent less had I made the effort to, I didnt. It did help that I spent 0 yen on accomodation( see: couchsurfing.com) I dont know what changed in Tokyo in the last year, but I met sooooo many people this time, sadly enough it would have been more had I known more than 10 phrases of Japanese. My most usezd this trip being, “wakarimasen”ㅠㅠ (i dont understand) and “ogote” ^^(pay for me…my new japanese friends taught me this one, and as karma would have it, I only used it on these friends). Since, I like to immerse myself into local life no matter where I go, it made me super sad that I couldnt speak to these people in their language and found myself saying “I speak Korean!?^^” (in a guilty tone) alot. I am now currently studying Japanese on my own as a result. No more guilt NO MORE!

Well I might have been in Japan, but Korea was EVERYWHERE. Starting with the fact that there was a girl staying at the same house as me, who was Korean but studied Japanese and therefore was completely fluent (jealous), which was good because I was able to speak korean the whole time I was there. There were also tons of little things around me, like how Uniqlo was doing some Big Bang collaboration and were not being shy about it.

Also the only place I actually bought something during my trip was one of the shops inside of La Foret, the not so department store department store in Harajuku. I was drawn to this store(which I will talk more about in a later post about Tokyo shopping) firstly, after noticing the accessories were not only super cute but also really reasonably priced, and secondly because upon further inspection had JBOOKs lying around the shop. If you are not familiar with JBOOK it is the magazine/print version of the very popular JBros online shop, and has featured MANY of my friends, as well as myself as models.So not only was excited to see a little bit more of Korea in Japan but would soon realize I was also listening to a little bit of Korea. I hadn’t even realized that the song I was subconsciously bopping around to in the store was in fact 2NE1.

This along with several Japanese people gushing to me about how much they love Korea and the music, the dramas, even the food, made me realize how much of an impact Korea is having on the world, and how many people are really obsessed with the pop culture here.

But we all know how awesome Korea is…So I will follow up with a little bit more about my trip to Japan…food, shopping, and CLUBS soon! STAY TUNED!

XXcory

Bathroom Antics

Yesterday, as I went into the girls bathroom at a local coffee shop I stepped in some spit and had a thought..

Let me rewind a bit shall I?

If you are ever in Korea you will quickly notice that Korean girls are well mannered, polite, and will adamantly advise you against using “욕” (Korean curse words), even though I do have a few Korean girl friends that have a dirtier mouth than me. Little do most people (especially guys) know this quickly changes when entering the door of a girl’s bathroom.

The girls bathroom in Korea is more than just a bathroom, it is like a sanctuary where Korean girls can stop being cute and ladylike and just be themselves, sometimes a little TOO much. Generally in bathrooms in America and Europe you can pretty much guarantee the girls bathroom will be relatively clean and the guys will be DISGUSTING. This is totally reversed here. For example, just step into the girls bathroom at the club…this is the most extreme example… and its will be packed with girls smoking, cursing like sailors, staring at themselves in the mirror and/or taking self pics with their phone, but the floors are covered in spit, usually flooded, and maybe a vomit here and there. I often find myself using the guy’s side in the public toilets. It is seriously THAT nasty.

I’m not saying of course that this stuff does not take place elsewhere…of course it does, but not quite so secretively. I think generally if a girl were going to do that stuff in the bathroom, like smoking, swearing, spitting, they would easily do in front of guys too.

On the other hand something that you will notice RIGHT away when first coming to Korea is that girls are very open about looking at themselves in the mirror in public, sometimes even for excruciating amounts time, and doing a self photo shoot with a phone in a coffee shop, something you would rarely see in western countries, is a daily occurrence in Korea. We might slip an under the table teeth check during dinner or a quick walk by mirror glance to make sure everything is in check but we really don’t want to get caught doing so. Not the case here, just last week I watched a girl in a coffee shop with her boyfriend openly pick at/ suck her teeth in a mirror for a good 30 minutes while her boyfriend just sat there..unphased.

Do I disapprove of the bathroom behavior??? Well yeah, kinda. I mean I am usually the one that ends up stepping in all the spit and having to inhale the concentrated amounts of smoke. But when it comes to the freedom of vanity, it is quite liberating to be able to openly check to see if all your makeup is in place or if you are rockin’ one of the infamous red flecks of something or other in your teeth without worrying about getting judged by, well, ANYONE. I also bet that all the misuda girls can verify that we take full advantage of this when we are in Korea. Am I right??!?

So what should you take from this? Hmmmm… watch where you step in the girls bathroom, and if you feel like you have something on your face…go on, take a look, take as long as you need. Mirror freedom .FREEDOM!

XXcory

Care Bear Stare

Now I want to preface this by saying that I knooooow that I stand out in Korea but come on people, what’s with the blatant staring?! I realize that looking at people is completely normal (practically) anywhere in the world…but the thing that takes some adjusting to is the absolute lack of discretion in the staring that goes down in Korea. I have to give a special shout out to the 아줌마들 (ajumma- middle-aged Korean lady) for having the level of discretion of say, an ADHD 2 year old with Tourettes. They can hands down win a stare off with anyone/anything that dare challenge them( I’ve tried on many occasions) and couldn’t care less if you notice them giving you the dagger-eyed once over. The thing that gets to me is that you can NEVER seem to be able to tell whether they are looking for so long out of disgust or appreciation. It’s just so …blank. So needless to say I go ahead and assume the worst : something on my face? they think I’m a prostitute? etc. I would also like to add that this “staring problem” is in my top 2 reasons I hate taking the subway in Seoul, with lights so bright and unflattering what choice do subway riders have BUT to stare? This is right up there with an overly excessive amount of staircases/escalators one must tackle in order to FINALLY reach the platform. Anyways, I digress. Now all this being said…one of the few things that can actually make my week is when one of these hardcore staring 아줌마들 actually says something NICE. This happened to me the other week when I was taking the subway against my better judgement in order to avoid bus traffic during rush hour. I was just waiting for the subway, wearing my winter staple disco pant and something else borderline weird, when a couple of 아줌마들 walk by me together, eyes glued to my pants, when out of the blue one looks up, face changes to a big smile and while pointing out my overall look utters the word..”예뻐” (yepo- pretty). Of course I was extremely flattered and giggly like a school girl that she broke through her hard ajumma shell to compliment me, but then I started to create a story about her in my head, something my grandfather is infamous for in my family. ( Upon seeing a man getting out of his truck wearing a camouflage jacket he concluded “ I bet he just went hunting, and he caught 2 rabbits”). I pictured this ajumma being super cool back in the day wearing a beehive and cigarette pants while dancing around to rock n’ roll, even though her parents disapproved. Now the likelihood of this is slim, but a girl can dream. Staring whether good or bad, the old ladies get the free pass, as they so often do in Korea, but if you are about my age and want to challenge me to a glare off …I accept! In fact I might call you out on it as well, but it’s just my version of the Care Bear Stare…it might be awkward but its out of love…right?!

P.S. Check out the definition of “ Care Bear Stare” as found on Urban Dictionary… HILARIOUS and in fact sounds quite similar to the stares that I get from 아저씨들( ajeoshi- middle-aged Korean man)

XXcory