Asian beauty nowadays is often defined by images of famous Korean men and women.
Less than a decade ago, the image of Korean women was that they wore heavy make-up, chunky shoes and knock-off jeans, and dated men in dowdy shirts and shorts. Fast forward to the year 2006, and they are sleek and stylish, in sync with the global fashion theme, and socialize with metrosexuals at DJ parties. Together they have helped turn Korea from a fashion desert to an impressive fashion capital in Asia.
When they finished transforming, the country placed its stars at the pinnacle of the style tower; Korean celebrities' star power sweeping across the continent and beyond is not news. The result ― Asian beauty nowadays is often defined by images of famous Korean men and women;
Lee Young-ae,
Choi Ji-woo,
Rain,
Bae Yong-joon,
Ji Jin-hee are all household names throughout Asia. And what do they have in common? They haven't seemed to age since they debuted years ago, maintaining perfectly rosy skin tones and healthy-looking bodies. They represent what's going on throughout Korean society, and their images are precisely what beauty-conscious A-listers and wannabe's in Korea aspire to achieve. Karyn Yun, the director of L'Oreal Korea's Research & Development Center, agrees: "Note 'healthy-looking', not necessarily 'healthy' here ―?That's a work of art!"
When the made-up look of the '80s prevailed in Korea, women went for it. Now that the natural look is in, Korean women have drastically transformed their appearance to attain a "near-perfect natural" look, even if the effort may be artificial, medical, cosmetic or whatever. In Seoul's trendy district of Gangnam, beauty salons and clinics specializing in skincare and plastic surgery outnumber clothing stores and restaurants.
That to-die-for-beauty attitude has caught on beyond Korea. Every ephemeral fashion season, luxury brand representatives search for the newest face in Korean show business to endorse their latest product ― be it a Louis Vuitton store, a Bulgari watch or a Christian Dior compact. Last year, Peter Cheung, Christian Dior's Asia-Pacific regional marketing director, picked Seoul to unveil Dior's Asian premier fashion show. Admiring a drove of Korean entertainers in the front row, he said, "They've got the talent, the looks and the style that the young generation can immediately identify with".
Asians are obviously fascinated with what Koreans find beautiful, thanks to hallyu or the Korean wave, and what's popular in Korea can extend Asia-wide. David-Pierre Jalicon, a French architect, who travels frequently between Taipei and Seoul, said, "If there's a Korean actor in the plane, there's a stampede at the Taipei airport. If a Taiwanese actor comes to Korea, nothing happens at Incheon airport. I can see that the cultural influence is from Korea, not the other way around".
Ms. Yun said, "In Korea, more than 80 percent of people's interest in beauty has been on the face and the rest is on the body, but in Brazil, for example, it's the opposite. In Brazil, we ran a study showing that women apply Helena Rubinstein cream all over their bodies"....
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