Outer Robe

This was the typical robe of the literati of the Joseon Dynasty. Before the Japanese invasion of 1592, it was worn to symbolize the status of high-ranking officials, but after the invasion, it came to be worn by Confucian scholars and the literati. Commoners, however, were not able to wear the robe. These robes had a straight collar, wide sleeves, and cloth strips under the armpits. These robes, in particular, were characterized by a separate skirt at the back. The back skirt hid the slit of the inner skirt, preventing the underwear from being seen when the wearer rode on a horse. These robes were forbidden in the reign of King Gojong as part of efforts to simplify clothes, yet a simpler version of the robe was created to be worn for rituals including coming-of-age ceremonies, marriages, funerals, and ancestral services.