cultural post 4

[Yewon Son]

While people usually adhere to similar fashion trends and makeup styles depending on what is popular at the moment, this is especially true for Korean culture: especially nowadays. Because it is a country that puts a lot of focus on outward appearance: evidenced by the extremely high plastic surgery rates, it's not surprising that fashion and makeup have such large influences there. One of the main outlets for this influence in Korea is through the enormously popular k-pop"idol" groups in Korea. The clothes that these "idols" wear, the type of makeup they put on, are all both informed by the trends at the time and also create those said trends. This type of practice is not unheard of in most other westernized countries too; a celebrity wearing a certain article of clothing, and that clothing becoming a trend, is a fairly common way for fashion trends to start. However, it is especially accentuated because of both the sheer number of "idols" or "idol groups" in South Korea, and how small of a country it is to begin with. I was reminded of this cultural aspect of Korea when I saw a post on social media from a popular Korean blogger; she often posts pictures taken of popular idols and tries to identify the articles of clothing they're wearing, or at least something very similar.