Stories stitch ‘Jeans’ exhibit together
Displays of jeans from different eras.[NEWSIS]
Lee Jae-yeon, 68, who was the country’s first jeans model, says the clothing was appropriate evening wear in the ’60s.
“If you entered a nightclub wearing jeans, the night was yours,” said Lee.
Women over 50 years of age say that the older generation, especially their parents, were not fond of young women wearing jeans.
A DJ with more than 40 years of experience will be invited to play music of the ’70s and ’80s intermittently during the exhibition. [NEWSIS]
Ahn is from a jonggajip, or family of eldest sons that are considered “noble,” so her father did not allow her to wear “vulgar pants.”
“My father yelled at me for wearing jeans, saying that such pants are not for the noble family, and threw them into a burning furnace,” said Ahn.
But that didn’t stop her. She purchased another pair and hid them in her backpack. As soon as she was out of her father’s sight, she changed into the jeans and strutted down the street.
“There are so many stories and memories behind jeans, and that’s what we are trying to show,” said Lee Kun-wook, a curator at the National Folk Museum of Korea.
The museum - perhaps seen as an unlikely place for an exhibition on jeans - has dedicated the past two years to research. It will be exhibiting collections and introducing stories related to the ubiquitous pants from people around the globe.
“Jeans” starts today and lasts for four months.
“Even my dad asked me why the National Folk Museum of Korea is exhibiting jeans,” said Lee.
“The folk museum exhibits life history, which includes people’s daily lives and our culture,” said Lee. “Jeans, in that sense, are a perfect item for the folk museum.
Lee explained that experts say jeans defy “six essentials,” including age, gender, status, nation, season and TPO (time, place and occasion).
“That’s why they are universal items that reflect a specific era of a nation,” said Lee. “This exhibition will show that jeans are not just ‘clothes’ but material that includes ‘culture.’”
Though the event shows the history of jeans, the main focus, according to the museum, is on the stories people have about the clothing.
“We want to show the public the stories behind jeans,” said Lee.
The exhibition starts off with the history of jeans, from its birth at the hands of Levi Strauss, the founder of Levi’s, in 1873.
Chronologically, the exhibition shows how jeans proliferated globally, as well as on the southern half of the peninsula after the 1950-1953 Korean War.
The exhibition displays an array of jeans from different generations, cultures and styles, along with memorable items associated with them such as LPs, roller skates and guitars.
It may seem like collecting old jeans from different countries would be the hardest part of putting this exhibition together, but according to the curators and researchers, that was nothing compared to finding certain popular brands.
“While preparing of for this exhibition, we realized how difficult it is to collect modern items,” said Lee.
“For instance, we nearly gave up looking for Jordache Jeans, which were a must-have jean in the ’70s. No one seemed to have them at home as most people don’t really keep old, out-of-fashion clothes at home. We nearly gave up.”
The folk museum aims to hold an “interactive exhibition” where visitors and organizers work together on the exhibition.
Most of the jeans and memorable items have been donated to the museum,” said Lee. “Some we borrowed from the owners, who are just ordinary Koreans. After taking a look around the exhibition, we hope the visitors remember back what’s in their wardrobes and either donate or lend us jeans from the ’80s or older. That way, we plan to add more items and make this an interactive exhibition.”
For further visitor participation there is a DJ booth and headphones where visitors can listen to old music associated with jeans, as well as denim beanbags where visitors can sit and listen to the stories ordinary people tell about jeans.
The exhibition starts from today through to Feb. 23 in the National Folk Museum of Korea’s Special Exhibition Hall I in central Seoul. Admission is free. The museum is closed on Tuesdays. For more information, visit www.nfm.go.kr.
By YIM SEUNG-HYE [sharon@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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