Regarding the red/yellow outfit and pre-marriage, I can’t remember where I read that (this was back in 2007, after all), but it was probably on one of the three sources linked to at the end of my post. …and two of those pages no longer exist, which doesn’t help any.

I’m going to edit my post to put a disclaimer at the top that this article is the result of searching online, and to check the comments for more information.

Thanks again!

I’ve read a lot about the hanbok and I’m not sure where you get where nobility wrapped their chima differently than commoners. Wikipedia would have had it, at the least. I’ve read full on tutorials on traditional Hanbok wear. Sometimes anime adds to things that aren’t there.

For hairstyles, you will need to be more specific. Noble women would wear more elaborate braids in their hair along with the single braid. They had servants so it could be done more easily. Considering the Hanbok was worn during the Joseon time period, inspired by Confucian ideals, it’s rather ironic. Unmarried women wore their hair down in one braid with these tiny braids that would decorate the hair (which could have been extensions) and further decorated with the headpiece and combs. The headpiece/headband was basically a must-have. It seems that yanban men would wear almost a bun form of topknot, in spite of historians claiming all unmarried men wore their hair down too. What paintings show and what historians say seem to be different. Dramas will show you that commoner men wear their braid down while men had a non-braided topknot. So who knows with that one? The had would go over that topknot. The headband men wore would keep the hats from going over their ears, if you notice the flat beads on each side.

Now, I notice some of the images you posted show a women with her hair in a coiled braid. Only very loose women truly used this, or gisaeng, who were like the Geisha, only actual prostitutes. Many try to argue that Geisha were prostitutes, but this is incorrect. They have a very complex history, and only one city actually had men who forced Geisha to give it up. But that takes a lot of research and time to explain. Gisaeng wore wigs of elaborate coiled braids. This was a wild outward statement, along with their wild outfits to flaunt who they were and what they did. I mentioned loose women because those women who didn’t hold to conservative Confucian ideals dressed this way also. Think of it as your Joseon sluts. lol.

One more thing about married women. They wore a hairstick to represent their married status along with the braided bun. Typically the husband would buy it for them, from what I understand.

On the female hanbok, the heoritti is actually what compensated for the shortened top. During the 500 years of the Joseonn period, the hanbok changed frequently. Many period tv shows take lots of liberty on how the hanbok is portrayed. Really a lot of them will stylize things in the modern fashions instead of sticking to the actual time period. So what you see in this anime takes liberties also.

The “gat” as you say doesn’t seem limited to married men, because many single yanban men were pictured to have this. It’s the male’s form of the small headpiece that tied like a headband on women. It could be that some tv shows portray it wrong and unmarried men didn’t wear it, but I have only seen portraits of men having it, so it’s hard to figure out. That still seems to be greatly vague. A few websites that legitimately list info have said unmarried men and wore a single braid, yet so many period shows these days display the opposite. Seongkyunkwan and Scandal seems to be pretty accurate compared to The Princess’ Man., so I’m more prone to follow what they displayed. there’s also a noticable had difference between the politicians in Seongkyunkwan & Princess’ Man. (And yes, it should be Seong, not Sung. ㅓ/eo and ㅜ/u are different letters entirely, people pronounce it wrong).

Last thing, in the Joseon period, it seemed more so that they slept in their undergarments. The white hanbok isn’t actually a hanbok at all. It’s the undergarments they wore under their hanbok. It’s almost like wearing a shift. Both men and women have this. I keep forgetting the actual name of it. Just as Japanese had layers in their kimono besides the outer robe we’re used to seeing, the hanbok had several layers, for men and women. The men had underpants and a robe that went under the real baji and jeogori.

On a side note, apparently shoes made a large statement about social class, too. About.com had a mini article about it.

Anyway, I’m just listing lots of stuff I’ve learned to reading and researching. Different articles I’d found before were pretty obscure and I forgot to save them sadly, or else I’d link to them. Wikipedia is pretty legit with their footnotes and citations. There’s not a whole lot that shows what a heoritti is, though. It’s more like a narrow piece of cloth, much like a ribbon, from what I gather, but not the same thing as the type of “slip” that they’ve shown in more modern hanbok ensembles. This is where I think the Korean dramas do a better job showing the whole set up. Instead of a “bra” Korean women used the heoritti. They’ve never had a corset. Thank God. Corsets ruined women in childbirth. It also pushed the liver, lungs, and kidneys in ways they shouldn’t have been. If you’ve seen Korean dramas like Seongkyunkwan and Scandal, they show the heoritti a few times, especially if gisaeng wore sheer fabric.

Oh yeah! That 1 loop bow you see in hanbok, that’s just the Korean’s version of our way of tying bows. We do the “bunny ear” bow, they do this. It’s so simple and I actually use it on my trench coats more often because it’s slimmer. In Boys over Flowers, I saw one woman tie her coat that way. I can tie it in about 2 seconds now. In most Joseon Dynasty shows/films, this is the common knot/bow in everything, from hair ribbons to those sports headbands guys wear, even down to the knot that ties the “gat.” It also lets you know if the person is left or right handed depending on how the gat is tied.

I hope that all helps. I just wrote these as I remembered them. I’m not picking on stuff you wrote, just adding to it, since lots of shows kinda take too much liberty and forget the history for the sake of “looking cool.”

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referring to the women on the street as having been shrouded in bright green coats which are just thrown over the head and held under the chin. the sleeves hang empty have white cuffs and the coat has long red ribbons. The coat is the husbands fighting costume worn During peace time by the wife. The ribbons supposedly red from the enemies blood wiped from the sword. There is a photograph dated 1899 that has been hand painted. I hope you find this interesting. Kind regards.