Roses are Red (and so are the shoes)

This week's choice to review was IU's ultra fashionable Red Shoes. We had a lot of fun reviewing it, especially since the MV was so fun to watch! If you haven't taken the time machine back and experienced it yet, check it out here:

Put on your dancing shoes and lets get started:

Em: Red Shoes was perfect to review because, I mean, how could we not review something where the title had to do with fashion? Beyond the shoe question, IU’s video had a lot of fun retro and interesting details. Her outfits were very dance-oriented, with flowy skirts and dance-friendly low-heeled shoes, and it fit with the theme of the video. They weren’t always attractive, but at least they were relevant. There was also a fascinating cast of characters that joined her in this; they had Paris-inspired, 1920s-esque outfits as well. She and the rest of the cast complimented each other to create a cohesive MV.

Flowy clothing and soft, bright makeup

Ah, Paris

Ruby: This was so much fun, and how could we pass up an mv centered on the shoes, too perfect for words. The whole mv had that Great Gatsby feel to it, which is of course, on the rise in the fashion world. There was a lot of clothing I didn’t love in the mv, but it all fit together so well, that I was willing to forgive silly looking striped shirts (Smee from Peter Pan anyone?) and a wholly unflattering dancing dress. It was seriously fun though, with the fashion show and the playful nature of the characters interactions. The whole cast looked current and fresh and goshdarnit like they were having a really good time.

 

Great Gatsby anyone?

Judgy Smee

NOW TRENDING:

#retrofitforfashion

#alittlelaceforthelady

#50shadesofgrayscale

#retrofitforfashion and we love it! Increasingly we’ve seen retro fashion filtering into the kpop mainstream. Sure, it’s usually a retro cut in bright, bubblegum colors rather than pastels or neutrals. But hey, isn’t magenta kind of neutral these days? This trend has been especially popular in girl groups. SunnyHill and Hello Venus come to mind.

 

Retro Romance

Oh so retro...it even has the stripes (from SunnyHill's
Darling of all Hearts)

#alittlelaceforthelady refers to the ever-popular addition of lace into an outfit, and one of IU’s main dance outfits involves an extra lacey black dress. Black lace can be sexy in the right amount (though it CAN get overdone), and this was no exception. Miss A used it in their MV Touch, and that looked pretty good too. Even the guys sometimes use it, like Junsu in Tarantellegra.

Now doesn't she look good?

Miss A in Touch doing the same thing

Junsu's somewhere in there.

#50shadesofgrayscale highlight a recurring tendency for kpop to either do things in black and white clothing/rooms or to just flat out make black and white videos. It’s a powerful color scheme, especially when done right, so we see it time and again (often with red thrown in for pizzazz). We saw it in our recently reviewed Coup d’Etat by G-Dragon and in the first half of MBLAQ’s Smoky Girl (before they went neon, that is). In IU’s video, the grayscale represented the past, referencing old silent films.

Mr. Shoes

MBLAQ's Smoky Girl

Gdragon's Coup d'Etat

*drum roll please* get ready for the fashion show of the century.......

Good afternoon IU, sweetie.

I saw you singing on the youtube today, yes. It was quite lovely, dear. I was simply in raptures over your outifts! They reminded me of the good old days, when men wore bowties and women’s skirts covered their patooties. Ah, those were good times…. Your cute little dancing dress was swishing all over, so adorbale. And what a handsome young man that got makeup all over your face… did you invite him home for dinner? He was so nicely dressed and clean cut, with his dapper half suit, the right kind of boy for young girls to be dating. Not to mention the shoes, how scandalous! Red dancing shoes! I remember when I could have danced all night in those cute little heels.And then that fashion show! So many memories of when I was young, the lace, the dropped waists, the feather boas! It was an era where women began to empower themselves to be feminine, sexy and independent! And I love seeing it come back in modern day! So move forward IU and let them know who is boss, KICK SOME BUTT BABE!

Ehem. And don't forget to invite your fella to dinner and clean up your apartment. I left you some kimchi in your fridge.

Hugs and Kisses,

Granny Kimchi

Yes, I do mean gentlemen like this one

The Last Dance

Em: One thing I really liked about this video was the detail work. Sometimes the marker of a really good video is the attention to detail…every time I see it I notice something different, and I like it even more. The directors didn’t seem to be concerned about us seeing everything they included, they wanted the whole effect of everything. Because of this attitude, even the backup dancers change outfits multiple times, despite them being in the background and just supporting IU. There was a lot of energy put into this and it shows. The outfits were bright and cohesive and just generally worked really well (despite some questionable individual pieces). You can tell there was a really clear vision for this MV.

 

Elaborate outfits on backup dancers (though still not too distracting)

VISION

Ruby: The video was spunky and fun and full of life. It was long, but I didn’t mind wathing it through, which was novel. There’s something about the retro concept that was endearing and enjoyable. I thought it lent IU, who has always been more cutsy than sexy, a fresh and daring edge. She blended her younger cuteness with a more adult sex appeal nicely within this genre. She to play with men’s clothing, lace and color, exploring this kind of fashion really fully. Sure I didn't love every piece but it was the variety and the usage of them that was so much fun. It really set a scene and an atmosphere, from the extra clothes, like floral buttondowns and drum major coats, to IU’s own wardrobe selections. Sweet and edgy and very very fashionable.

 

Mostly sweet in this picture

 

Fun florals for a fun guy

DAEBAK!!!

Sir. You have weed. On your socks.

Epic piano playing.

So what did you think? Are the weed socks a must-have for this fall's wardrobe? Do you want to party with the stripey couple? Let us know! We'd love to hear from you.

-Ruby & Em <3

Six Month Round Up

Mother of Shisus, has it really been six months since we started the blog? wow. It feels like a very short period of time.... 

So since its kind of an off week anyway, we decided, yeah, lets go for it and try and summarize the last six months of kpop in one very very very long blogpost. Let us know what you think!

As a side note, I am not going to caption these photos, if you want to know where something is from, leave us a comment and we'll be happy to tell you! 

On trend

Ruby: So we really were in the heat of summer and spring these past few months, so that factored into it a lot. I see a lot of strong concepts. Rather than a ton of super overly cute, suffocating with bright colors and pouty faces videos, I’ve really found a lot of power concepts, like sexy women and tough men. Even the cute concepts really pushed themselves to be outside of the box and as interesting as possible. From hello venus to nu’est the cute concept has taken really some really inventive twists. I like pointed concepts, yes sometimes they go horridly wrong, but they can also go so so right.

Em: There was a lot of craziness and quirkiness that I think we both really love to see, from Ladies’ Code’s Hate You to G-Dragon’s Michigo. Everyone seems to be trying to outdo eachother in scandal and newness, which luckily means lots of fun things to review. Some of them throw in the creepiness factor too, which adds another dimension to concepts.

That was…. unexpected

Ruby: Uh, there has been a lot of individuality recently that I like. I think for me, some videos that really stood out include ones like The Cute (MFBTY) for their natural clothing and on the flip side ones like Rockstar (No Minwoo) for their completely out of this world take on style. And I mean, of course there is the master of weird-ass concepts himself, GDragon. He’s been wayyyy out there too. Not always in a good way though…  And once in awhile a beautiful artsy concept appeared, like Lee Hi’s Rose.

Em: I’m surprised by the amount of retro I keep seeing. We had Sunny Hill’s Darling of All Hearts with a fantastic amount of polka dots, then Spica’s Tonight with vintage outfits that look like they were found in thrift stores. With everyone trying to be new and different, its surprising that so many bands are being inspired by older looks rather than trying to do something COMPLETELY different (which can turn into just another nonsensical outfit, unfortunately).

Glorious Girls

Ruby: The ladies are divided this season. Really. Like there were super sexy concepts that pushed corsets and lace, like Wild (9Muses) or fishnets and sequins (4Minute)… Alternatively there are the cutsey concepts to contend with.   Like Lee Hi It’s Over and the sassy Rum Pum Pum Pum. Girls are harder to pin down for me I think. Being feminine, in whatever way you want, has always been popular and you really saw a variety of approaches, from CL to stripper poles to retro glam. Women were sexy, beautiful and powerful, in whatever from they chose.

 

Em: They definitely did everything. Some was good, some was bad, some revealing, some super classy—our recent The Cure by MFBTY comes to mind. One thing about girl’s clothing is that its always so highly detailed…sometimes this is a good thing, and you can appreciate the style, and sometimes it’s a bad thing when the outfit gets far too busy. We saw both ends of the spectrum in the past few months. Even the fact that its summer (and people should probably wear fewer pieces of clothing) didn’t deter anyone.

Boyish Badassery

Ruby: The boys have been very intense recently. MBLAQ wore bondage-y suits and SHINee bought out the hipster fabric department while GDragon traveled from Harajuku to London to crazy land and back again.  I mean we even saw some traditional clothing. But I think the biggest trends from this season were sports wear or non-traditional suits. I mean suits are always big but there were some really different versions recently. Its good, I like it. There is also something charming about workout/athletic clothes. Not gonna lie, I miss street clothes a bit. Like really cool wearable style. Everything was really extreme.

Em: One thing kpop does well is capitalize on men’s fashion. Its tough to be creative with men’s clothing in comparison to women’s, but they managed to come up with everything from man-skirts to riot gear. A few artists were highlighted multiple times for their tendency to be awesome, like G-Dragon and Junsu. Some bands/people consistently try new things with their images (even if it results in offensive hair), so we have a lot of fun comparing them across the board.

Its time to stop….

Ruby: Oh I don't know. Let’s see. I’m really bored of the flirty silly little girl style for bands that are not silly nor little.  The Tutus and sports jerseys, I mean really? There are so many girl groups that are really exploring their new ages, I mean maybe stripper poles isn’t the way to do that, but there has to be a way to be flirty and fun and age appropriate. When you have to go to like, SPICA, who is not quite mainstram, to find that, its kind of sad. That being said, SPICA hit it right on the head. So wonderful. And to some extent CL played with an interesting alternative, using makeup and accessories to look older while wearing childish clothes.

 

Em: I feel like half the time we’re saying there’s too much going on and the other half we’re saying there’s too little going on. Some bands are really good at striking a balance between too much and too little, but a lot of the time there are too many accessories or not enough outfits or too many sequins or what have you.  Example: the flannel in F(x)’s Rum Pum Pum Pum.

Reserving a spot in my closet for….

Ruby: Oh an easy one. The pop retro style. Please. Like Sunny Hill Most Darling of Hearts all the way. Its sexy and current and appropriate. Personal style wise, its pretty close to my own style and god I couldn’t love it more. Bring on the hipster glasses and high waisted pants! This also works from the men’s side. I could totally go for a tweed coat or oversized sweaters to amp up the awesome. Its not the most common way of dressing in kpop, but god do I love it. Oh and then also sneaker heels. From left field, but true.

Em: Can I just agree on the pop retro style? Also, Spica’s Tonight was a big one for WANTS.  God we’re so hipster. Um. As far as men’s fashion, I kind of guiltily want No Min Woo’s clothes. They’re fun and different and kinda punk and I like that. And I want to steal the classiness and individuality of MFBTY. Maybe not their specific pieces for me, but the idea of it.

Not for me no thanks….

Ruby: I mean, I’m willing to try most things but I don't like shiny things. I really don't. No sequins, no satin. There have been quite a bit of tight and shiny outfits and while they look nice in context, its just not something that would be in my closet, honestly. But I know people who could pull it off…

Em: I’m not really drawn to wearing Hello Venus. I mean, I don’t mind cute, but it has to be done right, you know? They’re too….pastel. Too cotton candy. Not really for me. I like to set cuteness off with something else. Also wouldn’t really do preppy like in JYJ’s Only One. Just nope.

So what have we learned here today, kids?

Ruby: Individuality is powerful and impactful. You can be powerful within a known context and still carry your own presence. Either way the intensity is what makes a concept sing, from strippers to revolutionaries to first-date go-ers, it works the same.  Defined concepts work and we have seen so many successful ones. Six months isn’t that long, at the end of the day, and I’m excited to compare these videos with what happens next.

Em: Agreeeed, I hope they continue being markedly individual and impressing us with new awesome things. I also hope they continue with the powerful concepts, the ones that move away from aegyo. Lesson #842394723: Dress your age. It can work FANTASTICALLY if you emphasize it rather than try to hide it by pretending to be younger than you are.

6 Month Daebak.

So many of these groups I hadn’t really taken the time to notice before, it’s been really cool to see a wider variety of kpop and really begin to appreciate the breadth and depth of the fandom. It’s amazing to meet people who love kpop and fashion… And to stay in touch with my long-distance-platonic-soul-mate. Keep on fangirling/boying kpop fandoms, you rock.

Can’t wait to see what comes next in the land of kpop fashion! I’m hoping we get even more new bands that are making a name for themselves, hopefully by being marvelously stylish. It’s cool to get people who will actually read the massive amounts of words we spew about shoes and skirts and everything…yay kpop <3 We long-distance-platonic-soul mates will keep reviewing! (with occasional help from a certain Matt) so we hope you keep being awesome and reading out stuff!

Leave us some lovin' and tell us what you're looking forward to in the next 6 months! 

Thanks so much, 

Ruby and Em <3