The K-pop idol who broke free to go independent, the designer whose fantasy gowns are loved by celebs, and the sculptor who works with thousands of online photos: why South Korea is at the forefront of pop culture right now
Gochujang fried chicken at a gastropub in London. Girl band Blackpink front row at Paris fashion week. Hour-long queues for BTS merchandise in Las Vegas. Ariana Grande dressed in a glittery emerald two-piece from Miss Sohee. Over the past few years, Korea’s soft power has rocketed in the west. Park Chan-wook was named best director at Cannes film festival in May for his Palme d’Or winner Decision to Leave, while the Emmy-nominated Squid Game remains the most watched season ever on Netflix, with the show’s actor Jung Ho-yeon becoming the first solo east Asian cover star of American Vogue. K-pop groups Blackpink and BTS have a record number of subscribers to their YouTube channels.
The origins of what is called hallyu (the Korean wave) can be seen in the black-and-white photograph above, featured in a Victoria & Albert exhibition that opens this month. Showing a farmer ploughing with his cow in front of a lone apartment complex in Gangnam in 1978, the rural fields are bewildering to reconcile with the neighbourhood’s now futuristic landscape of skyscrapers and restaurants with robot servers.
