Korean Ceremonial Robe (Hwarot)

Making the Korean ceremonial wedding dress was uncommon and my husband had indulged me to custom make one. We went to a wedding expo in Seoul and had acquired many contacts for hanbok and “hwarot”. The price of a Hwarot ranged from colossal designer prices of USD20,000 (made of silk and are hand embroidered) to cheap imitation of USD2,000 (made of satin and are machine-embroidered).

Since I’m a spoiled girl with an acquired taste of finer things, I made a living hell for my husband to hunt down a perfect “hwarot”, also known as flower robe.

I researched about the accessories to go with the Hwarot and my husband even bought me a book on Korean palace costumes.. The Hwarot was worn only by princesses during their weddings in the olden days but now many Korean brides wore Hwarot for their wedding ceremony. However, they don’t have to purchase one, as it was usually provided in the wedding reception places..

My husband is a good negotiator and he got us a great deal on my Hwarot (we didn’t spend a colossal amount on it). I was happy to get what I wanted: all silk, including the inner layer, all hand-embroidered and we even managed to get the sleeves material changed to a higher quality material too!

After making me happy with my Hwarot, my husband went for his own details. He wanted a big Dragon embroidery patch emblems on his front and back of his ‘durumagi’ –overcoat..

We also insisted to change his Durumagi’s material and the color. We saw a beautiful men’s Durumagi in black and we thought it will look cool for him to wear one too.

I was almost decided to wear the elaborate wig- the Empress wig for my wedding day.

Thankfully, I was sane enough to listen to my sisters and mother not to wear it. The explanation – the wig will make me look old.

I just loved my Korean crown! It’s called hwa-gwani and this is the traditional crown for Hwarot. It has the little details and is hand-embroidered. We proudly display in its glass box at our home now.

My husband at first preferred the modern crystal crown; he thought the crystals would stand out on the stage. My father agreed with me that this is more beautiful.