A Study on Embroidery Design Patterns of Hwal-ot at the National Palace Museum of Korea

Study on Hwal-ot, woman's wedding robe of the Joseon Dynasty, has been limited to the Princess Bock-on's Hwal-ot and some folk remains. In this study, I tried to identify formative characteristics of Hwal-ot by studying embroidery design patterns in the royal Hwal-ot. On Mar 26, 2007, I inspected total of 15 pieces of embroidery design patterns for Hwal-ot held at the National Palace Museum of Korea. I classified them into three types of Hwal-ot by considering characteristics in embroidery design patterns as well as composition of embroidery design patterns held by the private. For the Hwal-ot embroidery design pattern type I, there is a calligraphy called "Embroidery Design Pattern of Red Long Robe for leo-dong Palace", which is presumed to be the embroidery design pattern of Princess Deok-on, the third daughter of King Sunjo and a little sister to Princess Bock-on. Its patterns are very similar to that of Princess Bock-on's, with similar flower patterns and treasure patterns, as well as overall stripy structure. The Hwal-ot embroidery design pattern type II maintains the same flower patterns and butterfly patterns as in the type I, but does not have the striped decorative. The Hwal-ot embroidery design pattern type III has illustrative design with waves and mountain at the background and a pair of water birds flying around lotus. In particular, the type III design has a nine phoenix pattern at the front part of the robe, illustrating nine baby phoenixes (four in the left, five in the right) under a mother phoenix, which is closer to characteristics found in the Hwal-ot embroidery design patterns at the end of the Joseon dynasty.

국립 고궁박물관 활옷 수본에 관한 연구