SEOUL SEARCHING

Thanks to soaring sales for home-grown fashion and beauty brands, Seoul is challenging Tokyo for the crown of Asian style capital. Melissa Twigg travels to the land of K-pop to find out just how all-encompassing the Korean wave is

ASIA HAS ALWAYS BEEN TREND DRIVEN.IN THE 1990S, IT WAS ALL ABOUT HONG KONG ACTION FILMS; IN THE 2000S, WE WERE LISTENING TO JAPANESE MUSIC. BUT THE SOUTH KOREAN WAVE (OR HALLYU, AS IT’S KNOWN THERE) FEELS ALL ENCOMPASSING BY COMPARISON. IT’S NOT JUST ABOUT A GENRE OF MUSIC OR FILM OR TELEVISION; IT’S ABOUT BUYING INTO AN ENTIRELY KOREAN AESTHETIC AND WAY OF LIFE. It all began with K-pop. Psy and his catchy 2012 pop ditty Gangnam Style blazed the cultural trail, filling dancefloors around the world. Then came television—shows such as Boys over Flowers and My Love from Another Star had sky-high ratings across Asia. Since then, wave after wave of film, television and music has flooded the regional market, sweeping the charts in China, Japan and Southeast…

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Tatler Hong Kong (Digital) - 1 Issue, December 2015

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