It’s been a long time in coming.

The first rumblings came from the black “knee socks” that started coming into Korea three winters ago.

And that trend never went away, for two reasons:

1. Black socks in the fall and winter months are practical, because they keep you warm and allow you to wear shorter skirts when you really shouldn’t be, and

2. There is a schoolgirlish, faux coyness to the style that lets you look naughtier while apparently looking nice.
So, to some extent, the trend has turned into a permanent fashion option for young ladies. In this way, it’s not even accurate to call this a “trend” anymore.

That being said, the thigh-high socks are about to bust out ALL over come this winter.

My prediction? That there will be as many women wearing thigh-high tights this winter as there were in the peak of the black knee socks craze two winters ago. And that’s a whole lotta leg we’re talking, then.

What really makes this fad one ripe for the exploding is the extreme rise in skirt lengths over the past couple of summers – especially this year – which means that Korean girls are gonna want to keep the legs exposed, but with it being cold weather and all, they’re gonna need:

1. A way to justify wearing a miniskirt when snow is falling, and

2. A practical way to keep warm because you’re wearing a miniskirt in the dead of winter..

The thigh-high stocking solves both these problems, while offering it’s own form of naughtiness, which was briefly mentioned above. The primary variations on the theme will be as follows:

1. The thick black tights that will cover as much as they encourage the wearer to show more leg, yet will be comfortable and the least risqué, or as the Korean expression so aptly puts it, the least “야해.”

2. Thinner, sheerer tights that will be closer to stockings and give more of such a feel, making the miniskirt look like it’s exposing more. They may also have a few patterns or be white.

3. The most 야해 will be the thigh-highs that call attention to themselves, be they bright colors or wilder patterns, such as fishnets or gaudy flower patterns. The danger for fashion violations runs highest in this third category.

One of the reasons I think this trend will run wild this winter has to do with the sheer amount of young women in Seoul already running around in them, well before it’s anywhere near to getting cold. I saw three pairs of thigh-highs at a single crosswalk a few days ago, when I took the pictures above.

And one thing about the black thigh-highs: they go well with black pumps, but some black pumps are better than others. I must give kudos to my girl in the picture, because she had some fierce, fierce taste in shoes. Exhibit A:

Nice metal eyelet lace holes on the backs there. Girlfriend ain’t playin’! From looking at both pictures, I can tell that the shoes are not the cheap, manmade materials you get in the $20-30 range because there’s a certain obvious “give” to the shoes that is quite apparent. Therefore, they must be a bit softer, conforming to the foot better, as leather does when allowed to adjust over time.

The shoes look worn enough to have adjusted, as you can see from the outline of her toes apparent in the nose of the shoe, but you can also see that this is not just caused by them being too tight – you can see the comfortable space in the back of the shoe, where they hang off as she puts her weight forward on the slight incline where she’s standing.

Adds a bit of an edginess to the whole look. Here’s a better view from a more frontward angle, a.k.a. Exhibit B:

When she walks in the first picture, there’s no tell-tale “flip-flop effect” that happens when women buy shoes too big for their feet, or the proper size before the cheap material stretches upon being worn, causing the shoe to slip past the heel as the foot slides forward, especially when wearing stockings or thin socks.

Price call? I’d say she paid up a little past $100 for those shoes. Anyone care to venture a guess of their own?

Anyway.

Girls are gonna be thigh-high crazy this winter.

They’ve been around under the radar for awhile now, I know. But this winter’s different.

Miniskirts all winter long.

Only in Korea.

ㅋㅋ

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!

EE-OO! EE-OO!

“Calling all cars! Calling all cars! Fashion police being dispatched to apprehend pre-meditated fashion felony! Calling all cars! Calling all cars!”

I was walking down the street today when I spied the most disturbing thing I’d seen in nearly all my time spent in Korea. It caused me great emotional suffering and scarring, and will remain in my memory for the remainder of my days. Oh, the horror! The humanity! The…socks!

BEHOLD!!!

Lawwwwwd, I pray you help this lamb, who has obviously strayed so far from the herd that she is lost and in need of guidance. Send low a sweet chariot to come forth and carry this young lady home.

Now that all that’s positive to say about such an offense as this has been officially said, I just have to add that unless this girl’s mentally retarded, – sorry, but there’s no excuse save that one – there’s no reason for her to be wearing those socks and…green sandals? Huh?!

Lawwd, have mercy! Are those green butterflies on her sandals? Whew.

***SHUDDER***

Since she didn’t seem to be mentally incapacitated in any way, and apparently is an adult and made the conscious decision to wear what she’s wearing, she must accept full responsibility for her actions.

But that doesn’t mean that she doesn’t deserve help. If you see this woman, ya’ll need to act on the spot. Intervene. Do your civic duty. Point this lamb back in the general direction of fashion sense and sanity.

Maybe she’s beyond help?

OK - let me just say that I DO NOT like loose, hangy boots. Never did. I’ve always favored tight, form-fitting stilettos. I know, I know. I am a mere man.

And 93.7% of the time I see these boots on ladies around Seoul, I DO NOT LIKE THEM.

But yesterday, I must say that this young lady certainly knew how to wear them, and they seemed to fit her stance, walk, and what little I could see from her personality. They were just cool on her.

The height is good, they didn’t “hang” or droop too much, and they were a nice contrast to her bare legs. If she had been wearing stockings, they would only have worked if they weren’t the dark brown cheapies you can buy for 200 won. It also helped that her casual, slightly 80’s (but not too much) top was unobtrusively sexy.

Love the black camisole strap peeking out.

Love it!

EE-OO! EE-OO!

“Calling all cars! Calling all cars! Fashion police being dispatched to apprehend ludicrous color choices involving opqaue stockings and pumps! Calling all cars! Calling all cars!”

Uh. Mah. Gawd.

Don’t even get me started.

This is a major felony violation of fashion laws, with aggravated felony assault of 80’s fashion.

OK. The Irene Cara, dance-school-top-slouching-down-over-one-shoulder thing is kinda back. If that’s what you want to do, then technically…it’s…not – I can’t believe I’m even saying this – a…crime.

But black, opaque tights with GOLD, OPEN-TOED SHOES!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!

I was walking in the opposite direction when I spied this young lady sashaying past me, as if she were Princess Di herself, resurrected and given hips.

Do I even need to go into detail here as to how wrong this is? Do I need to talk about no TIGHTS with open-toed shoes or talk about the obvious color clash here?

Uh. Mah. Gawd.

한심하다. 휴.

Here’s our second try at getting a photo story down while also working on developing a style for shooting “fashion-in-context”. The full photo spread – with nearly 50 shots – is visible to registered users. You must be logged in to view it. Just login and the post will be visible right under this one. 가입 좀 빨리 하시죠 - 이 photo story 완전히 다 볼 수 있게~!

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