Woman’s Baeja

Heo Hwan: "I learned a great deal about traditional baeja during this project. I feel that the well organized and proportioned design of baeja is closely associated with the concept of traditional space that has prevailed throughout Korea’s long history. I intended to express the structural beauty of space inherent to hanok and organic harmony found in traditional Korean clothing, hanbok, with a contemporary concept. I intended to apply the aesthetics of space found in hanok, a traditional Korean house, to clothing. In hanok, there is no distinction between the inside and outside. If you open the door on a warm sunny day, the scene of the courtyard comes inside, and the subdued natural light fills the interior. Inspired by the open structure of hanok, I printed a pattern design that removed images seen outside though a window of hanok on silk for design of my works for this show. I designed a silhouette as a long Western waistcoat and printed a pattern design on the body to show off painterly formative beauty. I also designed the body itself to be functional as a pocket, an idea which I borrowed from hanbok."