Wearing Hanbok

Hanbok is built from a short jacket with long ties and either a high-waisted wrapped skirt or wide trousers, cut so that the fabric moves rather than fits. Nobody wears it daily now, but the rental shops around the Seoul palaces turned it into a half-day activity, and the palaces encourage this by waiving admission for anyone dressed in it. You choose an outfit, leave your own clothes in a locker, add a hairpin or a headband, and walk out into the streets around Gyeongbokgung and Bukchon, where half the people photographing each other are doing the same thing. Jeonju's hanok quarter runs the same system on a smaller scale.

What you actually see

• Jeogori and chima - the short jacket and wrapped skirt, tied rather than buttoned.
• The goreum - the long ribbon down the front, knotted a particular way.
• Palace courtyards - the backdrop the whole thing exists for.
• Fusion hanbok - modern lace and pastel versions that purists complain about.

When to go

Spring and autumn. The outfits are thin, July heat under several layers is unpleasant and January wind goes straight through. Weekday mornings are calmest around the palaces, and the light in the courtyards is best in the first hours after opening. Rentals are priced by the hour or the day, and four hours suits most people.

Honest expectations

Most rental hanbok is costume rather than accurate dress, with synthetic fabric and hoops under the skirt. The shoes are flat and cheap and the skirts drag on gravel. Changing rooms are cramped at weekends and the popular outfits go early. Photographers touting in the palace grounds are persistent, and the whole thing can feel like queueing for a backdrop.

Nearby

Gyeongbokgung, Bukchon and the Insadong lanes are all within walking distance of the rental streets.