Miss Korea 2019 Pageant Responds To Criticism About The “Sexy Hanbok” Show
The Miss Korea 2019 Pageant came under fire recently when they held a “Sexy Hanbok” show where the contestants wore outfits that were a fusion between the traditional Hanbok clothing with sexy modern twists.
The outfits received heavy criticisms as many netizens claimed the outfits were disrespecting the elegance and beauty of the traditional Hanbok outfits.
The Miss Korea Pageant Committee has spoken up about the backlash through an official statement. They first corrected the false rumors and explained that the sexy hanboks were created by the former Miss Korea contestants from 2018. They also emphasized that it was a collaborative work with a renown Hanbok company.
We would like to differentiate the rumors from the facts regarding the outfits that became an issue during this year’s Miss Korea Pageant.
The controversial fusion hanbok outfits were not worn by the 2019 Miss Korea contestants but the 7 top contestants from last year’s 2018 Miss Korea Pageant. They wore it during the farewell march for this year’s pageant.
Furthermore, the claims that we ‘made them wear fusion hanbok outfits instead of the swimsuit competition’ is completely different from the truth.
The outfits were a collaborative work by the previous year’s Miss Korea contestants and ‘Kim Ye Jin Hanbok’, the same company that created hanboks for former president Kim Dae Joong and former US president Bill Clinton.
— Miss Korea Pageant Committee
They expressed their disappointment that the beautiful theme of this year’s pageant was “tainted” by the recent controversy. They vowed to be more careful in the future and asked the media to refrain from spreading any more false rumors.
For this year’s pageant, we created the big theme of ‘Mom And Me’. We’re just disappointed that the theme was tainted by the fusion hanbok controversy.
We will do our best to prevent such controversies from arising in the future. We only ask that netizens and the media refrain from spreading false rumors.
— Miss Korea Pageant Committee
