Korean Job Discussion Forums

[jlb]

A little bit preppy...it often surprises people that I am a hard-core backpacker/outdoor adventurer because I rarely wear those kind of clothes except when I'm doing those activities. The only clue perhaps is that I wear Chaco sandals almost every day with pants or capris. I will wear a nice pair of shoes with skirts or dress pants though. I quite rarely wear jeans.

I don't spend a lot of money on clothes but have a couple really nice sweaters, some khakis and polo shirts. A few nice button down shirts adn skirts as well. Old Navy, Jacob, Gap...I fear that I'm a walking advertisement. I'm not creative enough I think to find my own original style.

[Mashimaro]

How many people will admit to wearing the mid life crisis ESL teacher uniform.

- acid wash jeans
- fugly leather Jacket
- 10 year old tennis shoes
- white socks

what a freaking awful look that is

[Hater Depot]

Dude, they are button-down shirts.

[JongnoGuru]

Okay, okay -- preppy, grungy, spiffy, middle-age crisis, whatever. Now tell me...

What's Your "At-Home Style"??


Well, what is it?

I imagine there are lots of closet Tarzans & Janes on the board these dayz. I personally can't wait to get home, rip off these trappings of Civilisation�, and do my famous yell as I swing from... as I climb up & down the stairs of my jungle abode, Mandarin Absolut-'n'-tonic in one hand, a palmful of Jane's tush in the other, while Cheetah stirs up another round. Ah, summertime at the Treehouse, high upon the Jongno/Songbuk Escarpment.

But electricity bills and dry-cleaning bills and iced tea bills -- summer is a financial bummer, isn't it?

[kermo]

I try to dress very simply. I avoid anything with brand-markings on them, even little badges. I just can't stand paying some company so I can walk around advertising for them. I also eschew obvious trends, because they embarrass me.

I don't spend much on clothes, or worry about them aside from work. At work, I wear ironed cotton slacks and tailored shirts, for the most part. Suit jackets in the winter. I like skirts quite a bit, and will wear a simple coloured t-shirt if I can get away with it. Since I've come to Korea, I've felt more free to "dress up" so I have quite a few hot little frocks too.

I'm instantly drawn to clothes that are olive or khaki in colour, or in a natural fabric like wool or linen. I guess that makes me a bit of a hippie. I've been trying to broaden my range of colours from blacks, browns, beiges and greens, and so I've bought more reds and corals, but it's all sort of in an autumn range.

My style isn't very consciously put-together. It's just the result of trying to wear what's flattering, sensible and affordable.

[Qinella]

[flotsam]

[formerflautist]

[Lizara]

Goth!

...kind of subdued about it in Korea, though. I wear lots of black and purple, and lots of jewelry, and I kind of like looking ragged so outside of work I wear jeans with holes in the knees and old t-shirts and stuff a lot of the time. Also, it's hard to find *anything* I'd even consider wearing in Korea, so near the end of contracts I tend to get a lot more rough-looking as I've worn out and not replaced a lot of my clothes.

What amuses me is that the few times I have gone out looking all gothy and weird, I've had about the same number of stares as I get on an average day...

[jinks]

At work I like to wear polished black shoes, black pinstriped pants and striped shirts, during term time I wear a tie, usually a single block colour to match one of the stripes in my shirt. I always wear a hat when I am outdoors. Outside work I wear jeans - yup the acid wash thing - or coloured jeans (red), or light baggy pants with T shirts or casual shirts (often striped, I like stripey). At home I wear shorts and lose shirts. I have a leather jacket, black and slightly dressy, but I rarely wear it these days.
I prefer long sleeved shirts, especially at work. korean colleagues often ask me if I am not too hot wearing long sleeves, I just tell 'em I don't want to get dark skin like them, usually shuts them up! It's not realy about protecting my skin; it's just about the look, I really don't like short sleeves and a tie, and I like to wear a tie at work.

[tzechuk]

It depends on what I am doing.

Teaching - pretty casual since I am teaching in an elementary school. No jeans or shorts or anything like that though but not as much as *smart casual*.

Going out with hubby to special events I am dressed up to the 9... simply because those functions probably require it of me.

I am not sloppy - never has been, never will be.

[captain planet]

i haven't worn more than shorts at home since i was about 15. as for clothes outside, i just wear pretty much normal joe shmoe clothes. mostly blue and various dark, unobtrusive clothing.
i once was wearing some clothes that must have looked nice or trendy or something, but i'm pretty sure it was just one of my wool shirts, since those are basically the only nice clothes i own, and some miscellaneous pants, when some guy yells at me, all the way across the road, "they're just clothes". this sort of shit happens to me a lot. i don't know why. anyway, i was think that yeah, i know they're just clothes. i'm just wearing them, but they obviously meant a lot to that guy to yell at me from across the street.
i don't know what it is about me that causes these reactions from other people. when i was younger, "sup" "sup" seemed to be the extent of things. now, i can't go anywhere without my every eye twitch being analysed.

[Little Laura]

I've always liked to dress very professionally at work because I take myself seriously there and want to help other people do so. Yeah, it's a game, but it works.

Korea has changed my off-hours style, I've noticed. I used to be kind of LL Bean, I guess, usually in jeans and a decent casual shirt but still a somewhat put-together look with understated but matched earrings, hair accessories, etc, but I find I've been putting on more skirts over here, and more feminine tops. If I had to sum up my style in a word, though, I'd have to borrow the one CLG used or coined: classic-edgy (if by edgy she means trendy).

Oh, at home: sloppy/comfy. These days, gym shorts or comfy skirt and tank tops.

[princess]

"Princess" style

[jinks]

In my new clothing
I feel so different I must
look like someone else

(Basho 1644-94)

Yup, I like to play the dress up game at work, too. I do it at uni and I did it at the hogwan; it doesn't make me a better teacher, but it does help to 'set the scene'.