The History of Clothing

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19th Century · East Asia · 1800 - 1900

Jeogori

The jeogori is the jacket-like top of Korean hanbok, wrapped closed at the front and tied with a goreum bow, worn by women with a chima skirt and by men with baji trousers.

By Dan Schnau · Last updated

A jeogori is the jacket-like top of Korean hanbok, worn by women over a chima skirt and by men over baji trousers.1 Jackets of this kind appear in Korean dress of the Three Kingdoms period (57 BC–668 AD), and the Joseon dynasty (1392–1910) produced the version "we are most familiar with today."1

Painting of two women dancing with swords in short jeogori jackets and full red and blue chima skirts, watched by seated men in wide-brimmed black gat hats

Shin Yun-bok, Sword Dance (Ssanggeom daemu), from the album Hyewon pungsokdo, late Joseon dynasty, ink and color on paper. Kansong Art Museum, Seoul. Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain.

Origins and History

In the Three Kingdoms period the jeogori was "a jacket-like top that wrapped closed at the front."1 During the Joseon dynasty the women's jacket "slowly shortened from 60 centimetres to only 20 centimetres by the early 20th century."1

How It Was Worn

Hanbok is cut and sewn flat, and its tops are "wrapped and tied together with a one-looped bow called a goreum."1 A 1992 jeogori in the Victoria and Albert Museum, made at the Seoul studio of Lee Young Hee, is of figured silk lined with gauze, with a white collar stiffener and a purple silk tie.2

Meaning and Status

Color combinations of jeogori and chima marked specific occasions and the wearer's social or marital status, and women often wore pink jeogori as part of their engagement celebrations.2 A samhoejang jeogori, with colored sleeve ends, armpits, and goreum, was available only to noblewomen; the Victoria and Albert Museum holds a girls' example in yellow and crimson from about 1900–1950.3

On This Site

Sources

  1. Hanbok: traditional Korean dress — Jenny Kim, Victoria and Albert Museum, updated 17 April 2024 (top and bottom pieces, Three Kingdoms jacket, shortening, goreum, and flat cutting).
    Return to text (5 references)Reference 1 Reference 2 Reference 3 Reference 4 Reference 5
  2. Jacket (jeogori) — Victoria and Albert Museum, FE.541:1-1992, Lee Young Hee studio, Seoul, 1992 (construction and color combinations by occasion and status).
    Return to text (2 references)Reference 1 Reference 2
  3. Girls' jacket (samhoejang jeogori) — Victoria and Albert Museum, FE.533-2022, Korea, about 1900–1950 (colored sleeves, armpits, and goreum reserved for noblewomen).Reference 1