2026 Hanbok Re:Imagine

In collaboration with the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, the Korean Cultural Center to the European Union and Belgium presents the <2026 Hanbok Re:Imagine> project.

<2026 Hanbok Re:Imagine> goes beyond presenting Hanbok simply as traditional clothing. The project invites students within Belgium’s fashion education landscape to engage with Hanbok and reinterpret it through their own design language. Through this process, the project considers how Korean traditional culture can find new expression in fashion and reach a global stage through a new generation of designers.

The project begins on 21 September, with an open lecture featuring Ha Eun Chang, Founder of OUWR. The lecture will be followed by a practical workshop for participating students of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp. Over approximately ten weeks of regular classes, the students will design and create works inspired by the aesthetics of Hanbok from their own perspectives. The completed works will be presented in an exhibition opening this November.

This project views Hanbok not simply as a tradition to be preserved, but as a creative resource for contemporary fashion and design. Through the work of students at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp, one of the world’s leading fashion schools and the institution that produced the renowned Antwerp Six, the project explores the contemporary value of Hanbok and the diverse ways it can be reinterpreted. 

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[OPEN LECTURE] Reimagining Hanbok: From Coachella to your closet

Ha Eun Chang is a Hanbok designer and the Founder and Principal Director of OUWR. Her work includes BLACKPINK’s stage costumes for Coachella 2023 and NewJeans’ Hanbok editorial for VOGUE Korea. She has also collaborated on various projects with Kim Tae-ri, Bae Suzy, Hugh Jackman and Ryan Reynolds, bringing the traditional aesthetics and distinctive forms of Hanbok into contemporary design.

The open lecture will take place on 21 September. Drawing on Ha Eun Chang’s work and practice, the lecture will explore the forms and aesthetics of Hanbok and consider how these traditional elements can be reinterpreted and developed within fashion and design today. 

Programme

– The Language of Hanbok: Form & Aesthetics

– Reimagining Hanbok for Contemporary Fashion

– Inside OUWR: From Tradition to Global Stage

– Open Discussion & Q&A

Practical Information

– Date & Time: 21 September 2026, 18:00

– Venue: Aula Pand, Royal Academy of Fine Arts Antwerp (Mutsaardstraat 31, 2000 Antwerpen)

– Speaker: Ha Eun Chang (Founder of OUWR)

– Admission: Free

– Audience: Open to everyone 

– Registration: Link / No registration required *Advance registration is recommended to ensure the smooth running of the event.