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November 12, 2007

"European Dandy Style" For Men

Not only people were interested in the love story of several unique and cute couples, but they were also interested in what Kong-yu (or the character Han-Kyul) wears in every episode. Many people were asking online or posting questions on their blogs asking where they could get the shirt that Kong-yu wore in a particular episode of the drama, and more often than not, the shirts, pants or shoes that Kong-yu wore in the drama were sold out in the stores.

Well, what sort of style that Kong-yu showed in the drama? Why was it so popular?

In the drama, Kong-yu (or Han-Kyul) appears as a successful business man who just finished his study in New York City. He's 29 years old, professional, tall, and handsome looking. His character is free-spirited, cool, and organized. So, the stylist for Kong-yu decided that the "European Dandy" style would be the best fit.

What the stylist meant by the term is this: Dress shirts of a simple design with very few color,instead of the shirts with strong colors or bold patterns; Slim-fit dress shirts and casual pants, finished by a pair of cute snikers. I personally found Kong-yu very charming with his casual but organized look, although I am not sure whether or not I like the "wear your snikers everyday with your barefeet" concept.

I did not realize how deeply this style affected the Korean men's atmosphere until I walked down the main street in Seoul, Korea and saw many stores saying "Kong-yu style shirts sold here." Many Korean guys in fact tried to wear like him, although not many of them looked particularly amazing. One reason why this might be so is because of his unusually tall height and nice body, compared to many average Korean guys. On the side note, Kong-yu's brief profile is even on our lovely Wikipedia.org, so you might want to check him out and see what other works he appeared in the past: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Yoo

Kong-yu's style in the drama and how it greatly influenced the clothing market just shows one aspect of how powerful this drama has been in various business areas.

One short article posted online shows how this "European Dandy Style" displayed by Kong-yu become so popular and powerful in the marketing field:

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"Actor Gong Yoo, 28, who starred in the recent popular TV series, "Coffee Prince", will show off his princely charm, modeling products for the LG Household and Health Care cosmetic line, Ohui For Men.

The actor will replace Korea's top entertainer "Rain" to join the current Ohui female models, popular actresses Son Ye-jin and Kim Ah-joong.

Gong was chosen for the job because of his gentle and sophisticated image, according to the cosmetics maker.
"Gong Yoo's strength is that his style is luxurious and aristocratic, yet he has an easiness to him that doesn't make him difficult to approach", LG Household and Health Care said."
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Before this "Europen Dandy Style," Kong-yu was never really noticed by the Korean audience. Fortunately for him, he acted the character "Han-Kyul" in "Coffee Prince," and he became one of the "most-wanted-men" figure in the Korean advertising field.

With all this facts said above, whoever become interested in this actor or his fashion style might find the following website interesting, since it contains many pictures of him as well as several various postings by people (including the one above): http://www.hancinema.net/korean_Gong_Yoo.php

Posted by hayoung at November 12, 2007 11:51 PM