If you want to be the best dresser at your next party, consider wearing hanbok to it.

"Conservative but graceful" might be the usual stereotype about hanbok, but designer Park Seon-ok and photographer Bae Ji-hwan have proved that it can be just as fun and sexy as other party clothes.

At the fashion show-like exhibition "Space captured by HANBOK" underway at Insa Art Centre in Gwanhun-dong, 20 super-hot hanbok and 10 photographs of top models such as Jessica Gomez wearing them are on display.

 
The exhibition starts with some antique hanbok that were actually worn in the 1950s through the 1970s. Park reproduced ones that were in too bad a shape to be showcased.

Visitors who thought hanbok at that time only came in black and white or with some basic colours should be ready for a surprise.

The materials vary from chiffon, velvet to mesh and the colours put to use seem unlimited.

"There has always been a trend in hanbok, just like the clothes nowadays," Park said.

"For example, hanbok became more showy and gorgeous in the 1970s and 80s when Western culture started to influence Korea. Meanwhile high quality silk hanbok has always been the steady outfit for important occasions."

These days, hanbok is rising as a hot item for parties, said Park.

Seeing the rest of the hanbok at the show, viewers might wonder if they can really be called hanbok.

The "jeogori," or the hanbok jacket, is made of materials that scarcely come to mind when the word hanbok is used, such as spangles, denim or lace. Short jeogori that reveal most of the breast or see-through dresses are also showcased. Models pose in high heels wearing hanbok in the photos.

"The striped spangles take the motif from multicoloured hanbok, and the short jeogori is inspired from the ones Korean women used to wear few decades ago. My works might seem too 'partyish' but they are all actually based on our traditional hanbok," Park said.

The exhibition runs through July 14 at Insa Art Center in Gwanhun-dong, central Seoul. Admission is free. For more information, visit www.insaartcenter.co.kr or call (02) 736-1020. -The Korea Herald/ANN