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In a 1988 North Korean movie entitled Pretentious, the heroine goes to school, dressed in a floral blouse, bell-bottoms and a jacket featuring English letters. Her friends, in contrast, wear the Korean traditional clothes of hanbok or neat two-piece dresses, with their skirts coming down to 5 centimeters from their knees. They are worried about her outlandish outfits that do not conform to fashion standards in society. One friend says, “Why don’t you go to my house and change into my clothes?” So, the heroine goes to her friend’s house and changes her clothes, when the friend’s mother comes in and catches a glimpse of a pair of pants. The mother immediately reports this to the police, believing that a man broke into her house. The movie tells people not to wear pretentious clothes. It shows that pants are considered taboo for women in North Korea. 

The 1988 North Korean film shows that some types of clothes were considered taboo in North Korea. How has the situation changed now? Today, we’ll learn about changes in fashion items in North Korea from Professor Park Gye-ri at the Institute for Unification Education. First, Professor Park talks about pants, which were once forbidden for North Korean women. 

North Korean women were only allowed to wear pants when working. They wore skirts when coming to their workplace and changed into pants to work. After finishing work, they changed again into skirts and went home. I imagine it was a real hassle. 

The regulation began to loosen with the emergence of private markets known as jangmadang. Many women worked in the jangmadang, and they found it too bothersome to wear skirts when working. Also, the authorities found it difficult to tighten regulations on citizens’ attire because the state rationing system collapsed. More and more women came to hold the purse strings in their family as a result of their market activities. Leader Kim Jong-un’s wife Ri Sol-ju has been seen in trousers in public places at times. Against this backdrop, many women wore pants naturally and confidently. 

But North Korean women seldom wear pants when visiting official sites on important occasions like birthdays of former leaders. Skirts are still the official outfits for women in the North. 

In the past, North Koreans didn’t really wear accessories. Both at home and in school, they learned that accessories would not be fit for socialist attire. Clearly, accessories were unfamiliar to North Korean residents and even awkward for them to wear. Brooches, in particular, were rarely found until recently. 

North Korean people wear badges bearing the portraits of former leaders Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il on their chests. The badges serve as a sort of brooch. If a person wears the badge on the left chest and a showy brooch on the right chest, the brooch may distract attention from the badge. So, brooches were not really a popular fashion item. 

But leader Kim Jong-un and his wife Ri Sol-ju have often appeared at public sites, not wearing the important badge. Some might be wondering if the so-called Baekdu bloodline of the ruling Kim family may not wear the badge. But the leader’s sister Kim Yo-jong, who belongs to this bloodline, has never failed to wear the badge in public appearances. So, it’s not about the Baekdu bloodline. Rather, the scenes of Kim Jong-un and his wife not wearing the badge show who the real leader is in North Korea. 

But the fashion trends began to change in the 2000s, with more and more women looking for earrings, necklaces and rings. It is common to find these accessories in the jangmadang. Accessories have enjoyed popularity among many North Korean women, particularly since first lady Ri Sol-ju wore some accessories, including earrings. 

According to North Korean defectors who had worked in the jangmadang, a large amount of brooches and earrings flowed into the private markets. North Korean women show interest in earrings, but it seems many of them are still reluctant to have their ears pierced. Women mostly prefer small, stud earrings, as Ri Sol-ju often wears elegant stud earrings. On International Women’s Day this year, North Korean TV programs showed that many men gave accessories to women as gifts. Previously, they would present cosmetics or flowers. We can see accessories are becoming increasingly popular in North Korea. 

As for footwear, North Korean women, including working women and college students, usually wear high heels, even when they wear Korean traditional clothing of hanbok. In South Korea, it is considered common courtesy to wear rubber shoes when they are clad in hanbok. So, why do North Korean women enjoy wearing high heels? 

Elevated heels can accentuate an S-shaped body line, and the preference for high heels indicates North Koreans’ emphasis on femininity. Women typically favor 5-to 7-centimeter high heels. Super-high “kill heels” are 10 to 12 centimeters in height. In fact, wearing heels makes you tired. These days, many women wear relatively comfortable wedge heels that have a thick sole at the front. 

While women in urban cities mostly wear high heels, women in other regions prefer more comfortable shoes, including the ones that reveal the top of the foot. 

These shoes are called “convenient shoes” because they are easy to put on and take off. North Korean men usually wear sneakers. Boy students attending middle and high schools often wear canvas sneakers, while it is common for girl students to wear shoes made with synthetic leather. 

North Korea has fostered domestic light industries in recent years, leading to much more diverse shoe designs and new trends. 

On September 18, 2015, North Korea’s official Rodong Sinmun newspaper carried an article about leader Kim Jong-un’s visit to Rason, where flood recovery work was underway. At the time, it was not the flood damage but the leader’s shoes that caught people’s attention. People immediately recognized that the sneakers sported by the leader were produced at the Sinuiju factory—the shoes similar to those worn by ordinary citizens on a daily basis. Shoes manufactured at the factory are known for better quality and design. Some interpret this as part of the leader’s instruction not to use mysticism when promoting his image. Others say that Kim chose to wear the shoes from the Sinuiju factory, as his country was struggling to boost light industries including shoe and clothing factories. Whatever the reasons, the sneakers worn by the leader had the great promotional effect, with shoes from the factory suddenly selling like hot cakes.

North Korean fashion underwent many changes in the 2000s. Now, fashion is not something that is subject to regulations or crackdowns but a barometer that measures consumer trends. In line with the country’s policy of nurturing light industries and boosting domestic demand, these changes will likely accelerate even further.