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  • CHARLET DUBOC: Welcome to "Fashion Week International,"

  • the show that reports on the most fabulous fashion weeks in

  • the world and the culture and politics behind them.

  • This time we're in North Korea's fun Southern cousin

  • for Seoul fashion week.

  • It's 3:00 AM on a Monday night and I'm shopping and so is

  • everybody else.

  • Everything you can see around here is open.

  • Nobody's drunk, nothing's weird.

  • It's the same as during the day, it's just dark.

  • This is an underground station, but as you can see it

  • also takes you to the underground shopping center.

  • It doesn't feel real.

  • It's like a weird,

  • post-apocalyptic underground world.

  • Why is it open?

  • Why aren't people in bed?

  • We're definitely going to come back at a more civil hour.

  • I was in Seoul for fashion week.

  • Seoul is a megatropolis.

  • A sprawling mass of perfect order, and the most

  • technologically advanced city in the world.

  • The curious antics of South Korea's Northern neighbor has

  • demanded much of the world's attention

  • over the last 40 years.

  • But during that time, South Korea has quietly been getting

  • on with becoming the center of Asian pop culture.

  • To the point where K-pop is poised to explode over the

  • face of the world in a blitz of highly choreographed

  • titillation.

  • The look here it is all about flawless perfection, whilst

  • the subtext seems to be x-rated filth.

  • And I was here to find out just how far people were

  • willing or expected to go in pursuit of perfection.

  • Fashion week is being held at the 1988 Olympic Village,

  • across town from the now well-known

  • Gangnam area of Seoul.

  • This gave me a chance to try and navigate my way there

  • through the super-techie metro system.

  • You're just bombarded with advertising

  • and interactive stuff.

  • So while you're waiting for the train, you can engage with

  • this thing--

  • a virtual fitting room.

  • Everyone would agree that I'm already unique and casual, so

  • I'm going to try chic and modern.

  • I'm going to choose this sexy office lady here.

  • And then I take the picture.

  • Wow.

  • It was just like the scene in "Clueless." The end result is

  • a bit disappointing, I'm going to be honest.

  • The train is coming.

  • At some of the other places we visited on this show, the

  • actual fashion seemed to be an afterthought

  • to the event itself.

  • Here, the fashion was everything and was to be taken

  • very seriously--

  • on the catwalk, and in the queue.

  • Outside the fashion week, I felt positively underdressed.

  • In this series, I'd not yet been to a place where the kids

  • took their outfits so seriously.

  • Or indeed, seen so many scrupulously crafted

  • looks in one place.

  • How would you describe your own personal style?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: And it didn't end there.

  • I spotted luminous pixies, hipster [INAUDIBLE], fay time

  • travelers, and even a punk.

  • This is my new friend.

  • You're the first person we've seen in Seoul that has a

  • vaguely punk look.

  • Do you dress this way because you listen to punk music, or

  • do you dress this way because you like punk fashion?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Where I come from, if people dress like

  • you, it means that they follow a punk rock lifestyle.

  • And they believe in a kind of

  • anti-establishment way of life.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: It's been lovely talking to you.

  • You're the most polite punk I've every met.

  • You're a gentleman.

  • The array of well-honed looks may give the impression of

  • alternative lifestyles.

  • But the punk himself admitted that his look

  • was only skin deep.

  • To find out more, I went to see a guy called Donald King,

  • aka, "the loneliest rockabilly punk in the world." I found

  • him at his secret barber shop, hidden in the

  • back streets of Seoul.

  • He looks like a terrifying butcher--

  • "Sweeney Todd."

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • DONALD KING: Thank you.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: OK.

  • Would you say it's difficult to be a punk and maintain a

  • punk scene?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: What do you think of the mainstream Korean

  • fashion industry in general?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: K-pop, that's what Korea's best known for

  • culturally at the moment.

  • How does that make you feel?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: I left Don, the lonely punk, with his heart

  • hurting from the sound of unstoppable K-pop.

  • Hanryu, or Korean wave, refers to all South Korean popular

  • entertainment.

  • The term was coined by Chinese journalists taking note of the

  • fast-growing popularity of Korean pop culture in China.

  • Thanks mainly to the internet, which South

  • Korea pretty much rules.

  • K-pop accounts for around 3.8 billion dollars worth of the

  • country's economy.

  • So whilst the girls and boys might look like they're at it

  • like rabbits, they're very much investments to be

  • protected from the wrong kind of attention.

  • We went to meet Ha Sang Beg, celebrity designer and boy

  • band stylist.

  • He's somewhat of a controversial figure on the

  • Korean fashion scene, which he seems to revel in.

  • You need only go to his website to see why.

  • Ha Sang has dabbled in many fashion taboos.

  • HA SANG BEG: I'm inspired by the fetish, tie-up bondage.

  • The helmet thing is breath control inspired.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: But it was after his attempt to bring

  • some androgyny into the world of K-pop that shit

  • really hit the fan.

  • HA SANG BEG: This is SHINee's new album called "Sherlock."

  • This is sort of ethnic multicultural.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Yeah, it's not what I would

  • associate with K-pop.

  • It's obviously like an evolution.

  • HA SANG BEG: OK, thank you.

  • Is it--

  • CHARLET DUBOC: It's cool, yeah.

  • HA SANG BEG: Good?

  • CHARLET DUBOC: It's classy.

  • HA SANG BEG: I'm glad.

  • This a member called [INAUDIBLE].

  • A lot of fans, in their minds he's still like

  • a good little boy.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: And this is quite sexual.

  • HA SANG BEG: Yeah.

  • After this, the fan from Turkey said I really

  • want to kill you.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: You've ruined his innocence.

  • HA SANG BEG: How dare you do this?

  • Nasty, nasty.

  • It was so shocking to me.

  • It was a very radical reaction.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Do the fans email you personally?

  • HA SANG BEG: Yes.

  • Oh, please, make them wear the suit.

  • One of those stage acts was a very back revealing racerback.

  • And then, what?

  • CHARLET DUBOC: They thought it was rude?

  • HA SANG BEG: I don't know.

  • The girls having fantasy, I guess.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: How do they know that it's not the boys

  • who have the control?

  • I mean, how much control do the boys have?

  • I was keen to find out just how sheltered these boys were.

  • So we took up the chance to partake in a press junket for

  • an upcoming boy band.

  • We've come up to the North of Seoul, because we've been

  • given this rare opportunity to snatch five minutes with one

  • of the hottest K-pop bands in Korea at the moment.

  • They're called Infinite, they're a seven-piece.

  • They're all babes about half my age.

  • And hopefully they can explain some of their K-pop

  • phenomenon.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: I've never done one of these, and was

  • immediately intimidated by the strange interview format.

  • I felt like I was about to interview a school photo.

  • So I'm basically an alien here.

  • What is K-pop?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Do any of you have lucky girlfriends?

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Are you looking for girlfriends?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: How would your ideal girlfriend dress?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Not too sexy, not too much flesh?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Who gets the most girls?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: What was that?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Suddenly, one of their team silently stepped

  • in and ended the interview and we were politely ushered out.

  • As K-pop makes a grab for the world, will it

  • like what it finds?

  • The West loves success, but also failure and scandal in

  • equal measure.

  • And it's hard to tell whether these perfect boys and girls

  • have what it takes underneath to survive the scrutiny.

  • It seemed curious that even the very mention of girls was

  • enough to end the interview with Infinite.

  • Sex in Seoul is a tricky subject.

  • Basically, until now, if you're young you either find a

  • dark alley or check yourselves into a sex motel.

  • Don't even think about taking your boyfriend home unless you

  • want to watch your father tearfully impale

  • himself on a chopstick.

  • Here's where fashion comes to the rescue again.

  • Slowly, social sexual

  • conventions are being softened.

  • How?

  • Through a rising trend for couples to

  • wear matching underwear.

  • Matching couples has been big on the scene for some time,

  • but now these couples want to match all the way down.

  • This shop sells matching guy and girl underwear.

  • Spirit of adventure.

  • It's really weird.

  • I mean, if my boyfriend and I wore matching underwear in

  • England, we'd be a laughingstock.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Why do you think it became a trend?

  • What do people like about it?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: We decided to test this new trend by

  • grabbing a couple for a spot of market research.

  • So I've cornered this poor, really cute couple.

  • Where were you heading before we so rudely accosted you?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: What is that, exactly?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Cool.

  • So what we're going to do is like a kind of silly game.

  • I'm going to get you each to pick your favorite thing that

  • you'd like to match with each other and you're not going to

  • show each other.

  • And then we're going to see if you pick the same thing.

  • Have a look.

  • How long have you guys been together?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: So do you think it's nearly time to get some

  • matching underwear?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: What's his

  • personality like, your boyfriend?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Make sure he's not looking.

  • Now, on three--

  • one, two, three.

  • I can't believe you picked the same things.

  • You're going to think we set this up, but

  • I promise we didn't.

  • Are you surprised?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Walking down the street together knowing

  • that you both have this matching set on, how would

  • that make you feel?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: That's so charming, I'm going to cry.

  • I think you'd better get married, guys.

  • That's pretty much as good as it gets, let's face it.

  • Off into the sunset to bang like rabbits.

  • Just call me cupid.

  • Hi!

  • Are you a band?

  • FEMALE SPEAKER: No.

  • FEMALE SPEAKER: Thank you.

  • FEMALE SPEAKER: Thank you.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: What was that?

  • That was a mega communication fail, but they thought it was

  • hysterical.

  • Back at fashion week, and I was cutting somewhat of a

  • lonely figure.

  • Maybe the cool kids were put-off by the fact that I

  • only wore one jacket, that on reflection looks slightly too

  • homeless for their tastes.

  • That was until a rather demure girl next to me started to

  • speak to me.

  • She was a fashion student, but one with a very different

  • background to most of the other kids here.

  • It turns out she was born in North Korea and smuggled into

  • the South as a child.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: But because you came here so young, do you

  • feel South Korean or North Korean, or a mixture?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Do you ever think about how things might

  • be different if your family hadn't moved?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: So here in South Korea, girls really can

  • do whatever they want to look a certain way.

  • And there's a big trend at the moment for people having

  • facial surgery.

  • What do you think about the trend for plastic surgery?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: A lot of the girls here are having plastic

  • surgery to change the way they look.

  • How do you feel about that?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Double eyelid surgery is the practice of

  • creating a crease in the eyelid, that many South Korean

  • women don't naturally have, to make the

  • eyes rounder and wider.

  • Having it done here is as commonplace as

  • going to the dentist.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Have you been able to have anything done?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: If the fashion scene was making moves away

  • from this trend, I wanted to see what the new generation of

  • teenyboppers thought about it.

  • FEMALE SPEAKER: One, two, three, four,

  • five, six, seven, eight.

  • One, two, three, four, five.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: They're a very well-behaved hip-hop band.

  • Do you have very distinctive personalities?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: How do you feel about being given that label?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: So it's more about empowering women than

  • attracting men?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: How would you girls define Korean beauty?

  • What are the beauty ideals that Korean girls aspire to?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: And what do you girls think about that?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: I hadn't expected to hear such concrete

  • confirmation that the ideal look is that of Westerners.

  • Or at the very least, a stereotypical vision of a

  • Western face.

  • South Korea has overtaken Brazil as the plastic surgery

  • capital of the world, with the highest number of surgeries

  • performed per capita.

  • About one in five women have undergone some sort of

  • cosmetic procedure, which have become popular graduation

  • gifts for young South Korean girls from their parents.

  • There was only one last place to go in

  • pursuit of this story.

  • So as we know, plastic surgery is insanely

  • popular in South Korea.

  • So we've come to a district of Seoul where there are

  • literally hundreds of clinics.

  • We've been invited by these two lovely doctors to come and

  • witness some procedures today that sort of come under this

  • blanket term "Westernization."

  • It's really chill.

  • It's very clean.

  • Quite sort of holistic, almost.

  • And the two main surgeons, they kind of remind you of

  • "Nip/Tuck" guys, they're like cool cats.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: So doctor--

  • DR. SEO: Yes?

  • CHARLET DUBOC: What's wrong with me?

  • DR. SEO: Your problem?

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Yeah.

  • DR. SEO: Oh, there is no problem.

  • You are very beautiful.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • HUANG SA: My name is Huang Sa, I like the foreigners'

  • characteristics, such like yours.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Like me?

  • HUANG SA: Yeah.

  • It is very, very beautiful.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: And are you happy with the results?

  • HUANG SA: Really, really happy and exciting.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: What about your parents or your grandparents?

  • Do they feel the same?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: How much of it is important for you

  • personally to feel beautiful, and how much of it is

  • important to how the rest of Chinese society sees you and

  • treats you?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: You look beautiful, I think.

  • Because it's different.

  • HUANG SA: Oh, different?

  • CHARLET DUBOC: You don't look like me or my friends, so

  • that's exciting for me.

  • You know?

  • HUANG SA: Yeah, I know.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: So you should be very happy.

  • HUANG SA: Thank you.

  • CHARLET DUBOC: She was like, what?

  • I look different from you.

  • Because the whole idea is that she wants my sort of look.

  • And I didn't realize at the time until someone told me

  • afterwards that me saying that to her actually really

  • disappointed her.

  • I just feel a bit bad.

  • I feel like I need to go and tell her, yeah, yeah, you look

  • exactly like me.

  • But that's not how I feel, because I

  • like her unique look.

  • But that's just interesting that

  • that's how it came across.

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: One of the girls at the fashion week said

  • that having surgery done was no different to choosing what

  • dress to wear that day, or what makeup to wear that day.

  • But makeup and a change of clothes aren't quite as

  • invasive as this.

  • If this work is so prolific in Korea, do you think that it

  • could possibly say something about the state of Korean

  • society or the psyche of the women here?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Even though it's not real, they still

  • believe they can create fortune by having surgery?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • [CRYING]

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Is there a right age, psychologically,

  • that a girl should be to be ready to make a

  • decision like that?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: Do women ever come asking you for surgery

  • for the wrong reasons?

  • [SPEAKING KOREAN]

  • CHARLET DUBOC: I still think it's a little bit more extreme

  • than just your choice of lipstick or how

  • much mascara you wear.

  • Because, I mean, well, you can see for yourself.

  • Fashion week has distanced himself from K-pop culture,

  • staying very much in the international

  • high fashion vein.

  • During our time backstage, we've met many people who

  • wanted to reverse the trend of enhanced perfection, and the

  • seeds of dissent are starting to grow.

  • Those who champion natural beauty have presented an

  • argument that is hard to ignore.

  • Think about it.

  • A girl changes her face and meets the boy of her dreams.

  • Maybe he's had some work done, too.

  • They fall in love, get married, succeed at work, and

  • then settle down to have a family.

  • But on the day their first child is born, the secrets of

  • their past come flooding back.

CHARLET DUBOC: Welcome to "Fashion Week International,"

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