Talking of girl group’s costumes, perhaps you will instantly think of either the bubbly
colorful concept or the sexy, kinda cool style.
However, as more and more gen4 acts enter the game, they have proven that fashion can
be as diverse as however they want and even with the same girl-crush concept, they could
still add in their own subtle yet signature details that no one could copy.
If you haven’t watched part 1, you can check it out right here before jumping into our
second part.
NewJeans (highteen, preppy and hip-hop)
Despite being among the youngest acts of K-Pop and even just debuting under a subsidiary
company of HYBE, NewJeans could still take the Internet by storm and become the hottest
topic in town.
The popularity of this girl group in Korea was described by GQ Korea magazine with the
following sentence: Koreans now meet each other, instead of saying ‘Hello.
How are you these days?', people will say 'Aren't NewJeans so cute, everyone?'.
According to many, a big reason making them fall in love with NewJeans was their impressive
dress style that is not often seen in Kpop these days
Instead of hopping on the girl-crush trend where outfits highlighted by bold cut-outs
are preferable, NewJeans pursues a completely different style as their wardrobe portrays
a perfectly harmonious mix of three famous fashion senses that have been taking the world
by storm recently: high-teen, preppy and hip-hop.
Despite pursuing styles that have been a great part of the Western culture, New Jeans could
still portray their Asian teenagers vibe through subtle details like hairstyle and makeup looks.
Among their MVs, netizens picked Attention to be the one that expressed NewJeans' signature
style best and when ADOR released this MV, some said they still remembered vividly how
nostalgic the girls reminded them of Kpop gen2 just by their highteen dress sense.
Slim-fit tank tops and T-shirts mixed with low-rise sweatpants and baggy trousers, it
seemed like ages since people last saw such a bright and youthful style popularized again
in Kpop because for the past six years, this industry has been bombarded with tons of sassy,
badass and revealing outfits.
Not only that, the way NewJeans’ outfits are always colorful and diverse rather than
having the same theme with a few alterations for each member also served as a huge plus
point for their image.
According to netizens, the frequent incorporation of baseball and basketball shirts, running
gym shorts, as well as eye-catching sneakers also helped accentuate the hip-hop, Western-youngsters
and refreshing vibe of NewJeans.
However, as the combo of newtro fashion sense could never ever be completed with a lovely
kiss of preppy outfits, NewJeans has also chosen this style to bring up on their Cookie
performance.
A little bit different from the playful, naive and energetic image portrayed in Attention
and HYPE BOY, NewJeans opted for a chicer, classier, more queen-bee and Clueless-inspired
look.
For example, most of the members were dressed in skirts, white shirts and formal blazers.
Accessories like big hoop earrings, baby claw clips and colorful bracelets or rings are
also replaced by formal accessories like neckties and slim suspenders.
Even the shoes of the girls were also particularly chosen to best portray this chic, preppy,
and classy vibe as instead of sneakers, they now had knee-high plain tights with extremely
chic loafers on.
Overall, NewJeans was said to be indeed the new breeze of Kpop because never once have
netizens seen such a girl group that could make people feel fresh and nostalgic at the
same time through their outfits.
Some noticed the “Jeans” in “NewJeans” was also probably chosen to accentuate their
US-inspired vibe because for ages, jeans have been among the most famous symbols of the
States.
NMIXX (stylized blazer, shoulder pads, lots of stickers, badges, and brooches)
Besides being said to have released tracks that are extremely unique, and also extremely
incomprehensible to a great extent, NMIXX is also said to have a dress sense that is
completely distinctive to their peers.
The most interesting thing is that, while NMIXX follows the girl-crush concept like
many other acts in Kpop, they still had subtle signature details to add to each stage costume,
creating a formal yet extremely fun look.
For example, while they also mixed and matched crop-tops with shorts and skirts like any
other girl group, they portrayed a more serious, classy and cultured look by wearing cropped,
stylized blazers with shoulder pads.
In fact, slim-fit blazers have always been a huge part of NMIXX’s image because throughout
their debut era, this was the staple item of their wardrobe when they appeared both
in MVs and on music shows.
However, as they are an act of gen4 with almost all members under twenty, such blazers would
need a fun, colorful twist to juvenate the theme.
This is also when a bunch of colorful accessories like gemstones, charms, bows, badges, brooches
and fabric stickers came in and combined these two contrasting styles together.
With such a creative touch, NMIXX has invented their very own fashion sense that no other
groups have ever done before: professional yet playful, formal yet also versatile.
CHOCOME (Colorful, extra, movie/cartoon-inspired)
Despite debuting as the sub-unit of WJSN, CHOCOME has still managed to garner great
attention as not only their music is super-duper fun to listen to but their stage costumes
are also unique and appealing.
Rather than choosing between two extremes of either the cute, bubbly image or the badass,
girl-crush theme, CHOCOMO geared into a completely different concept of costume in which colorful,
extra-cutesy, and anime-inspired costumes are preferred more than anything.
Even when CHOCOME wore ordinary items like crop-tops, skirts, and shorts, the girls could
still maintain their signature aura by incorporating extra accessories.
However, the best thing about CHOCOME's unique fashion sense is that, while they always bring
onto their stage the most colorful and flashy items, never once have they made the performance
tawdry and peasant.
Instead, netizens said they always look forward to the appearance of CHOCOME and everytime
they watched the girls on stage, they would always feel as if they were watching adorable
dolls stepping straight out of comics to sing and dance in real life.
Netizens also voted for the outfit that best represents CHOCOME’s signature style and
according to them, it was no other than these sophisticated dresses inspired by the Red
Queen in Alice in Wonderland.
Because this character’s outfit in the movie is extremely flamboyant and heavily influenced
by the Victorian style, no one ever saw CHOCOME could bring them onto weekly music shows as
the girls could hardly ever dance and sing in such outfits.
However, they managed to do what was initially thought impossible and rather than sticking
to the original long puffy gown, they opted for short sleeveless dresses, combat boots
and more modern hairstyles.
Yet, the “Red Queen” vibe remained perfectly as they wisely incorporated her symbols into
their fits, such as the black-red-white color palette, ​​pips, big black bows and most
importantly, the poker cards that represent the Queen’s power in the movie.
Cartoon-inspired themes are also frequently used in CHOCOME’s outfits as some other
most iconic sets of them could be named are these Barbie cowboy designs, Super Woman dresses,
Winter Russian girls’ costumes, and Dutch-Girl-inspired outfits.
While their style seems too much for Knetz to handle, time has proven that lots of people
are huge fans of their fits.
The public even voted for CHOCOME to be among the top best-dressed girl groups in K-Pop
and at the beginning of this year, the act was even said to have “reinvent stage outfits”
for their great investment in costumes for every stage.
STAYC (Sequin, light-capturing, tartan pattern, ruffle puffy skirts)
Most recently, STAYC has been called a used-to-be-rising-star and in the comment section where most people
agreed that the group was going down hills, one remark with about 300 upvotes said one
of the reasons STAYC failed came down to their “mid-agency’s smell” and they could
start over again by “changing the coordies.”
While it’s hard to tell whether their stage outfits were actually that bad because beauty
is subjective, this has implicitly proven that STAYC’s fashion sense was unique enough
for netizens to single them out from the rest in Kpop though according to some, this sense
had a strong smell of “mid-agency.”
Why?
Well… most of the reasons came down to their coordies’ preference for extra patterns
and clothing materials, namely sequin, vibrant tartan, and super-duper puffy skirts.
According to some, STAYC has worn lots of sequin, light-capturing outfits since the
debut era and that unfortunately made some people believe that STAYC was trying to elevate
their look with flashy outfits to draw as much attention as possible just like how the
saying went as Empty vessels make the most noise.
Obviously that sounds unnecessarily deep but still, people said what they wanted to say.
The act was also super into the tartan pattern and even before it was wildly favored by Kpop
artists, STAYC had already incorporated this style into their wardrobe frequently.
Especially during the promotion of ASAP and STEREOTYPE, outfits with tartan patterns were
their staple picks as from crop-top, skirts, shorts to even dresses, tartans were in everything
they wore and everywhere they went.
In their most recent comeback, ruffle puffy skirts were also frequently worn by the girls.
However, their looks weren’t repetitive since STAYC knew how to give a little twist
here and there, versatile switching the materials back and forth among various fabric kinds:
denim, chiffon, schiffli, satin and cotton.
The length and puffiness of each skirt or dress also greatly varied from one stage to
another, keeping their girls’ image fresh and interesting while still sticking consistently
with their image.
So, which group’s fashion sense is most impressive in your opinion?
Do you know any other groups with just as unique style yet haven’t been named?