![]() ![]() ![]() Chinese manufacturers scout Korean websites and social media accounts for hit trends and make their own versions. Second, online images allow the items to quickly go global. If a Jesse Jackson T-shirt is selling well, another brand can, say, remove the “e” from Jesse to offer an ostensibly “different” product on the same theme. First, local garment-makers can check to see what’s selling and then create their own slightly tweaked versions. Once these images hit the internet, two things happen. Internet-savvy young women purchase items from the markets for resale on their Instagram accounts, modeling the pieces in the styling trends of the moment. The few that have names are called things like Ossazi, D2GARMENTORY, and Retno. Hit items first go on sale in Seoul’s gargantuan Dongdaemun Market, where the products come from fly-by-night brands that pump out massive numbers of garments. ![]() Even foreign fast-fashion brands like Zara can be too expensive for Koreans, so teenage girls and 20-somethings tends to buy these cheaper underground brands.” Han explains: “Korean trends mostly start in the country’s underground markets, where everything is on sale for about $10 and the quality isn’t so bad. Han and other Korean sources couldn’t locate the exact origin of the Jesse Jackson T-shirt, but its popularity follows a common pattern. With many pan-Asian trends in fashion, beauty, and music, South Korea sets the rhythm for the rest of the continent. The absurdity of a Jesse Jackson campaign T-shirt becoming a trendy item among people who don’t know Jesse Jackson, however, is useful as a way to examine how fashions arise among youth in Asia. And nothing makes this point clearer than when the real-life Jesse Jackson visited South Korea in July of this year and there wasn’t any major dialogue in Korean media about how local youth were embracing his 1988 campaign. In other words, the Jesse Jackson T-shirt is sold as fashion - not as a political statement. The Korean fashion site Yuiiyuii, for example, recommends the shirt for its “smart color scheme” and “sensuous lettering” in “harmonized colors” that can be “mixed and matched like a stylish model.” The retailer NSmall models the shirt along with alternatives such as one with the Chupa Chups lollipop logo. To her point, retailers of the shirts don’t explain the context of Jackson’s campaign to prospective buyers. People may be aware of the English but they don’t know the deeper meaning or that it’s meant to be political. Is the popularity of this shirt a sign of a broader Korean interest in Jesse Jackson’s historic run for the Democratic nomination for president in 1988? No, says Seoul-based social media influencer and beauty blogger Han Yoo Ra: “I think it’s just about the design. The shirt was popular with celebrities and college students alike: Rapper Moonbyul, for example, wore the shirt in the music video for her May release, “In My Room.” After the Jackson shirts’ initial appearance in South Korea, they quickly spread to stylish women across Asia, sold in cheap shopping markets and on e-tailers from provincial China to Singapore, Malaysia, and Thailand. Some of the shirts read “JESSE JACKSON ’88 - FOR PRESIDENT,” while others said “JESSE JACKSON ’88 - BLESS YOU.” There was even a misspelled “JESS JACKSON ’88” line of tank tops for men. As the weather got warmer, the shirt became a staple for trendy women across the country. In January 2018, a surprising clothing item popped up on the South Korean fashion scene: boxy oversize T-shirts with the logo of Jesse Jackson’s 1988 US presidential campaign. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |