The “Real Korean Street Fashion” column takes a look at the broad variety of actual fashions on the Korean street, from the most quirky and colorful of looks to those that are typical and everyday. We judge real Korean street fashion in terms of real looks on the street, as they are, without being filtered by narrow and biased definitions of certain kinds of styles. We take Korean fashion for what it is, not just our own ideas of what it “should” be.

These two young ladies were the first we stopped last week outside the Sookmyung Women’s University gate, since they were just so darn colorful and perky. When asked what style they were rocking, they simply replied, “Spring!” Of course, there’s the “vintage” trend that’s going around, but that’s not what they said were sporting, although it may have influenced their choices. Still, they were conveying a mood, not just a “look.” And kudos to them.

These days, there’s a lot of casual shoes mixed with extra-girly feminine frills, with lace and ribbons showing up a lot for kitschy effect. “Vintage” materials and patterns are all the rage, along with colored socks worn with sandals or open-toed heels.

Countering — or going along with — the extra-cutesy, demure look are decidedly high hemlines. Hemlines are high and been getting higher over the past few years, and it looks to be one of the shortest hemline seasons ever.

Here are two other young ladies with a similar set of influences, ones quite popular over the past year. I really like this portrait a lot because of the studio-like lighting we used to light the girls.

Socks and sandals! I was always told to avoid this, but I guess things have changed. Here’s some more colorful shoeware:

From a most cool lady.

We liked her simple look with the t-shirt and headphones, but also her simple “me” statement with the canvas shoes.

Then we came across a whole crew of young Sookmyung students, who were all indicative of what’s popular on many streets here. I really wanted to light these girls right, and without brightening up the foreground too much. Hence, I shot high off the camera instead of low, where the camera was.

Our favorite member was channeling a lot of popular trends these days, especially with her skirt. Rocking it with the patent leather (pleather?) jacket, it’s a cheeky contrast with the hyper-girly below. Very Madonna, circa Who’s That Girl, eh? Well, kinda. ㅋㅋ