Sunday 9 October 2016

Costumes in Episode 5

Episode is yet again full of beautiful costumes. One of them worn by Yoon Sung who switches 
from his normal durumagi to the official palace attire. It's in a beautiful light shade 
of blue with a rank badge in the front and back:

Meanwhile we see Lee Yeong in a gorgeous Crown Prince attire in a lighter shade of dark blue 
with the usual dragon in the front and the back. I mentioned before the dragon on the Crown 
Prince attire usually only has four crawls but I guess in Lee Yeong's case because he is the regent 
his dragon has five crawls which is usually reserved for the King. He is also wearing one of the 
pretty hairpieces which covers his hairbun:

Lee Yeong's younger sister, Princess Myeong-Eun, is wearing a very modernized hanbok whose
jeogori (jacket) has beautiful rose patterns and jewel pieces on it. The rose mirrors in her hairpieces – the cheopji on top of her head and dwikkoji on the side of her head:

While the yangban, upper class, usually wore silk and satin, the lower classes clothes were made of 
cotton, hemp and other more durable fabrics. As we can see in the flashback in which we see
Ra On's mother and young Ra On wearing very plain hanboks. You can see the texture is a little 
less fine. Yet I like the muted colors. Also the hair is put back in a braided bun – showing that Ra 
On's mother is a married woman; it's called jjokjin meori – held by a simple binyeo – hairpin:



In another scene we see Lee Yeong in a really wonderful durumagi in the colors grey silk and muted 
rosé undercoat. The grey silk shows flower and plant motifs:


You can see a difference between Lee Yeong's clothes and Master Jung's clothes – even though 
he is a yangban there is a distinctive difference between royality and a son from a yangban
family. Yet his clothes fit his character. His durumagi shows flowers, you could even say they 
look a bit like roses – so his clothes mirror the hanbok of the princess. He is also wearing a gat 
with fitting beads:

What I kinda overlooked the last time was the meeting between Kim Hun and Minister Cho. You 
can see a difference in the clothes. Kim Hun is wearing a extravagant yellow-greenish colored
durumagi and is wearing a special type of hat called jeongjagwan which distinguishes him from 
both, Yoon Sung and Minister Cho. Meanwhile Minister Cho is wearing a plain cream-white 
durumagi and a gat with yellow beads. It shows how different they're in characters. Apparently 
outside the palace Minister Cho prefers plain clothes:


During the meeting and the lantern festival Yoon Sung is wearing one of his really gorgeous silk 
durugmagi with flower pattern. As you can there are traces of gold on the fabric. He really 
dressed up for Ra On. ;)

We also get a glimpse of Ha Yeon who is wearing a very classic noble lady hanbok – with a pink 
chima (skirt) and a blue jeogori. Overall the jacket is very plain but there is a little butterfly on it.
In her hair we can see the bee dwikkoji and the flower cheopji on top of the head. (also I did 
try to get proper screenshots but it wasn't possible, so I'm sorry for Ha Yeon moving in the 
screenshot for her hanbok)


And now for the best part... Ra On and Lee Yeong. I know we don't get to see Ra On in female 
hanboks but when she isn't wearing the eunuch attire the costume designer puts a lot of effort
into choosing the clothes for her because they're chosen, so Ra On and Lee Yeong complement 
each other. I see the lantern festival as their first „date“ and they're dressed like a couple. 

Lee Yeong is wearing one of my favourite durumagis in the whole drama because it's a very
simple dark green durumagi made of a almost see-through fabric which has a slight sheen
to it. His gat is adorned by green beads. Meanwhile Ra On is wearing a magenta colored 
durugmagi with a fitting gat with magenta beads on it. 

Magenta and green are colors which are the most complementary. So we see a pattern 
continues throughout the drama. In episode 1 Lee Yeong wears blue and Ra On wears 
red... those colors are associated with ying and yang. So no matter what from the beginning 
it's implied Ra On and Lee Yeong belong to each other. They make eachother whole. And 
the costumes for the lantern festival makes that clear as well:



Small extra for cinematography freaks like me:

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