The chima and jogori made at this shop give a warm and elegant feeling at first sight and seem to become more beautiful and charming every time I see them, said a customer at the Korean Costume Shop on Sungni Street, Pyongyang.

Korean people like dressing in Korean costumes on meaningful and pleasant occasions from first birthday to wedding and sixtieth and seventieth birth anniversaries. Therefore their aesthetic demand on the traditional costumes is growing day by day, which in turn stimulated a fierce competition for making better Korean clothes among costume shops.

According to the introduction of Ryu Chol Jin, deputy secretary general of the Korean Costume Association, the Pothongmun Korean Costume Shop with a long history and the newly-emerging Korean Costume Shop on Sungni Street can be counted as the best in Pyongyang.

Hong Song Hui in her early 30s is the manageress of the Korean Costume Shop on Sungni Street.

She specialized in costume art at Pyongyang University of Fine Arts and had special skills in harmonizing colours.

“From olden times, our nation which aspired for nobility and purity have chosen light colors for their clothes,” said Hong. It is important to match such national sentiments with modern aesthetic sense and different likings of customers, she added.

The shop makes Korean costumes mainly with silk fabrics in soft, neutral tints.

The tailors pay particular attention to harmonizing colours of upper and lower garments as well as patterns and ornaments according to seasons and customers’ age and lineament and in consideration of whether they are holiday wear or casual wear.

In the case of a wedding dress, they select the showiest colours for upper, lower and over clothes to fully display the gorgeousness and add large and small patterns in contrasting or similar colours.

And in the case of an everyday dress, they choose white, light pink, cream and light green for girls to add freshness and enhance beauty, light orange, light purple and neutral tints for the middle aged who require elegance and jade green and light navy blue for the elderlies to suit their ages and give them youthfulness.

“The colours of patterns and ornaments are minor details but they have a considerable influence on the colour tone and aesthetic effect of the whole dress,” said the manageress.

With keen observation, aesthetic sense and skills, she always satisfy her customers by matching the colours of patterns and ornaments with those of fabrics in perfect harmony like a magician.

“The decorative striped cloth fixed on the breast and sleeves of jogori makes my 20-year-old daughter look more attractive and prettier,” said Jo Hye Song living in Tonghung-dong, Central District, Pyongyang, who ordered made-to-measure Korean chima and jogori for her daughter at the shop.