Blooming Hwarot:

Bridal Robes of the Joseon Royal Court

 - September 15, 2023 – December 13, 2023.

Special Exhibition Hall, 2nd Floor, National Palace Museum of Korea -

SEOUL, September 15, 2023—Blooming Hwarot: Bridal Robes of the Joseon Royal Court, showing at the National Palace Museum of Korea(Acting Director, Yun Taejeong), Cultural Heritage Administration, features bridal robes and the culture associated with the weddings of princesses and the spouses of princes, who ranked right below consorts to the king or the crown prince.

Open from September 15 to December 13, 2023 at the Special Exhibition Hall of the National Palace Museum of Korea, the exhibition displays over 110 objects relating to royal weddings and bridal robes of the Joseon dynasty, including hwarot from overseas museum collections as well as Korean collections.

Hwarot is a long outer garment which was worn as a bridal gown on top of layers of skirts and jackets and its design was derived from traditional Korean costumes. Inscribed in Sinitic as “hongjangsam紅長衫.”in early Joseon state records, hwarot exhibited the most exquisite, labor-intensive craftsmanship, including colorful embroidery, silk dyed in safflower red—the purest red color available at the time—and gorgeous gilt patterns.
It was exceptional both in the way it was worn as well as aesthetically, as despite the Joseon period being known for its restrictions on extravagant clothing, wearing such a bridal robe was permitted even for civilian weddings outside the royal court.
* Hongjangsam (literally, the “long red robe”) is a long, wide-sleeved robe made of red silk and decorated with embroidery and is one of the major traditional garments worn by women. It is referred to in modern literature by its more popular Korean name, hwarot활옷.
* Safflower red (daehong 大紅) is the purest and the deepest red dye that is obtained by immersing the fabric repeatedly, up to tens of times, in safflower dye harvested in August. It is the most difficult shade to acquire out of all the various shades of red, which are extracted either from clay, sappan wood, or safflower.

Featured in the exhibition are three pieces of hwarot in the Korean collection and six from American museums such as Field Museum, Brooklyn Museum, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art. They include the bridal robe (hongjangsam) of Princess Bogon (1830, National Palace Museum of Korea), the only surviving example of a Joseon bridal robe whose wearer has been identified, and others which still preserve the stylistic features of Joseon court-style bridal robes.
* Princess Bogon 福溫 (1818-1832): Second-born daughter of King Sunjo (r. 1800-1834)

The hwarot in the collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art in particular has recently undergone conservation treatment promoted by the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation and generously supported by Mr. Kim Nam-joon—who is better known to us as RM of BTS. The robe will be exhibited in public for three months before its return to the museum in United States.

The first part of the exhibition, “The Long Red Robes: Hongjangsam and Hwarot,” explains the traditions associated with the Joseon bridal robe. The first three sections,“The Splendor of the Royal Wedding”, “The Princess Leaves the Court for her New Home” and “Food-sharing Ritual at Nightfall” introduce the four stages of the wedding ceremony of a princess, which was celebrated as a festive state rite but in a relatively simplified manner as compared with that of a queen or crown princess. Among the exhibits, state records such as the Regulations for the State Wedding (Gukhon jeongnye 國婚定例, 1749) or Transcribed Records of Princess Deogon’s Wedding Ceremony (Deogon Gongju garye deungnok 德溫公主嘉禮謄錄, 1837), and related objects provide a glimpse of the last stage of wedding, the food-sharing ritual (dongnoe 同牢) for which the princess dressed up in hwarot. In addition, a video art featuring a large wedding floormat from the palace—the only surviving example of its kind which is now housed in the National Palace Museum of Korea—enlivened the main room in which the wedding ceremony was held.
*The four-stage wedding ceremony (sarye 四禮) is regulated for a princess or a prince who will not inherit the throne, with identical procedures to the six-stage wedding except for the omission of two stages—the official notification of the auspicious date and the investiture ceremonies.
* The six-stage wedding ceremony (yungnye 六禮) is held for a queen or a crown princess, carried out in the order of betrothal, offering of gifts, notification of the auspicious date, investiture, escort procession, and the food-sharing ritual.
*Regulations for the State Wedding (Gukhon jeongnye國婚定例) is a book on royal wedding ceremonies compiled by Bak Mun-su 朴文秀 (1691-1756), the Minister of Taxation, by the order of King Yeongjo (r. 1724-1776).
* The food-sharing ritual (dongnoe同牢) is the last stage of a Joseon royal family wedding in which the couple shares ritual food and drink so as to become husband and wife.
* The floormat (gyobaeseok 交拜席) was installed for the exchanging of bows (gyobaerye 交拜禮) between the groom and the bride at the beginning of the food-sharing ritual.

In the following sections, “Hwarot, Aesthetics and their Significance” and “A Privilege Granted to All” thedecorative components and social significance of hwarot are highlighted: how the traditional long robe for women evolved into the most exquisite bridal robe dyed with the most precious, courtly safflower red, embroidered and gilded with diverse patterns bestowing blessings on the newly wed. Six pieces of hwarot from Korean and overseas collections were accumulated especially in this section to allow the audiences to comprehensively observe, compare and appreciate the beautiful patterns embroidered on different robes. Exhibits of modern black-and-white photographs also show how the robes were worn at civilian weddings.

Part 2 focuses on the technical aspects of tailoring and repairing hwarot. In “Created by the Elaborate Hands of Many,”the production process involved various craftsmen, the Royal Clothing Office (Sanguiwon尙衣院), and other government organizations, who supplied materials and divided work according to the materials being handled or the skills required for the process. In “A Revitalized Splendor,” the conservation process of a hwarotfrom Los Angeles County Museum of Art is presented. Court embroidery designs for hwarot including those for the bridal robe of Princess Deogon, dated 1837, show case the elaborate skills and quality of Joseon court embroidery, which can be evidenced alongside in the complete pieces on bridal robes displayed in the gallery.

In addition, videos are played inside the gallery to help visitors understand the ostensibly complicated tradition of Korean costumes: a video art with embroidery motifs, scenes of surviving master craftsmen working, as well as a demonstration of the different layers of the bridal gown and the order they were put on. There is also a reconstruction of a tailoring room for hwarot, which displays basic production materials such as threads and weaves, and in which the works of weavers, embroiderers, dyers, and gilders can be observed.
* Princess Deogon 德溫 (1822-1844): Third-born daughter of King Sunjo

Not only special lectures for adults but also children’s experience programs are also running during the exhibition period. Lectures will respectively provide adults with an insight on royal court dresses and the history of hwarot, First- to third-grade students and their parents with hands-on experience of the gilding techniques for a Joseon princess’ wedding dress. In addition young students will be assisted with a few methods like online exhibition tour, guide and activity sheets. These exhibition-associated programs, which are promoted in line with the proactive public administration to increase the public understanding of Joseon royal culture, are expected to contribute to expanding the visitors’ consensus on history, aesthetics, historical significance, and the production methods of the traditional bridal robes.