Travel. Expat life. South Korea.

Trying to Fit into Korea’s One Size Fits All Beauty Standards

What’s it like to not fit the mould?

Shopping in South Korea

I loved Korea’s vast underground shopping malls. Mazes of the wonder that is Korean skincare, beauty and makeup. Blemish balm (BB) creams, snail serums, volcanic clay masks, foot peel socks, great sugar scrubs, and beautiful lip stains, to name a few. One of my biggest regrets is not filling up a suitcase of these goodies when I left!

Oh, the wonders of underground shopping, dolly hair clips, cat ear Alice bands, geek glasses with no glass, giant bumble bee phone cases, panda face masks, and that’s just for the adults.

I adored the delightful, cute, preppy clothes in the stores but as I looked around these shops two things dawned on me:

A) There are no changing rooms.

B) These clothes have no sizes on them.

Why? Because these clothes are “Free size.” What does that mean? It means one size fits all.

And what size has been deemed to fit all, you may ask. It is a UK size 6–8 or a US size 0–2. Wait, what?!

My friend and I would hold up adorable dresses up to ourselves in the hope they they might fit, only to see that the width of the shoulders stopped at our armpits and the hips stopped before our hip bones. Even our skeletal frame was too wide for these clothes.

I remember all too often a shop assistant snickering at us before picking up some beyond gigantic, over-sized jumper exclaiming, “I think, maybe your size?!” and peeling into fits of laughter. I’ve lost count at the number of times such a laugh has greeted me in a store. It was often accompanied by a shake of the head before being pointed at and told that I’m “too big.” As a side note, I would like to point out that I am not “too big” by Western standards at a UK size 10 or US size 6.

I felt overweight the whole time I lived in Korea, and my weight and appearance were often commented on negatively by my friends, co-workers, boss, and even strangers. The bluntness about people’s appearance and weight was something I found both jarring and comical. Fat-shaming became a part of my everyday life that I learned to laugh at and shrug off.

You can read more about that in the article below.👇

Am I saying that fat-shaming doesn’t exist back home? No. I’m also not pretending that all countries don’t have their beauty standards and that one is better or worse than the other. Of course I’ve felt the pressure to be slim before, it just felt suddenly all the more obvious.

Why are clothes one size fits all?

Korea has one of the lowest obesity rates globally at 4.6% of the population compared to say 32.6% in the US or 28.8% in the UK for example. List of countries by obesity rate — Wikipedia

The spectrum for what is an average size and what is determined plus size is vastly different. This is even more interesting when you consider that South Korea has its own domestic BMI standards. Internationally a BMI of 30 is the beginning of the obese range. In South Korea, 25 is considered the beginning of the obese range. What is appropriate obesity standard for Koreans? < Special < 기사본문 — KBR (koreabiomed.com)

Being slim is highly praised and one of the primary standards of beauty. There is a lot of pressure to be thin. Diet culture, diet pills, plastic surgery such as liposuction and fat burning injections are societal norms. I even remember often having my shapely calves pointed out. A standard plastic surgery is calf reduction either through liposuction, Botox, or a cut in the nerve of the muscle to stop it from developing and even removal of the muscle itself. Now, this shocked me. To have fat removed I could understand, but muscle? Calf Reduction Surgery — Types, Before & After, Recovery and Cost in 2019 — Seoul Guide Medical Just one of many highly specific ideals of a female body shape.

How to deal with it

If you are larger than free size, then what can you do? Do not fear; it is still possible to buy clothes!

Option 1 Go for the oversized styles in regular stores

Option 2 Shop online in stores such as ASOS

Option 3 Head to Western brands. We had a great time shopping in Itaewon, a foreigner district of Seoul like H&M and Forever 21

That’s on a practical level but what about emotionally? If you are going to live in South Korea, try to take some time to understand the culture around these beauty standards and make sure to know the history and the reasons for it on an intellectual level. Take people’s comments with a pinch of salt and try not to take them personally (easier said than done I know). Don’t feel pressured to fit into set beauty standards, you are beautiful just the way you are and don’t let any person, advertisement or clothes label tell you otherwise.

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If you would like more stories about South Korea please check out 👇

Georgina Nelson. Traveller. Writer. Photographer. Yoga teacher.

Sh*t Happens — because the things that go wrong make the funniest stories.