Lee Gyu-lee is a business writer at The Korea Times, focusing primarily on IT & telecommunications, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and KOTRA. Prior to this, she has covered a wide range of cultural news, from film, television and K-pop to lifestyle and fashion.
Boho-chic, layered looks to hit spring fashion trend
Fashion items bearing the Boho-chic look from Ably / Catured from Ably
By Lee Gyu-lee
Despite the cold wave sweeping the country that seems to never end even in March, people are gearing up for spring fashion, with the Boho-chic look and layering style emerging as the season’s trends.
Boho-chic merges the free-spirited influences of 1970s Bohemian and hippie styles with a sophisticated and contemporary touch of chic look. Characteristically, it features long and loose tassels, fringes, natural fabrics and paisley patterns.
The style, which reached its height in the mid-2000s, is back in fashion, according to Ably, a Korean shopping platform.
The platform said the Boho-chic look has become popular with its customers when shopping for tops to bottoms and shoes.
From Feb. 17 to March 2, searches for spring clothing increased by 115 percent compared to the same period last year, along with searches for specific items like spring outerwear, blouses and cardigans.
Products with Boho-chic’s identifying elements like ruffles, frills and lace decorations have been particularly popular for both tops and bottoms. During the same period, searches for frilled sleeveless tops increased by 270 percent with sales hiked by 210 percent.
The searches and sales for frilly blouses also more than doubled, by 105 percent and 120 percent respectively. Whereas the searches for ruffled cardigans were up by 410 percent, searches and sales for lace skirts both doubled.
Boho-chic’s popular look with suede texture is also getting attention, with searches for keyword suede rising by 95 percent. Suede bags and boots saw significant sales growth at 1,220 percent and 305 percent respectively.
Omni-layered looks from clothing to accessories from Zigzag / Courtesy of Zigzag
Meanwhile, the layering style is continuing to garner fashion enthusiasts’ attention, with the style expanding across various elements from tops and bottoms to accessories.
Zigzag, another local style platform, suggested that the "omni-layered" look will be this spring’s new trend, emerging from the existing layering style of pants and skirts which hit fashion during the 2024 fall and winter season.
The platform explained that the omni-layered style expands beyond just the skirt-over-pant look to include layering tops and other accessories, noting that sales for products related to the style surged by about 67 times compared to the same period last year.
"With the continued trend of styling and decorating across fashion, the omni-layered trend is emerging rapidly this spring," the platform said.
"Layering not only allows individuals to express their personality but is also practical for spring's significant temperature variations, so its popularity is expected to spread, centered around women from their teens to 30s."
Layered tops, ideal for managing quick shifts in spring temperatures, are gaining popularity. Over January to February, sales for layered shirts increased by 202 percent compared to the same period last year. Sales for bustiers, which are often worn as layers over shirts, increased by 31 percent.
Layering bottoms remains consistently popular with many people searching for the keyword layered in front of the types of bottoms they seek to purchase.
The sales for products with layered pants as keywords grew by over 30 times at 2,977 percent, compared to the previous year. The sales for micro skirts, an extremely short skirt often used for the skirt-over-pants look, increased by over 32 times at 3,118 percent.
Layering has also expanded to accessories, with sales rising for belts, necklaces and rings.
One of the popular ways for layered accessories is with a belt bag, which can be worn as layered to any pants or skirts. The product’s sale surged by over five times at 420 percent, along with the sales for chain belts at 86 percent.
The typical layered accessory, long-hanging designed drop necklaces, saw about a 84 percent increase in sales, along with layered rings which rose by 160 percent.