Some women point out that this isn’t entirely by choice. Women who are dolled up from head to toe are a common sight in major South Korean cities. South Korea is “the plastic surgery capital of the world,” said a Business Inside article from June, citing the number of procedures carried out here each year. South Korea is known for its obsession with appearance and thriving makeup culture, dubbed “K-beauty.” “South Korea is among the top 10 global beauty markets, estimated at just over US$13 billion in 2017,” declared Mintel, a market intelligence agency. In this context, the corset refers to South Korean society’s rigid standards of beauty, imposed particularly on women.
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This corset isn’t the literal one that turns a woman’s torso into an hourglass shape. “#RemoveTheCorset #ProofOfRemovingTheCorset I smashed all my makeup and feel liberated.” Since the beginning of 2018, they have been sharing online photos of their fresh buzz cuts and lipsticks broken into pieces, along with the hashtag “#RemoveTheCorset”- tal-koreuset in Korean. Young South Korean women are smashing their makeup, snipping their long hair and throwing away their bras. Shim, who has nearly half a million subscribers on YouTube, isn’t the only person to take a stance against makeup and beauty norms. And I’m spending that time on myself-even if it’s just 10 minutes-and it’s making me much happier each day.”
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“Lately, I’ve considerably reduced the time spent on putting on makeup. “I’m no longer happy with making myself up beyond the point of gaining self-satisfaction,” Shim said in the video announcement, published in June. When a co-worker invited her to attend a class at the ceramics studio across the street from the Pilates studio where they worked, Shin viewed it as a way to break up her teaching schedule.īut soon she was skipping lunch so she could throw pots every day.After months of deliberation, Shim Jung-hyun, a 26-year-old South Korean YouTuber known for her beauty tips, announced to her subscribers that she would stop filming makeup tutorials, skincare routines and cosmetics unboxing videos. “My husband thought I was crazy,” she says with a grin. It wasn’t long before she had more than 100 plants in her apartment. “After that, I started buying plants and couldn’t stop.” When a friend recommended Mickey Hargitay Plants in West Hollywood, she was captivated by the rare and exotic varieties she discovered there. She vividly remembers the first plant she purchased, a small cactus from Ikea. They allow me to always be close to nature.”
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When I moved to New York City and later Los Angeles, I realized how much I missed being close to nature, and I think this is a big reason why I came to fall in love with plants. “So I was used to always being around nature and plants. “Growing up in Korea, my family was surrounded by lush green mountains, and my mother always maintained her own collection of houseplants,” she says. What was different was her obsession with plants, which struck her during a period where she was missing the Korean landscape. We’ve launched a new series, PLANT PPL, where we interview people of color in the plant world, such as the voice behind Andi Xoch of Boyle Heights. Times Plants, we love “plantfluencers” - people whose Instagram feeds and stories are abundantly verdant. This is PLANT PPL, where we spotlight people of color in the plant world
OBSESSED KOREA FULL
The Korean dancer and choreographer became so obsessed with plants, she set a goal for herself: “I want to make something to dress up every plant.” She is now creating custom ceramic planters full time in the garage behind her Cypress Park home.
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Three years ago, Shin was living with more than 50 houseplants in the bedroom of her Koreatown apartment. “I don’t intentionally try to design my pots in this style, but I think to some degree it’s the style that naturally comes out of me as a Korean.” “There is a Korean term ‘yeo-baek’ that is meant to convey an aesthetic ideal of empty space and simplicity,” she says. Shin says it is undeniable, although unintended, that her background influences her work. There are chocolate brown and speckled buff vessels for caudex, pagoda planters for Adenia glauca, checkerboard glazed pots for pussy willows, striped planters for Pilea peperomioides and philodendrons, and doughnut-shaped vessels for hoyas and air plants. That’s what makes them so special: Each vessel is inspired by her love of plants. Shin’s planters are difficult to label because she designs each one to complement the rare plants that capture her interest.