To be able to look up fashion trends in your country is an immense privilege. I can easily learn about early 20th century trends in America. In Korea, however, there is no such thing. Instead I see images of Korean men tied to wood posts riddled with bullets.

1930s Korean “fashion.” It’s actually all Japanese because Japan colonized Korea. These are my great grandparents with their children in Osaka.

There was never any reminiscing about the “good old days” with my grandparents. No laughing at the weird clothes they wore. None of that. It’s all stories of people dying and struggling to survive instead.

Fashion is also tied to privilege and colonization. If you can look back on the fashion of your ancestors with amusement, then you have an immense privilege.