Overview
Two things happened to Korean dress at once between 1910 and 1945, and they pull in opposite directions. Western clothing and uniforms spread through the cities with schooling, offices and factories; and the hanbok was consciously redesigned to survive that, becoming a reformed everyday garment rather than a relic. Colonial rule shaped both, sometimes by policy.
Key garments and style
Urban young people in Western clothes were conspicuous enough to be named — the modern girl and modern boy of the 1920s and 1930s press, as often mocked as admired. Schools put girls into uniforms including the sailor suit, and Western suits became ordinary office dress for men.
The reformed hanbok was a deliberate project of educators and women’s magazines: the very short Joseon jeogori was lengthened, the chima simplified and shortened for walking and work, and fastenings made practical. Rubber shoes, cheap and waterproof, replaced straw and leather footwear across the whole population in a single generation — one of the largest everyday changes of the period.
Policy reached into the wardrobe directly. Korea’s customary undyed white clothing was targeted by a colour-clothing campaign, with officials pressing and at times splashing ink on white garments; and in the war years women were required into monpe, the Japanese baggy work trousers.
Transition
After liberation in 1945 the peninsula’s two states took dress in different directions, and the hanbok moved from everyday wear toward ceremonial and national costume in both.