Why are Korea’s Instagram millennials so obsessed with 1980s fashion, TV and music?
- Korea’s digital generation is crazy about the global ‘new retro’ fad and are lapping up everything about the 1980s, from TV shows like Netflix’s Stranger Things to popular K-drama Reply and the era’s music
A 26-year-old student named Park takes photographs with her vintage film camera and gives them out to her friends.
Park enjoys wearing old clothes worn by her mother 20 years ago. She also likes to discover new cafes and restaurants in Seochon and Ikseon-dong that house many cafes in renovated hanok, Korean traditional houses.
“Trying things that my parents or grandparents did when they were younger makes me feel warm. Using the antique items allows me to think affectionately about how they lived back then,” says Park.
“New retro” is popular among millennials in Korea, but it is different from “retro” in that people not only treasure antiques but also try to recreate them.
For this generation, there is a charm in operating unfamiliar objects from the 1980s. The older generation is nostalgic about the objects, but the same items are a source of wonder for the digital generation who grew up online.
Kim Joon-young, 24, recently found his grandfather's old camera and decided to breathe new life into it. “I am attracted by the time-consuming process of taking and developing photos in an analogue way,” says Kim.
Some millennials recreate old, worn books, songs with hissing noises and faded films.