The Stiletto Awards, 2013

This year has brought so many amazing moments in kpop. There are simply too many crazy good videos to sum up in one review. Instead we decided to honor the best examples of each type of video in our very own Stiletto Awards! Who are going to be the big winners? Read more and find out!

The 2013 Stiletto Awards represent the HIGHEST achievements in this year of kpop fashion.  

THE LOVELY AND WONDERFUL CATEGORIES

Should Have Reviewed:

We started blogging weekly in March, which means there are a ton of videos we never had the chance to review. Due to timing and other reasons, these videos definitely should have gotten their own review and we’re sorry we missed them!

Because of the sheer number of videos we decided that the top video was a tie. First up is Mine by Jaejoong. This video came out in january and we loved it from the start. It is dark and full of leather, ripped clothing and bondage hints. There’s plenty of smeared makeup to go around. It felt like a real trend setter for this year, and it would have made from some an awesome review. The other video is Crooked by GDragon. This one must have just slipped through our fingers. At the moment is seemed to be pretty simple, but the fashion appeared again and again through the rest of the year’s videos.  The fur coats, european influences and grunge fashion became giant themes.

Honorable mentions in this category go to Girl’s Generation’s I Got A Boy and MFBTY’s Sweet Dream. Both are amazing videos, each with a unique style. Both were released too early for us to review, but often referenced throughout the year.

Strip Tease:

Kpop can get pretty sexy, and sometimes it goes as far as stripper-sexy, so we decided to find the most strippery fashion in a kpop MV!

When we first saw Nom’s A Guy, we essentially screamed strippers. Immediately. Because really, what else could those outfits be implying? There’s something about skimpy captain “vests,” extremely tight leather pants, and leather heels that was far from innocent. Especially on a guy.

A close runner-up to Nom was After School with First Love. Their stripper-themed video also had a lot of leather and heels, but it was classier and a bit more fashion-focused.

Why did this Happen:

One of the reasons that we love kpop so much is that every once in a while, a video comes out that makes absolutely no sense. There is no definitive concept and the viewer is left confused, afraid and craving some really screwed up cross-over fanfics. This year was no exception.

This year there was some real competition for this award. In the end, it went to Brown Eyed Girls’ Kill Bill and Kill Bill dance version. Between the two of them we get a confused mixture of male strippers, female dominatrix outfits, cowboy details and some kill bill costumes. If the theme was america, then using a movie that largely takes place outside of america feels odd. Such a weird combination.

The hands down honorable mention and near winner of this category was Norazo’s Wild Horse. Oh man this centaur video was more than strange. It was an exploration of the comedic element of kpop. And boy was it an adventure.

Gimme Gimme More:

Sometimes we see something and can’t help but rant that WE WANT MORE OF IT. These were some of those times.

Spica’s Tonight was just SO WONDERFULLY HIPSTER that we really couldn’t resist it. The loose, detailed prints and soft colors were perfect for both the season and our wardrobes. Take notes, please, kpop.

Honourable mention went to Sunnyhill’s Darling of All Hearts, which had this awesome retro feel with lots of polka dots and bold stripes.

Bringing Sexy Back:

We also saw a lot of MVs that were sexy without crossing the line into stripper.

Lee Hyori has several super sexy videos this year (I mean, how could she not?) and we chose Miss Korea as the sexiest. It had her looking very classy-sexy in a combination of beauty-queen related outfits, including graceful dresses and revealing leotards. Her makeup also made a big impact.

We chose Jaejoong’s Mine for honourable mention because, really, who doesn’t love a sexy rock god? He indulged us with shirtlessness, even MORE leather, and enough eyeliner to make an entire battalion look fabulous.

Rookie Award:

Like all good kpop summaries we have to pay particular homage to new groups and their efforts throughout the year.

Our favorite this year was a five member boy band named HISTORY. They are quirky and fun and their fashion reflects that. They had suits and ties, bright colors and metallics and euro-grunge. They have proven to be a versatile group with a modern fashion sense. They’re still settling into a long-term identity, but they do look great in suits.

Honorable mention goes to GI. It’s rare to see a girl group debut with a completely grunge image. In some ways, they’re hard to talk about since they rarely change outfits and keep it simple, but that exactly what we love about them.

Unexpectedly Good:

Now we don’t mean to be cruel to anyone but some bands tend to be less than impressive. But this year, they pulled out a video that knocked our socks off! Props to these groups!

The one we were most surprised with was the mixed unit Troublemaker and their single Now! Troublemaker always fell into the overly sexy category for us, combining really provocative choreo with clothes that weren’t suited to it. This time though they incorporated this sexy, grungy feel into their fashion that made it much more appropriate and accessible.

Honorable mention to MFBTY Sweet Dream. We adore this video fashion wise even if in the past these rappers have been underwhelming in the fashion department. Such a kickbutt video.

Beautiful Butterfly:

Some kpop groups grew up quite a bit this year, from awkward caterpillars to bootyful butterflies.

Girl’s Day came in first place with Expectation. They’ve come a long way from typical cutesy to suspenders-snapping, short-shorts-sporting seductresses. Parts of the video still had cute dresses, but they’re definitely not pretending to be 12 anymore.

Close behind as Honourable Mention was Sistar19 with Gone Not Around Any Longer. They had on much more mature clothing as well, marking them as also not 12.

Not all grown up:

Another hallmark of the kpop industry are all the groups that didn’t grow up this year! From tutus to overalls to pigtails we’ve seen some classic little girl looks this year.

The most notable example of this goes to Rainbow and their comeback with Sunshine. The group’s average age is 24 years old. They wear sailor hats, tutus and pigtails. The clothing is much more suited to girls half their ages or less. We know its supposed to be cute, but to us it’s just a little bit weird and it makes us slightly uncomfortable.

Honorable mention also goes out to SNSD’s I Got A Boy. The video’s main outfits were cool but the beginning portion was disturbingly childlike.

Most European:

You thought you were watching a Korean music video? Well guess what...it’s also practically European.

The winner on this one was History, particular with their adventures in Berlin’s alleyways and bars in What Am I To You? They practically blended right in with their leather jackets, hoodies, and beanies. Guten tag!

Honourable mention was, of course, GDragon, who partied in London and generally blended in as well (I mean, as much as GD can blend in anywhere…not usually his goal…)

Strangest Concept:

These videos clearly had a concept, but we wonder why anyone thought it was a good concept.

There was some stiff competition for this category but the ultimate winner was GDragon with Michigo. This video was full of subway raves, massive feet and privacy invasions. We knew that the video was about an uncontrollable urge to dance and we felt like that was communicated. But the masks? It was just totally strange.

An honorable mention goes out to Tiny-G for Missing You. The cat concept with cat dresses and cat tights and cat dance moves. It was just really confusing.

よろしくお願いします:

Sometimes kpop groups go to Japan. Usually, it ends up pretty weird. Sometimes, it’s also awesome.

Eunhyuk and Donghae happened to have a FASCINATING Japanese MV called I Wanna Dance in which, well, they danced. Vigorously. In everything from leopard print to plaid. Luckily those things functioned mostly as accents and overall it was a good turnout.

Shinee as a whole did really well on the Japan front with 3 2 1, Breaking News, AND Dazzling Girl, all with noteworthy looks.

Out of Nowhere:

Logging onto youtube like normal and scrolling down, seeing the usual: tyler oakley, sm teasers, indie videos with no english and then suddenly… WHAT IS THAT? WHERE DID THAT COME FROM?

The hands-down-all-out winner of this category was Rockstar by Icon! No Min Woo (the face of Icon) was formerly the drummer of a band called TRAX. He went by the name of Rose and had a pretty interesting aesthetic. He disappeared for a few years, acted a bit and then BAM! came back with this epic track coupled with a kick ass video! One of our favorite videos of the year.

Honorable mention goes out to Kim Hyun Joong and his come back with Unbreakable. Since the eternal break of SS501 began, he’s released a few songs with weird videos, but this comeback was really awesome. Masks and traditional clothing and half naked men, oh my!

Natural Beauty:

One of the things we really like when its well done is when the fashion is very simple in its beauty--still well put-together, but more subtle.

The definite winner of this one is one of our favorite bands, MFBTY, with their song The Cure. All the clothing was very simple and understated, but with an elegance that made it beautiful. The outfits had a lot of personality despite (and maybe because of) the lack bold, distracting colors.

Another fairly simple yet successful MV was GDragon’s Who You, which featured him in a simple white t-shirt and jeans, plus a few accessories. It was very different from his usual getup, and while we love his craziness it was also a nice change.

Most Reviewed:

This category is pretty self explanatory. We counted, these were the results:

SHINee is the most reviewed group this year. They came back three times and each music video was super different. Despite that each had that distinctive SHINee flare. What can we say? We love ‘em.

SHINee is closely followed up by GDragon. His mv’s really set fashion standards for this year in kpop. Two artists we really love to talk about!

Going Solo:

Whether they broke off from another band or started out as a soloist, these idols produced fantastic solo material this year!

After a lot of deliberation, we finally agreed that Lee Hi was our favorite soloist this year, not only because she’s pretty new to kpop but also because SHE WAS AWESOME. Both her solos had fantastic fashion, from the lacy, romantic dresses in Rose to the cute, floucy dresses in It’s Over.

In a sudden and dramatic announcement from the judges, there’s been a tie for honourable mention between Jaejoong and G-Dragon! Both had several fantastic solos and we just couldn’t choose one!

Classiest Bitches:

Damn, sometimes music videos come out that give us class and elegance beyond all of our expectations. It’s awesome to see these ladies decked out in all of their finery.

This year the award goes out to 2ne1 with Missing You. The video definitely had a hard edge to it, but that didn’t take away from the classy and chic style that emanated through this video. From the metallic accents, to the thoughtful accessories, to the beautiful styling the whole video was beautiful to watch unfold.

Honorable mention goes out to the fabulous Kara and their comeback Damaged Lady. The gorgeous men’s and women’s fashion in the video was absolutely gorgeous and really complemented their grown-up image.

Angstiest:

Every musical genre has its fair share of teenage angst in it, and kpop was no exception this year.

The MV with the most tear-your-hair-out, scream-in-the-streets angst was G-Dragon’s Crooked. He had lots of chains and rebellious tattoos and such, giving off the appropriate amount of devil-may-care for someone with his level of angst (yes, it’s a high number).

Coming up just behind G-Dragon was someone who can definitely compete for high levels of angst--Jaejoong, with Mine. Between his rockstar-worthy amounts of eyeliner and his artfully torn clothing, he certainly looked the part.

Murica:

This year there seemed to be a plethora of videos with a good ol’ americana theme.

We thought that the one that embraced the largest spectrum of American cliches was Gun from 9Muses. This video had everything and the kitchen sink. There were sexy librarians and cat shirts and american flags and strippers! I mean really what else do we even have in America?

We made a super close call in this category and coming in just out of first was Now by Troublemaker. This video took a much more indie approach but still called some traditional american images to mind.

Artsiest:

Occasionally, an MV just goes all out with the artistic side, and it ends up really beautiful!

We simply HAD to talk about Davichi’s Turtle in this, 1 because of the band name (Leonardo Davinci anyone?) and 2 because the video was GORGEOUS. Between quirky polka dot tights and lovely floral dresses, Turtle was an excellent example of a beautiful MV.

Another video both floral and beautiful was Lee Hi’s Rose, where Lee Hi wears lace dresses and floral crowns, lending her a delicate and mysterious look.

Badassery:

So often in kpop we see endless neon colors and avant-guarde fashion choices but sometimes we get these videos that are dark and harsh fashion choices.

The fashion found in BAP’s Oneshot definitely exemplified all of this criteria. The video features dark and intricate clothing with metallic details. The whole video tells a story and the fashion fits so well into the whole theme. It really encapsulates the street fashion kind of badass style and really speaks to that type of kpop video.

There are TWO honorable mentions in this category. The first video is Everynight by Exid. This is super classy and edgy badass (you go girls). The second video is Jaejoong’s Just another Girl filling in the hard rocker edge of badass.

Ruby’s Pick: THIS MAY CHANGE

There are so many amazing videos I want to put into this section. Lee Hi’s Rose... GD’s Crooked… Jaejoong’s Mine…  I could keep going. But I think for me, the video that really knocked my socks off that just took me to another world. I screamed, I cried, I laughed and I made all my friends watch it…. It’s Icon’s Rockstar. This video not only featured original, on trend, out of this world fashion but it was also designed by the artist. Perfect, beautiful, and my favorite. It means a lot when a star invests in his own work and plays a part in each part of the music video. Plus No Min Woo has an excellent fashion sense.

Em’s Pick:

Another video we didn’t talk about but that I got inordinately excited about was Hate You by Ladies Code, which somehow managed to successfully incorporate both creepy baby dolls and fantastic reinterpreted Victorian fashion. The juxtapositions between everything from good and evil to lace and leather made this my favorite for the year.

In the end...

This was an amazing year! We both really enjoyed reviewing these MVs, and we hope you enjoyed reading about them too! Let us know in the comments what you think, and feel free to argue with us over who should’ve won a category...we love debate! What was your pick of the year? What did we miss? Tell us!

See you next year!

Ruby & Em <3