The Vestiges of Vesture

My idea of “zany” is to go for a walk without a map, and let my feet guide me wherever they want to go.  I try my best to contain the fear of getting lost, and control the compulsion to memorise every turn I take; focusing instead on the dizzying exhilaration of a meander.  If I’m really pushing the boat out in the pleasure stakes, I take my camera.

I’d been living in my new ‘gu’ for a few weeks before I had the chance to wander around.  When I did I came across this brilliant street scene.  I love the innocuousness of it all; the contrast of the prosaic street with the dramatic, sweeping, fairy-tale dresses.  It seems so at odds with the hopes and dreams and fantasies tied up in a wedding dress, to see them reduced to something as ordinary as washing.  Fantasy can never be without practicalities.  A metaphor for marriage itself perhaps…

So why were they there at all?  There are many things about modern Korean weddings which strike an outsider observer as strange.  A raised catwalk down which the bride and groom strut, flashing lights and jingles, I have even heard tell of a lady of advanced years firing a giant confetti cannon at the point of ‘I do’.  And of course, the bride generally rents her wedding gown.  These dresses are either rentals or they belong to the nearby wedding photo studio, where brides and grooms have a photoshoot before their wedding, in a range of dresses and locations.

Although the light was flat, the black suits and white dresses looked great in monochrome.  My favourite shot was when the sun popped out for a second and caught the face of the lady hanging out the dresses.