The ladies over at PopSeoul post:

What is the best way to show off your legs besides wearing high-cut briefs? - wear stocking in bright colors paired with micro minis. Kong Hyojin is tripping in her bright orange stockings that scream “look at me.” Choi Ji-woo uses the same tactic with her purple stockings accentuated by her shapeless bag of a dress. And Choi Yeo-jin does a Hyori by forgetting to wear any bottoms with her black stockings.

Who Flops it the Most?
1) Kang Hyo Jin in orange
2) Choi Ji Woo in purple
3) Choi Yeo Jin in black

Well, I’d have to say that the fashionableness seem to be in ascending numerical order. Kang Hyo Jin looks absolutely silly, as her outfit looks like something conceptually pleasing to a designer, not tested fashion on the street. Orange legs are hard to pull off in…Converses?! I know Converses are in style these days, but that doesn’t mean they go with orange stockings and an off-pink top.

Choi Ji Woo’s kickback to the 7-’s meets hippy look is alright, and the purple could work, but the gold shoes makes me not feel the outfit. Not feeling it. If we’re gonna choose a color to match out of those in the top, I don’t think gold is the one, nor orange. The purple’s wild enough, so I say keep it simple with that one piece of flash and flair: cute cream or neutral flats would have worked for me, and would have kept the look recent. Maaaaaybe. But gold pumps? Naw. That ain’t it.

Now, as for Choi Yeo Jin – fabulous, girl! A conservative cut on the top, with more opaque tights on the bottom, with simple, open-toe patents. But the skirt length (or lack thereof!) makes it fresh as hell, and if she were walking by absolutely arresting. The thicker stockings really cover the harsh lines of too-skinny legs, so they just look slim without looking gaunt. I think that’s just the stuff.

The FMS pick? #3 – Choi Yeo Jin! 축하드립니다!

이 흥미스러운 기사는 일간스포츠에서 나온 건데 하이힐을 너무 좋아한다면 꼬오옥 한번 읽어야 되는 글이다. 재밌어요:

옛날 사람들은 발을 남녀의 성기로 생각했다. 그래서 여자의 발이 크면 안 된다고 한 것이다.

여자의 몸에 맞추어 남자의 것이 커 줘도 되는데. 남자의 것을 크게 만드는 것은 연구를 안 하고 여자의 것을 줄이는 연구만 한 것이다. 남자는 여자의 발을 줄이고. 가리고. 친친 동여매야 안심할 수 있었다.

양귀비는 천하의 미인이었다고 한다. 발이 작아서 아름다웠다고 하는데 그 작은 발에 대해 상상을 해 본 적이 있는가. 과연 정말 아름다웠을까. 양귀비의 발은 마치 두 개의 작은 기형 괴물 같다. 양귀비가 신었으리라 추측되는 신발들이다.

와우. 근데 제가 대학생 때 배웠던 영화/문학평가론에러 나온 얘기인데. 생각해보면 하이힐을 신는 건 (보는 것만아니라) 대표적인 fetish이죠:

여자의 발에 대한 남자들의 견해는 동양이나 서양이나 다 같은 맥락으로 보인다. 서양에서 만든 여자 구두조차 발에 무리가 가도록 볼을 아주 좁게 만들었기 때문이다. 더군다나 힐을 아주 높여서 여자 몸의 볼륨을 만들었다. 동양의 양귀비 발과 서양의 하이힐. 도대체 섹스 어필을 얼마나 하기에 여자는 불평도 않고 그 고통을 감수하는 것일까.

여성이 남성에게 아름다운 모습을 보이고자 노력하는 것은 예나 지금이나 다르지 않다. 미국에 한동안 유행하던 코르셋과 허리를 졸라매는 스타일의 여성의류조차 여성들의 뼈를 변형시키고 장기를 뒤틀리게 했다.

여성의 패션을 위해 지금도 날마다 새로운 것이 발명되고 있다. 하지만 남자들이여. 한번 직접 착용해 보아라. 그리고 얼마나 고통스러운지 느끼길 바란다. 지금도 여성은 자신도 모르게 여자임을 과시하고자 고문 당하며 살아가고 있다. 아니 어쩌면 스스로 고문하는 것을 즐기며 살아가고 있는지도 모른다.

진짜. 아주 높고 좁은 stilletto 하이힐 신으면 어느 느낌인가? 자기는 물론 걷기도 더 힘들고 약해진 느낌을 나면서도 좀 성적인 자신을 생기는 것아닌가? 그 건 바로 하이힐은 자기 움직일 수 있는 자유를 줄이니까 약간 섹시한 취약함아닌가요? 코르셋 (corset) 마찬가치로?

“브리지트 바르도, 19인치 `개미허리` 파격 사진 공개!”이란 기사가 같은 간 일간스포츠에서 나오는데 놀라운 사실아니죠. Corset은 high heel하고 비슷한 역할한 거죠. 똑같은 심리적인 페티쉬이죠. 자극적으로 자기를 줄이고 약해보이고 몸에 한 부분만 강조하며서 성적인 맥락에서 뭘 일부러 보여주는 느낌.

나름대로 fetish이죠? 그리고 이정도 corset을 들어갈 수 있게 하려면 오랫동안, 기본으로 몇년동안에 해야죠. 위에 Brigette Bardot정도로 하려면 진짜 많은 트레닝 corset을 써야 되는데. 옛날 서양에서는 보통 어렸을 때부터 시작한 거죠. 19세기 때쯤 많은 의사들은 반대하기 시작했어요.

사실은 진짜 건강에 안좋았죠. 제대로 수쉴수 없어으니까 여자들이 잘 기절했어요. 그런 걸 old movie에서 보셨죠? 놀라운 사실이 발견되면 여자중인공은 바로 기절하는 모습.

옛날에¹ 여자들이 그런 delicate한 개성이 있엇죠. 그리고 기관들과 내장은 맡으로 내려간 거죠.

그래서 그런 심한 corset을 쓰는 시대에서 벗어났는데 그래도 그런 romantic 이미지 아직도 있죠? 그래도 섹시하죠?

Christina Aguilera한테 물어보시죠. 섹시하다고 생각하는지.

Christina! 날 때리지마! 때려줘? ㅋㅋ

그리고 Marilyn Manson이 결혼한 유명한 burlesque dancer와 fetish model로 인기있는 Dita von Teese한테 불어보시든지.

하이힐과 코르샛은 원래부터 관계 있었고 똑같은 느낌으로 여자의 자유를 줄이면서 어떤 부분들을 자극적으로 강조하는 거죠: 지나치게 커진 가슴, 작아진 허리, 동그러진 엉덩이, 그리고 아주높은 하이힐 때문에 길어지고 얇아진 달, 그리고 더 작아보이는 발.

옆에는 또 Dita van Teese인데 어떤 사진에서 동상으로 만든 건데 현대시대에서도 분명히 이 노스탈지아 남는 거예요. 몸짱아닌 여자라도, 이쁘지 않아도, 사실 남자라도 이런 페티쉬 물건들을 잘 쓰면은 섹시한 이미지로 나올 수 있어요.

이 fetish 문화는 대중문화롸 되는 거예요. 매트릭스 보셨죠? Trinity와 Neo의 의상은 그리고 거의 모든 Matrix에서 입힌 옷은 patent leather나 PVC이고 거의 모든 그 영화 시리즈에서 나온 night club이나 노는 데는 성적인 fetish 느낌였죠.

요즘에 이런 look는 유행이 다시 되는 거죠.

Jessica Alba이데 킥긱하시고 자세히 봐보세요:

우와. 말로 표현이 힘든…와우. 예술이다. 근데 자세히 보면 corset dress이고 그리고…보셨나요? Corset shoes도 신었죠.

색깔 퍼펙트고 화장품까지…어…머…나.

마지막에 이 Nigella Larson의 사진을 보여드릴께요. 유명한 영국cooking writer인데 멋진 패션슛으로 나왔는데 밑에 보면 분명히 서양어서도 여자를 걸어가지 못하게 (또 멀리 못가게) 하는 페티쉬 슈즈인데 corset dress하고 나오네요. 재밌는 컨셉이네요.²

휴! 길었죠? 그리고 원래 일간스포츠 글은 재밌였죠? 여리가지 재밌는 생각이 있었던 같네요. 스스로 다 읽으시죠.

1. 더 많은 옛날 corset에 대해서 알고 싶다면 “History of Women’s Fashion”이란 사이트로 가보시죠. [↩]
2. 위에 화소 큰 연예인 사진들이 거의 다 Kinky Gerlinky이란 사이트에서 나온 거예요. Thank you. [↩]

Naver News에서 내려운 기사인데:

‘라이프 앤드 스타일’지가 선정한 2007년 할리우드 스타들의 섹시한 다리 랭킹(Hollywood’s sexiest legs )이 발표됐다. 성별을 가리지 않고 함께 평가한 것이 눈길을 끈다.

전체 1위는 에어로빅 강사 출신인 에바 롱고리아(32)이고 남자로는 웃통 벗는 것을 즐기는 매슈 매카너기(37)가 2위로 최고 순위를 기록했다.

근데 Naver는 특별한 사진을 준비 안했네요. 그래서 FMS는 해줘야 되는 거죠.

동의들하시죠!? ㅋㅋ 완전히 예술인데도 자기 다리하고 비교 좀 하지 마시고 감상들 하죠. 저도 남자로써 크리스찬 베일의 배의 왕자하고 맨날 비교하면 계속 울면서 살 것같은데? 헉:

하야튼 에바씨는 이쁘당!

더 보고 싶다면 밑에 클릭하시죠!
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Is it me, or is the summer going to be TOOC (Totally Out Of Control™)? 어머머머머…이번 봄/여름은 너무 야하게 다니는 거아닌가요? 언니여러분 - 지금부터 헬쓰! 하나, 둘…! (PopSeoul.com으로 가보시죠 - 영어도 연습! 하나…둘…하나…둘…!)

The ladies over at PopSeoul.com seem to see the trend coming down the line, too. They ask “Who Pops It the Most” out of these six pictures, but they’re all looking way too fabulous too tell. 1…2…4…? Hey, whatever.

Well, upon further review…2 and 6 get my vote.#2 because they’re the least awkward looking, but #6 looks like she’s in the middle of a dance performance – work it, girl!

The Rockettes are in town!

ㅋㅋㅋ 너무 멋지지 않아요? 이 언니들 봤더니 뭘 느꼈냐면…음…대단하면서도 좀 자신감? 걷는 모습도 보고 걷는 소리를 들었으면…와우.

Well, actually, they’re not. But this group of powerful women crossing the street was truly impressive. Not only were they marching to their own rhythm, but their choice of footwear was fabulously fierce.

Check out the different shoes – they definitely have their own styles going on.

진짜 나름대로 자기 개성을 표현하는 것같다. 이 신발 어디 껀데?

Anyone know where these shoes are from? Any brands? Anyone seen them before?

Technorati Tags: korea, shoes, high heels, street photography

Get out of her way! This girl was on the move, had a plan, was putting the loco-in-motion. She also had on a skirt-to-hurt and some powerful pumps. 신발은 이쁘고 - 빤짝빤짝하면서 일반 신발으로써 이뻐이뻐. 음…다리도 부럽네~! 하루에 Stairmaster를 하면서 1시간씩? 우와.

근데 신발을 자세히 한번 볼까? Photoshop으로 다른 2 컷을 준비했거든요?

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This is the beginning of a new series, where we see shoes worth buying and have our readers put out the search. I know we don’t have a lot of readers right now – not the tens of thousands that we hope to get soon – but perhaps you all might turn up a stone or three.

이런 신발보면 너무 깜짝 놀래 ~ 너무 이쁘고 빤짝빤짝 하는 거고 Photoshop으로 어떻게 안 만졌는데도 너무 특수효과처럼 현실같지 않응 거야. 이렇게 사진에서 나오느네 실제로 봤을 때를 생각해보세요. 찐자로 이 신발 어디서 샀는지 궁금하네~!

So the real question is – where did she get these fabulous shoes? She was quick on her feet and with her boyfriend, so the moment to ask passed by almost instantaneously. Before I collected my wits about me, she was gone.

근데 이 신발의 라인, 모양, 굽은 다 괜찮은데 색갈 때문에 진짜 특이했단 말이죠. 진짜 야광하는 것처럼 백열한 신발였어. 그리고 스마트한 건 옷색갈 많이 어두워서 신발의 색갈을 강조하는 거같더라요.

I swear I didn’t touch this up in Photoshop, so the unnatural glow in her shoes was just that – unnatural – but the laws of physics were certainly not being broken by me or my camera. Somehow, those shoes were doing that all on their own.

어떡하지? 눈이 깜짝할 사이에 사라졌으니 가서 물어볼 기회를 노쳤네~ ㅠㅠ

I like the red bottoms as well – the blood-red and the iridescent purple – as well as that killer stilletto…which brings me to the logical question: Where the hell do you buy this shoe?!

그러게 말이야. 밑에도 색갈이 이쁘고 - 피색이고 빤짝빤짝하는 보라색하고 - 그래서 이 구두 누가 만드는지 궁금해 죽겠어요!

Readers – 독자 여러문 - please help us find this shoe! What’s the brand? How much is it? 어디서 살 수 있냐고오오오오오오…!

한국인 독자 여러분! 쉬운 영어로 한번 할까요?

공부할 시간이 됐구만~!ㅋㅋ

There’s really nothing special about shots like these. I just like them because they’re candid and unique.

What is it about street photography that attracts me as an photographer?

First, there are so many beautiful moments in everyday life that I want to keep.

For example – I love that torn-bottom, white mini-skirt on the “model” up there. And the car lights add a nice, urban feeling to the picture. It’s a cool moment, with a beautiful girl passing in front of a car’s headlights on one of the last days of summer.

In life, there are funny situations, interesting moments, and also beautiful people. I photograph them all, because sometimes they are memories I want to keep. And the brain is inefficient – those memories fade with time.

Second, in Seoul, ideas of fashion and beauty are not just mainly for stars and people on TV (like in America), but even average people believe they have to look their best, all the time – even to the neighborhood supermarket. And women especially, put a lot of time and energy into their “presentation.”

And Korean women, among all the countries in the world (perhaps with the exception of Italy and Russia), put sooooo much effort into their appearance.

It’s like a fashion show out there.

So I’m a fashion photographer now. ㅋㅋ

I’ve never seen anything like the streets of Seoul.

To me, the beautiful moments in life and the beautiful “models” on the street are sometimes the same thing. So I want to record those moments with my camera.

And for my readers, I want to re-present some of these moments to you.

Thanks for coming!

It’s time for a return engagement of a (less) test photo story, with our model Sugar! We’re on the move again!

As always, you have to be a registered member of the site in order to see certain posts – but don’t worry – it’s free! It’s just a way to encourage you to become a member of our community. So register with us today! 무료 가입만 하시면 Sugar의 완전한 글을 다 보일 수 있고 가끔씩 어떤 비공개 글을 다 보일 수 있을 거예요. 가입은 무료이니까 빨랑 하십시오!

And for those of you who for some reason don’t want to register, we always have a preview of a major post that you can’t see. In the preview, we’ll always give you a nice shot to encourage you to register, of course, but it’s better to register, because the smaller “private” posts are completely invisible to you here, so there may be a lot that you don’t even know you’re missing.

In the Black Pumps Challenge post, we were trying for a “classy” look, and is the first attempt at a more serious photo set, although we are still technically very much in the testing stages.

Sugar comes off well in this post, and we both gain a lot of posing/shooting experience from it. More on that in the full post.

Both Sugar and I appreciate your coming to the site, and we hope that you’re interested in helping us make this the best feet and shoe fashion site on the web!

Welcome to another installment of our site’s attempt to establish a photo style for promoting cool shoes and other stuff. We have a lot of fun in the process of shooting this stuff, but it’s actually pretty hard work. Just know that this fashion-industry-insider-turned-photographer is working hard to develop an unmistakable “FMS style” that will help brand us as we become gain more readers in the future.

So Sugar and I got off to a more organized start for this, our second formal shoot (my third, overall). I originally was going to go with another “story” – as contrived as they are – to work into the photos. Quickly, I decided to scrap said story – which was going to be shot around a “sogaeting” (Korean-style blind date) in which I would have shot Sugar getting ready for her date, primping in the bathroom (as if!), going out, having dinner while absent-mindedly dangling her shoe, walking out together, taking a taxi, etc. – because it would have turned into a huge production.

As it turned out, scrapping the story was a good idea, since we had such trouble finding a shoe we both liked that was under 30,000 won (about $30).

The shoe search took nearly two hours, as there was nothing worth buying in the Ehwa area. We moved on to Hongdae, where we wandered around again for a while without finding anything. There’s really not much interesting at the lower price ranges, at least you can find in the standard $20-30 cheapie shops.

We were just looking for something that looked OK enough to shoot, while yet being a pretty plain shoe that actually posed as somewhat of a challenge to shoot, i.e. we didn’t want any shoes that were really crazy, sexy, or cool, because I could really use the challenge of making a pretty unremarkable shoe look good; any model under the lens certainly needed this challenge as well.

We had picked out a pretty cool shoe from a small shop in the middle “boutique” strip area near where the cars all like to park. It had a nice “line” as a traditional-but-a-little-saucy black pump, and had a cute little bow in the back. Unfortunately, the store seemed to be all out of the cool shoes in Sugar’s size (245), so we went with the lesser of couple evils. It was $30, so we couldn’t complain. It would do.

We then moved on to check out the new department store in Yongsan – IPark – to buy what would be some $11 black stockings, because my philosophy is that an entire project can be brought down by the element-of-lowest-quality; I’ll be damned to find all of our photo and modeling efforts for the day brought down by some stank, convenience store, stitchified stockings.

So after having met at around 2:30 and finally having everything together by around 6, we were ready to shoot. I had already decided to hit the Harue coffee shop, which I heard about blogging around, and fancies itself as high class because of all the expensive furniture and velvety interiors. I thought it would be a good environment in which to shoot a “classy” kind of photo – and the waffles there are great, I heard.

As you can see, the goal was more of trying to use extreme angles to make things more interesting. When shooting from a normal height (meaning anywhere that doesn’t involve in me eating the floor), the model’s legs just come across as flat, uninteresting, as just…legs. When shooting flat, you just have a picture of someone’s from the waist down. Ain’t interesting. There’s also nothing being emphasized in the picture. What’s the center-of-gravity for the image? The answer to that should always be “the shoes.” And now that we were shooting pumps, the importance of the foot’s appearance goes away, with the main remaining element responsible for advertising the shoe being the legs of the model.

Now, Sugar’s strength is in her feet, which are certainly accompanied by some attractive legs. Still, Korean standards are extreme, following the general principle of “the skinnier, the better.” The reaction to the previous photo shoot with the “Long as Sin” model is testament to this fact – most Korean women whom I asked to compare the various shoots all responded with a “I would kill for those legs!” This, despite the fact that I thought that model to be perhaps even problematically skinny, lacking a lot of curves and being certainly devoid of any muscular definition. Still, even after mentioning such things, most Korean women countered with, “Anyway, they’re pretty.”

Interesting.

And what I thought when shooting Long as Sin was that she would be much improved by hose and heels, which would also have hidden her less-than-camera-ready feet that day. I do have the sinking feeling that her extremely skinny legs would make her feet look extremely large, but given the extreme angles I’m using, that might not matter. We’ll see when we get around to shooting her.

Extreme!

In any case, my skills in the most recent shoot were spent emphasizing the shoes in different positions while also making Sugar’s legs look as thin as possible. She’s got really attractive legs, but they seem to have the habit of looking really different depending on her stance, and best when in motion, from the side, or from behind, actually. You will certainly notice this in the photographs to follow below.

Immediately below is another borrowing from fetish photography, in terms of this being a popular pose in the genre – “dangling.” It’s something that men notice – and I strongly suspect that most observant women do as well – and is something that is as apparently absentminded as it is purposely playful.

After shooting with flash for around 30 minutes – and after overhearing the people at a nearby table complain about us – we were asked to stop shooting. So I totally forgot to make room for another iconic shot that is a staple standard of fetish photography, which I will utilize for the good purposes of our site a late time.

You’re just gonna have to wait on that one.

We also got a few outside shots as well, but these didn’t turn out as well as I wanted, so I only ended up with a very few to choose from.

I didn’t like many of the straight, front-angle shots of Sugar, and it didn’t help that the black pumps were boring. But the pumps weren’t supposed to help by being boring, right? Right. So it was a useful exercise. I did like the motor scooter and the city feel, though.

I don’t know – I may be making my expectations artificially high, but I do want to get more experience behind the camera and become more efficient at producing a higher ratio of usable, interesting shots during the valuable time I spend with the model and my camera. I don’t have the luxury of being satisfied with my shots. I’ve got big plans for this site.

Still, some of my “urban” shots seemed to work, while also highlighting the shoes in context. I really like Sugar’s legs in the shot below.

I also like these low-angle shots of Sugar in urban action. Note the ajussi to the left staring at her. I think it lends a bit of a cool effect, especially as Sugar towers over the viewer and every other picture element, even as she is being gazed at by this man in the background.

Yet, she is the one with the power. Such is the power of low-angle shots, besides the utilitarian use of it in fetish photography, which uses wide and often low angles to emphasize specific parts. It also makes you look taller, which always helps.

I think I’ll be making sure to use Sugar in high and slim heels, leggy skirts and dresses, and for close shots. I also think she’s really good at modeling sandals. Plan to see the model from “Long as Sin” here soon for a comparison and a point of another hopeful improvement in my technique.

And thanks, Sugar, for all your hard work that day. Give those legs a rest!