(Cover photo credit: Choi Woo-sik, Song Kang-ho, Jang Hye-jin and Park So-dam in “Parasite”, 2019 - IMAGO / ZUMA Wire)
THE PITCH: TWO WORLDS, TWO FAMILIES AND A FORCED MEETING
Seoul, South Korea. The Kim family is busy with their little daily schemes. The parents and their two children live together in a tiny basement apartment. “In the land of calm mornings, not a sound falls…” sang Alain Bashung. What we discover here is almost completely different, depending on whether we live in upscale or working-class neighborhoods.
The Kim family is the exact opposite of the wealthy Park family. The meeting is as risky as it is forced: a master in the art of encrustation, the first will gradually invest through stratagems all the jobs linked to the domestic life of the second...
Film buffs know: South Korea is full of talented filmmakers like Park Chan-wook, Hong Sang-soo or
“Parasite” is director Bong Joon-ho’s seventh feature film. If you are a little familiar with South Korean cinema, you will discover some familiar faces in the casting, starting with Song Kang-ho.
Here he plays the role of the father of the Kim family but you can also see him in other films by Bong Joon-ho or in “Thirst, this is my blood” by Park Chan-wook in 2009, already mentioned here .
© IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
The entire Kim family in “Parasite”, 2019.
Also in the game: Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, Park So-dam, Jang Hye-jin or Lee Jung-eun. The film won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2019 and you will see it is full of twists and turns. Furthermore, and this comes at the right time for us, he uses both decor and clothing to serve his story.
WHAT YOU NEED TO SEE IN STYLE…
“Parasite” opens with a view from the “window” of the Kim family’s basement apartment. The first thing to look for is a pair of Asics sports socks , which dry as best they can. Then the camera shows us the children and the parents: all are in casual outfits that we would describe as homewear by default.
As the film's costume designer Choi Se-yeon will point out to the press, ordinary people don't really wear pajamas in Korean culture. On the other hand, we find this type of silk clothing among the Park family. Richer, more Westernized, she has a much more elegant and sophisticated wardrobe than that of the Kim family.
It is this contrast of class(es) and means that Bong Joon-ho's film underlines through the costumes and interior design . But it is also precisely these stereotypes that the Kim family will strive to break, by aping the style of their hosts to almost perfection.
In the Kim family, we call it blending into the background .
This art of disguise is one of the narrative and sartorial challenges of the film. But it's not the only one. Because “Parasite” also opens the doors to a new stylistic world . Geoffrey had already looked at the specificities of Asian style in this video:
If you like the oversized cuts of the COS brand, you will discover in the end credits other oversized tracks, a host of unknown brands and possible great discoveries dedicated to volumes . So, three good reasons to (re)see “Parasite” for clothing?
1. A NICE OVERVIEW OF A CERTAIN KOREAN STYLE
You get it: the style is best found in the family with the most clothes, the Parks. But as noted above, the Kim family does not lack resources. Children in particular are real chameleons.
What exactly do we discover in the film's locker room? Clean lines, strong colors, officer collars and men's suits, women's shirts and wide pants . The women's outfits, those of Cho Yeo-jeong in particular, are worth the detour alone.
Some of you may know the Wooyoungmi or Bastong brands from Korea. The most curious will discover a multitude of exciting Asian brands in the film's credits.
Among them, there is the Japanese house Snow Peak , well known to outdoor enthusiasts. But we also make more local discoveries, like FrizmWorks or J.Rium, each offering its share of scale and pretty materials .
If South Korea intrigues you, you can also take a look at the excellent brands Document or Sortie, or closer to us, contact See-Fan in Paris, which only distributes Korean fashion brands.
To complete, and because we have already tested at least one of the beautiful brands listed above, Jordan tells you about its Bastong parka here:
2. THE SOCIAL FUNCTION OF CLOTHING, THE RETURN
If “Parasite” introduces us to another vision of clothing, it also develops its story around the still tenacious notion of class. The Kims are poor, the Parks are extremely rich and it won't take long for you to understand what that means in everyone's locker room.
But the Kims are cunning: clothing is a real Trojan horse here . To infiltrate the Park house, they do not hesitate to use its cultural codes and the illusion is so perfect that they all manage to intrude the luxurious house of their hosts. Can you really disguise yourself without betraying your origins ?
The film here wonderfully illustrates the social function of clothing . It's an old refrain, which still finds a certain echo when we approach the most powerful and wealthy spheres of society.
For the Park family, it is obvious linked to a certain education. For the Kims, it's opportunistic and accelerated learning: they learn words and manners on the job, largely on the Internet. So, does clothing actually have superpowers ? A start of an answer here:
1. FASHION AND DECO, ALWAYS HAND IN HAND
“Parasite” plays on oppositions in the same way when it comes to food and interior decoration. Just look at the vast gap between the Kims' dingy basement and the Parks' very spacious house.
This is obviously voluntary. Bong Joon-ho and his team worked particularly hard on this point - the house is a story in itself, which will appeal to fans of architecture and design .
At the Parks, everything is decorated with taste, luxury, calm and voluptuousness. They also have a beautiful green space, large bay windows, a living room the size of an apartment and, as a little extra touch, five-star storage space for clothes, handbags or... dishes.
However, there is an obvious consistency there. In a way, their home reflects their style and outfits: a subtle marriage of ease, natural materials and soothing colors . Which brings us to another obvious point: interior design and fashion are complementary .
Little personal tip: when I'm hesitant about a color combination, I generally look for the answer on decoration sites. For other advice on the subject, it's here:
… TO CREATE INSPIRING OUTFITS
You will find the most beautiful outfits in the film on the actresses, Park So-dam and Cho Yeo-jeong in particular. Beautiful volumes, elegant rooms . Notice to our readers: you may want to wear shirts and loose-fitting shirts this summer.
But the advice also works for men - an overview there , for staying in cinema. That being said, the story of “Parasite” does not quite stop at the setting of the film.
Because we find Cho Yeo-jeong on the cover of the fashion magazine W Magazine shortly after: she is seated in an armchair covered in plastic, wearing a black and white Céline jumpsuit by Heidi Slimane with household-type gloves.
This shooting was directed by Bong Joon-ho himself, with the idea of offering through this work a sort of sequel to “Parasite”. Unsurprisingly: same concern for fashion and aesthetics. The series of photographs can still be discovered here and demonstrates, if necessary, the close links between fashion and cinema .
