MBC Korean Cultural Festival

A K-pop storm is brewing across the other side of the globe and is poised to unleash it’s sugary, dance-infused goodness onto the western world. South Korea has been curating an army of overstyled and plastic-faced girl and boy bands with obnoxious names like B3AST, f(x), SHINee, U-KISS and MBLAQ in the hopes of cross-over success and Saturday night saw one of their first UK invasions in the form of a ‘Korean Cultural Festival’ with headliners EXO-K (above) at the Indigo O2.


To read the rest of this post on 1883 Digital, click HERE.


xoxochadchad

chadchad of the day 5.1

leather biker jacket / vintage
leopard print tank top / Topman
hot pink jesus necklace / Burger & Fries
galaxy print trousers / no brand


For Day 4 of London Fashion Week, when I was photographing backstage at the Paul Bench SS12 show, I decided to do a tribute of sorts to the over styling ways of K-pop.  I'm starting to miss all the boy & girl bands of Korea these days now that I'm in London and not hearing M-BLAQ, miss A, SHINee and Girls Generation blasting in every store, bus and restaurant. The only things my outfit is missing for the full K-pop experience is excessive stud detailing on my jacket, a face full of BB cream & eye liner and a whole lot of hair product.  (ps. thanks to Anna from hapticblog.blogspot.com for the photo!)






2NE1 and G-dragon & T.O.P. are obvious choices for over-styling amazingness, but I wanted to include a few other boy & girl groups that people outside of Korea may not be familiar with.



Super-sized boy band Super Junior, who fluctuate in size from 8 to 13 members depending on who is currently drafted by the army or filming a movie/drama at the moment, are definitely over styled with mixed results. I can appreciate the excess & sugar pop colors of the images above, but there's almost nothing good about their outfits in the video below.  But that said, skip the boring 30 second intro, close your eyes and enjoy the 'bwara Mr. Simple, Simple, geudaeneun geudaeneun geudaero meotjyeo' cheesiness that is K-pop.





There's something very ABBA or Ace of Base about this Hot Summer song by f(x), another fun K-pop girl group. I especially love the obviously tom-boyish Amber and her little English rap around 2/3rds of the way in. And a pink army tank? Amazing.



I'm loving that this video by D-NA was shot in one of my old Seoul haunts, Club Mansion in Hongdae, where my friend Sarah used to throw some crazy fun White Noize parties and where I saw DJ's like Kingdom play.  But the very best thing about K-pop? When they so obviously butcher English words with their Korean pronunciations, even when the title of the song is 'Love Parade'. Or should i say 'Lub-a Palade'?


xoxochadchad

resurrection fw 2011/12 by juyoung lee

Music is a key ingredient in Resurrection's collection each season so it's no surprise pop stars like Lady Gaga, Marilyn Manson & the Black Eyed Peas regularly wear designer Juyoung Lee's rock'n roll inspired creations. This years styling was again a rock goth mix, but each outfit could easily be deconstructed & paired with basic jeans or a tee shirt. Brown, blue & green tones led to a finale of blacks in multifunctional garments such as long jackets with zips that transform into suit jackets. I loved the crucifix zips adorning the jackets I got to wear as well as the frayed sweaterless turtlenecks. Mad Hatteresque top hats with feathers & pleated skirts of various lengths were seen on both the male & female models as was a generous use of fur & even a bit of fluffy mohair tartan plaid. Resurrection's dark, edgy look was a welcome break from the multitude of preppy looks seen on most other Seoul runways.


designer Juyoung Lee celebrating backstage with model Noma Han & a glass of Voga.


She wears killer heels.


actor Jung Gyu Woon / 정겨운 with singer Jessica from Girls Generation / 소녀시대
















































































For more runway pics from INAPAD.com click HERE.

xoxochadchad