Hanbok

What it is

The hanbok keeps the same four pieces it has had for a very long time: a jacket called jeogori, trousers called baji, a skirt called chima, and a coat called po. Women's sets are usually known as chima jeogori, since skirt and jacket go together; men wear the jacket with roomy trousers. Many extra garments sit on top of that base, among them vests, jackets and coats. Women's names for these include Jangsam, Dansam and Wonsam, while men's include durumagi, dopo, Danryeong-ui, Joong-chimak, Sochang-ui and Daechang-ui. Though the basic arrangement has not altered, the length, width and outline of each piece has shifted over the centuries.

Origins and history

Hanbok has been worn in Korea for a very long time. The oldest pictures of it come from the Three Kingdoms period, which ran from 57 BCE to 668 CE, and its roots lie with the ancestors of the Koreanic peoples in what is now northern Korea and Manchuria. Goguryeo tomb murals painted between the 4th and 6th centuries CE show the same four-part structure that people wear now. Shapes in use today follow the clothing of the Joseon period, above all what nobles and royalty wore. The old and the new share one frame: a short jacket, trousers, a skirt and a coat.

Jacket, collar and ties

The jeogori is the short upper garment, worn by women and men alike. Its parts carry their own names: gil for the wide front and back panels, git for the strip that edges the collar, dongjeong for the removable white collar laid over the git, and kkeutdong for a contrasting cuff on some women's jackets. The goreum are the strings that fasten the jacket. They started as something practical and often turned decorative. In southern Korea, Silla included, a brightly coloured goreum sat at the front of the neck and left its mark on Yayoi culture. From Joseon times the goreum moved to the front, and by the 20th century it had become the long, wide ribbon called Ot-goreum. Round buttons called danchu can replace it.

Skirts, trousers and layers

Chima is the skirt, also written sang or gun in hanja. It is built from rectangular panels pleated or gathered onto a waistband, the chima-malgi, which carries its own goreum strings. From Goguryeo through Joseon, skirts were striped, pleated, pieced and trimmed with geumbak, gold leaf stamped on with wooden blocks, a technique older than the Three Kingdoms and once reserved for royalty and nobility. Underneath goes the sokchima petticoat. Men's baji is loose, easy to sit on the floor in, and may be cotton, silk or leather, held by a baji-malgi with a long string. Under everything, sokgot undergarments came in layers, and more layers meant more wealth.

The name and today

Hanbok is a recent word, first appearing in the 1800s. An 1881 document from late Joseon, the Chŏngch'iilgi, uses it to tell Korean dress apart from Japanese and Western clothing, and a document of 1895 does the same. After 1900 Korean newspapers wrote the hanja Han into many words for Korean clothing, among them Han'gugŭibok, Han'gugyebok and Taehannyŏbok. Since Korea was divided, the South has said hanbok and the North has said Chosŏn-ot. Styles in the two Koreas drifted apart during their late 20th century isolation, and Korean communities abroad, in China among them, kept versions of their own. Since the 1990s more exchange has brought these styles closer again.

How Hanbok is kept

A hanbok is layered on in order. Undergarments, called sokgot, go on first, and women may wear several layers of them. Then comes the lower half: women fasten the chima at the waist with its goreum strings, while men put on baji held by a baji-malgi. The jeogori goes over that, and its own goreum are tied in a bow, with the dongjeong collar laid on top. Buttons called danchu may take the place of the strings. Finally come the outer layers, which may be a vest, a jacket or a coat such as the durumagi. The finished set is worn for formal and semi-formal occasions.

When and where

There is no single day for the hanbok. People choose it for weddings, family ceremonies and formal gatherings, and it appears at milestones through the year. Hanbok Day, created in 1996 by the South Korean government, comes round once a year to encourage people to wear it.

Hanbok belongs to Korea, both South and North, and that is where it is strongest. Korean communities elsewhere keep it as well: the Korean diaspora generally, ethnic Koreans living in China, and the Koryo-saram, Koreans in the lands of the former Soviet Union, who kept a hanbok tradition of their own.

What Hanbok means

For a very long time many Koreans have chosen white hanbok. White stands for purity and is linked with light and the sun. Some interpretations hold that particular colours or patterns came from folk belief or shamanism. In some periods ordinary people, the seomin, were barred from certain brightly coloured hanbok, so what a person wore once spoke of rank as well as taste. Wearing hanbok marks an occasion as formal. Attempts to end white clothing, under Joseon and during the Japanese occupation, both failed.

Questions people ask about Hanbok

See also

Lion danceA dynamic ritual dance featuring costumed lions, drums and martial acrobaticsChinese knottingA folk craft of cord tied into lucky shapes, made in China and given as charmsKizombaA close, slow couple dance from Angola, named after a Kimbundu word for partyBarkclothCloth beaten from tree bark across Africa, Asia and the Pacific

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• Custom of Korean costume: traditional knowledge, skills and social practices in the Democratic PeopleUNESCO, Heritage listing
• Actor Park Bo-gum tapped to promote hanbok abroadThe Korea Times, Article
• Custom of Korean costume: traditional knowledge, skills and social practices in the Democratic PeopleUNESCO, Article
• Actor Park Bo-gum tapped to promote hanbok abroadThe Korea Times, Article

• Hanbok on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.