Much Fashion, So Wonderful, Wow

This year we've featured everything from modern sexy looks to frumpy retro styling. This week we found a video that sits right in between the two and damn, do the ladies look good! That's right, this week we're reviewing

So Wonderful- Ladies' Code

This video came out on February 12th, 2014 and as of February 25th had 255,529 views.


What was wonderful...

Ruby: I have to say that seeing the trends in girl groups this year, I was convinced that we were in for another super sexy video. I mean the mannequin concept just kind of screams objectification. However, I was actually really impressed with this. I really think that Ladies' Code is fast becoming one of my favorite girl groups to watch for kickass videos with unique but flattering fashion. This video is not only super on trend fashion-wise but it manages to keep it classy too. It's sexy and elegant and really sleek. I mean cute little retro dresses? Count me in.

I think that mannequin is looking at me...

LENS FLARE 

Em: Indeeeed, Ladies Code is quite noteworthy...and in a good way! The dresses were cute, and there were a lot of different things they experimented with in this. Some of it felt a little Christmas-party-ish, particularly the maroon dresses, (come on guys, its February) but it wasn't too bad, and the details they added like in the Ladies Code belt made it eye-catching. I really liked the detached collars too. And I mean, who doesn't love suspenders over pinstripes?

Nothing like shameless self promotion

Don't bag your babies... or your bandmates

To my dear young ladies...

Now when I first saw this dears I was quite concerned. This year has been so difficult for me. I can't even count how many times I've nearly witnessed wardrobe malfunctions! The young ladies have been so scantily clad! I do love a good corset... but sometimes I want a break from all these pheromones!
Now my dears, the men of this year have been completely scrumptious (don't you agree)? Dressed in dapper clothing that reflects fashion and personality! Some of them have been sexy and others more reserved but it was nice to see a range. It does my heart good to see a girls group embracing the same! You and a few other groups have taken their fashion back to the good old days and I am just so pleased...
Now you run along in your circle skirts and go tease the boys a bit, mkay?

- I'm sending you cookies next week, Love, Granny Kimchi

Let's say you've only got like 5 members, but you've seen one too many SNSD videos and now you want enough fashion for 9. What do you do? Now there's an answer, with:
How to Include More Fashion in an MV than You Have Bandmembers!

Step 1: Find a love interest. It could be any old love interest, male, female, or otherwise. Now, you may be thinking, "a love interest isn't fashion!" well, young grasshopper, a love interest isn't fashion, but unless you want to get BANNED, they're probably going to be wearing clothes (unless you're CL...). And yes, these clothes can be fashionable.

Step 2: Have a shoe display! Unless you're in a Super Junior MV where the only set is a weirdly futuristic room, you might have an opportunity for a subtle display of other fashion-y items. You could even go shopping in the video, like in Step by Step by ZE:A.

Step 3: Put in a mannequin or 3! The nice thing about mannequins is that they can wear whatever you want them to, and they're not even dancing so you don't have to worry about practicality! They ARE harder to put makeup on though.

#lacemeup
#motownmoproblems
#feelingformal

#lacemeup is sexy and sweet. Lace has always been a great way to add some sex appeal to an MV and really give an outfit a pop. One of our favorite lace pieces from this year came from Rumble Fish's Virulent Song. There's something sassy and classy about lace that we enjoy.

From Rumble Fish's Virulent Song (we reviewed this one)

#motownmoproblems... This year the mo-town feel has been big. Stand microphones and s curls have been all the rage. It's a really cute era to pull style from and gives off a hispter/indie vibe. It can really set mv's apart. TVXQ's Something comes to mind, as does SPICA's You Don't Love Me.

From TVXQ's Something 

From SPICA's You Don't Love Me

#feelingformal because lately we've seen a few MVs that emphasized special occasion dresses and gowns  rather than casual streetwear. While its less wearable, it can be an interesting exploration of materials, and is often classier. We saw this in Park Ji Yoon's Inner Space and in Royal Pirate's Drawing the Line.

From Park Ji Yoon's Inner Space

From Royal Pirates, Drawing the Line

Wonderful way to end...

Ruby: The mv kept the ladies in character, even the man with his funky little golden glasses fit right in with the concept. But not only did they manage to stay cohesive, but they also threw in super trendy outfits. Some parts of the styling felt off to me, the hair wasn't my favorite, some of the accessories were a bit chunky... But overall I think this video is really an all-kill for women's mv's so far this year. It's just really unexpected, sexy and all around charming.

Strike a pose

There's just a bit too much going on in this shot

Em: Yeah, I hope we see more of this and less of, say, Stellar's Marionette. It felt more like the fashion came before the sexy rather than the other way around. They also looked good as a group, which is always a nice touch...its hard to notice the good parts of each outfit when the group idea is done wrong. I actually didn't mind the hair. Some of the pieces were surprisingly simple for being so striking, like the red dress, yet it didn't seem underdone. Its great to see a group that's only been out for a year (as of Feb 24th) having such a distinctive style. All in all, yay Ladies Code!

The famous red dress 

They look so uniform

THIS PAINTERS PALETTE IS THE PERFECT DISGUISE I BLEND IN SO WELLLLL

INTENSE PICTURES OF AWESOME SHOES

Thanks so much for reading the review! What do you think about the creepy mannequin concept mixed with super cool styling? 

Let us know or leave us some love below...

See ya next week, 

Ruby and Em

Rainbow goes Blaxx

This year is really starting off with a bang for girl groups. It's clear that the era of ultra-conservative kpop videos is coming to an end. Straight from the world of super sexualized MVs, this week we're talking about

Rainbow Blaxx - Cha Cha

This subunit's video was released on both Rainbow's official channel and on Loen's channel. Between the two of them there are over 1,600,000 views.


Let's dance...

Ruby: There are so many things about this video that i really love the color saturation is gorgeous. I was hooked from that first teal macaroon against pink lipstick, and that continued through the video. The video had a luxury feel to it, but rather than going for the typical chrome and leather cliche they opted for an almost Marie Antoinette, colorful opulence style. My biggest question is why that wasn't translated into the clothing! The whole video felt like they bought out a stripper store! The set is detailed, luxurious and feminine but the clothing looks cheap in comparison. They had an opportunity to really go outside of the box and do something sexy and fabulous but instead ended up choosing clothing that down-graded the whole concept.

The color combinations are rich and lovely

Her clothing disappears among the other details

Em: Yeah, it did feel a bit like the budget went into everything else BESIDES the clothing, so it was a bit disappointing that way, but at least they stuck to their concept. If the goal was to be sexy they certainly accomplished that! Everything was very...erm...flattering, which can sometimes be hard to do. We sometimes see videos where they try to be sexy but end up with questionable outfit combinations that do the opposite, so at least they did that much right. I liked the sheer elements throughout, from the shirts to the nearly invisible tights. I'm also a fan of the garters.

One example of a garter in the video... 

And another. But neither have tights.... interesting.

Teasers really set the tone for the whole comeback, not just the mv itself. For the debut of the Blaxx subunit Rainbow put out a ton of teasers, and boy... did they set a tone.
There were some more traditional teasers which featured clips from the MV itself.

This macaroon scene is in both the mv and the teasers.

They were pretty typical and features some of the more memorable scenes. This type of teaser is always hard to talk about once the video is out, because you've seen the whole thing....

Moving on, they also released whole body scans of each member.

Creepy full body shots

Delicious looking cakes

Talk about establishing their concept for this mv. They were super sexy full body video clips that included pretty sensual movements as well. It was my first taste of the wasteful opulence concept and I immediately loved the saturated colors and messiness of it, but it was also the first taste of the less then inspiring fashion.

The last real teaser that they used was something called a "Style Film".

This was every bit as sexy conceptually as the main mv, in fact even more risque at parts. The biggest difference was the quality of the clothing they wore (in some cases) and the staging. In this video (which is 19+) there are gorgeous details like patterned tights seamed high waisted panties and embroidered bustiers. Some pieces still lacked the workmanship, but generally it felt much more refined and classy. I enjoyed it. It also helped that it was staged as a photoshoot. With the limited movement it allowed for more conscious body placement, which made it feel more mature as well. Although still a little sexy for my tastes, it was really well done.

Pretty lighting makes everything classier 

Details like lace tights add a feminine touch

Oh MY! Young ladies these days seem to be dressing in little to no clothing...aren't you chilly dears? It would be fine, I guess, if just Rainbow Blaxx was doing it, but I keep seeing groups of girls dressed so skimpily their heating bills must be through the roof! AOA was a bit better in terms of converage in Miniskirt but I mean...just like at the title! Girls would never dress like this in my day. I'm not saying its a bad thing to experiment and all...just don't get frostbite dearies!

oh my....

Brrrrrr!

#dew-yourownmakeup
#maidmyday
#onthefringe

dew-yourownmakeup... or get your stylist to do it. This year we've seen quite a few scantily clad ladies, but we've noticed that their makeup has been pretty light and dewy. This dewy look is achieved with some gold/skin tone shimmery eyeshadow, a kick of eyeliner and some pink, shiny lips. TVXQ's Something and AOA's Miniskirt just this year.

Female actor from TVXQ!'s Something

maidmyday isn't really a trend but I just think it's funny that we've seen maid costumes within the last few months more than once. I mean they were very different main costumes, but still. See Bestie's Love Option for another example. How much demand can there be in korean music video for french maid outfits. I guess more than expected.

Bestie's Love Options.... 

onthefringe because we can never really escape giant hairy-looking monstrosities, can we? okay they're not that bad, but I still am not really a big fan of fringe-inspired pieces or anything that has particularly long strings or hairs all over the place. Just a personal preference. Dal Shabet had their fair share of this phenomenon in BBB.

Hairy blue sleeves...doesn't that sound attractive?

... at the end of the Rainbow

Ruby: If nothing else this video is certainly within rainbow's sexier concepts. I am quite happy to see them out of the tutus and into something more age appropriate. I guess my biggest complaint is not that the video is super sexy, I love a good sexy concept, but that rather than going for classier styles of sexy, like a pinup concept or even a rococo concept with a sexy twist, they opted for clothing that looked inexpensive and didn't have a lot of character. The shiny satin and cheap lace left a bad taste in my mouth.

Rich colors create a gorgeous background

She certainly gives off a certain look...

Em: While it could've been more interesting, the clothing definitely did its job to make Rainbow Blaxx look good. I liked the hints of red (and pink) on the shoes and the lace everywhere. We saw lace used very differently in the last video we reviewed, but this had some different pieces including the large flowery prints on the lace shirt. Very pretty and feminine. If you're looking for lingerie inspiration, this might just be your video.

Soft lines make for a more feminine concept 

Hot pink shoes with a hot pink carpet.

i mean yeah the video was basically people porn but....
some of those cakes are basically food porn too...

The jewelry was the closest parts of the outfits to the set--the crosses were particularly elaborate and cool.

What did you think about this super sexy concept? Do you think 2014 is going to continue to bring out sexy concepts for girl groups?
Stick around and find out with us!
Leave us some love!

Ruby and Em <3