Exploring South Korea’s street style revolution: 90s K-pop nostalgia and the new K-punk aesthetic

At Seoul Fashion Week Spring Summer 2018, South Korean designers, models, K-pop stars and celebrities mingled inside Zaha Hadid’s cavernous spaceship-like Dongdaemun Design Plaza – while outside, a whole other scene was unfolding.

Blue-pink men’s undercuts, dip-dyed neon tips and a variety of other flamboyant hairstyles were spotted in the event’s unofficial street style area. The boxy bright jackets, cartoonish T-shirts, loud sneakers and bold-coloured Doc Martens creepers indicated the emergence of a new era of style — and perhaps even social attitudes — in South Korea, a country that has experienced much political and social turmoil in recent years.

Young Koreans and local fashionistas seem to have developed a devil-may-care attitude towards sartorial and self expression. And at Seoul Fashion Week, they showcased their creativity with an array of different looks ranging from what can only be described as 90s boybander (reminiscent of K-pop group H.O.T) to a rebellious K-pop-meets-punk style one might call “K-punk”.

Nineties-influenced looks ranged from brightly coloured plaid button-ups to oversized sunglasses with tinted lenses in hues of faded blue and burnt sienna.