Characteristics of the basic elements of hanbok worn by men and women

Imagine a man in a jade-colored dopo (robe) walking with an imposing manner in a forest early in the morning, accompanied by a womin in a sweet pink chima (skirt) that gently touches the top of grass whenever she walks. Hanbok looks particularly more beautiful in such a combination between man and woman.

Male hanbok

Basic elements of male hanbok are: baji (trousers), jeogori (jacket), joggi (vest), durumagi (topcoat) and dopo (outer garment worn by upper class people). The lower end of the baji (trouser) tied with a denim (cloth band) well expresses masculine beauty. When going out, upper class men wore dopo and gat (hat). If upper class men went out without being properly clothed, people would speak ill of him behind his back saying that he was an ill-mannered person.
Outer garments (falling under what we would call jackets or coats of suits nowadays), such as durumagi and dopo, were called po collectively. In the past, there were about 12 different kinds of po, but today many of these po have disappeared and men now wear only durumagi and dopo. Men’s trousers and po are made as loosely-fitting garments. Thus, they do not restrain the body and are comfortable to wear. Basically, male hanbok was blue. According to the oriental philosophy, men belong to the east and the color of the east is blue. And so, male hanbok was mostly in light-jade (light-blue washed-out like color), duck-egg blue or sosaek. Sosaek means basic color and is the color of a cocoon yarn. It is not white, but more of an elegant beige color.

Female hanbok

The beauty of female hanbok is in the harmony between the delicate curves formed by the chima (skirt) and the raised front end of beoseon (socks), and the sharp lines of dongjeong (neck-band). Women wore many layers of sokgot (sokbaji (under-trousers) or sokchima (underskirts)) for the voluminous of the chima (skirt) to provide an elegant feminine beauty. Upper class women wore five or seven layers of sokgot (undergarments). They regarded sokgot (undergarments) to be very important and some of them used more luxurious cloth for sokgot (undergarments) than for geotchima (outer skirt). When going out, they put on a jangot over their head in addition to their hanbok of sokgot (undergarment), chima (skirt), sokjeoksam (undershirt) and jeogori (jacket).
Basically, female hanbok was red. According to the Oriental philosophy, women belong to south and the color of east is red. Light pink, purple or dark blue colors were mostly used. The basic color of red was sometimes not used depending on person’s social status or age. But, generally women wore either a red upper or lower garment. At a wedding ceremony, the mothers of the groom and the bride wear jade-colored and red-colored hanbok, respectively. The mother of the groom, though a female, is regarded as part of the male side on this particular occasion and wears a jade-colored hanbok. Sosaek (the color of the cocoon yarn) was used for both genders. The color of hanbok differs according to the age of the wearer. Hanbok for maids was chiefly in bright colors, such as yellow jeogori (jackets) and red chima (skirts). Middle-aged women mostly chose light-yellow jeogori (jackets) and brown chima (skirts). It shows that aged women preferred darker colors for their hanbok.