She fell in love the moment she saw them: Black, high-heeled and zipped up the side, the boots were irresistible — despite the sizeable price tag and dangerous air of novelty.
“They were pretty, and new, and everyone was curious,” Song Eun-byul said, recalling the stir that her shoe purchase had made in her North Korean hometown, close to the Chinese border.
They were too exotic, in fact.
Illustration: June Hsu
Not long after buying them, Song was stopped and scolded for wearing them: The first step in a process that usually ends in a series of lectures and, at worst, forced labor.
“How to manage one’s body, what to put on one’s body and how to present one’s body in public and private lives do not seem to belong to a realm of individual choices in North Korea. Rather, it is a matter of strict state policies and regulations,” said Suk-Young Kim, an expert on North Korean culture at California University, Santa Barbara. “Fashion is the easiest and most conspicuous way to mark the political affiliations of the wearer.”
Pyongyang’s use of what might be described as the fashion police — actually unpaid members of the government-run Kim Il-sung Socialist Youth League (KSYL) — underlines its determination to control every aspect of people’s lives, even as the growing trade with China increases exposure to outside influences.
North Koreans like Song, who crossed into China six months ago and did not give her real name because she feared being caught and returned home, can reel off the unwritten rules.
Women’s trousers are scrutinized carefully; skimpy clothing is considered outre; sun hats invite suspicion.
Jeans are off limits and the regime has voiced displeasure over tops with Roman lettering. Anything too decorative or unusual will invite censure. Above all, clothing must not look “foreign.”
Song, 27, escaped punishment for her boots only by giving a false address and lying that she was married, and therefore out of the KSYL’s remit.
Rules have relaxed somewhat in recent years, she said: “Women can wear trousers inside the city, but they need to be very loosely cut. Before, if I went to the city center, I had to wear a skirt or traditional Korean dress.”
Experts dismissed last month’s reports that all male students were ordered to have the same haircut as North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. Claims that people must pick from a set menu of styles have also raised a skeptical eyebrow or two.
However, the regime has long enforced strict rules on styling; at one stage, state television ran a series entitled Let’s Cut Our Hair in Accordance With Socialist Lifestyle.
Han Myong-hee, also using a pseudonym, said women were told they should have hair that was neither too short nor too long, preferably put up neatly in styles without volume. A vogue for excess bounciness was suppressed a few years ago.
The all-female Moranbong Band were selected by Kim Jong-un as a musical act for “the new century” and unveiled in 2012.
When they performed on television, Han was startled not only by their sequinned miniskirts, but by their short hair.
“Normally you should follow what’s on TV, but I don’t know if short hair is OK now,” she said.
The rules are hard to follow because they are not codified, Han added.
“You never really know what ‘foreign styles’ means so the people who are enforcing it get to decide. What’s targeted in Ryanggang province won’t be in Hamgyong,” Han said.
No one told Song why her boots were unacceptable; they were simply too different.
Yet, she said: “There are a lot of fashion trends in North Korea.”
Chinese cosmetics are popular. Recent years have seen a trend for young women to perm the lower part of their hair.
While state media extols the country’s invention of Vinalon, a fabric made from limestone and anthracite, it seems to have given up persuading people to wear the stiff and hard-to-dye material. The streets are brighter thanks to imported clothes.
Song was cautious after her run-in, but has noticed others striding round in boots.
“Too many people were wearing them, so they became acceptable,” she said.
Restrictions even add a certain allure to styles that teeter on the edge of permissibility.
“The government tells you that you must wear straight trousers, so people either like tight pairs or those with a flare,” said Han, who is in her 30s.
However, when she spotted girls in tight trousers, she said she urged them to walk through alleyways to avoid KSYL members patrolling on the main streets.
The restrictions were more annoying than frightening, Han said.
However, she had no expectation that they would be lifted.
“It’s called ‘cultural ideology invasion’ — If you like foreign things you stop liking your own country,” Han said. “They need to control things so that doesn’t happen.”
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