July 11, 2012
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Before we begin, let’s just say, from a hilarious marketing perspective, we’re both wary and excited to do this topic. It’s not because we’re particularly fond of talking about big boobs in Korea, but because the name of the article will get a lot of people’s attention. Sure, we’ll get some people coming here looking for teh p0rn0z. Hopefully we’ll convert those random stragglers into regular viewers. Hey you! Random person looking for booby pictures. Sorry you didn’t get them here, but we have other cool stuff to offer instead, like FAPFAP and WANKs! Now that I think of it, I’m surprised we didn’t get those people to begin with…forward ho!!!
It’s a me, Martina-o! Doesn’t work. Okay, so this topic is rather girly, though I did include a tiny section for men when talking about Korean clothing sizes, so keep yer eyes peeled! I wasn’t sure if it would be too weird to do this topic, but after all the million thumbs up, I realized it’s a topic a lot of girls (and maybe guys) were wondering about, so I bit the bullet.
In a nutshell, bring your own bras/underwear/pantyhose/leggings if you want to avoid a hassle.
I want to get this off my chest (hah) before I go any further: I just KNOW I’m going to get a couple comments like:
“Martina you’re so wrong! There is this one store beside my house, down this random street, that sells all the sizes of the rainbow”
Phooey to that! The problem is that most people don’t think outside of their area box. If you’re coming to Korea and you move to a small town, then you’re automatically missing out on a lot of things that are available to me living in Bucheon, thus I don’t want to think from the attitude of “everyone is moving to a city like Bucheon, and everyone has easy access to Seoul.”
Having said that, if you DO know of a place that sells bigger sizes, let us know, cuz we sure as sugar don’t know anything about them! Try to steer away from recommending places that you went into and it seemed like they had bigger sizes, but in reality are in Korean sizes. I visited some places that have C and D cups, but they were no where close to North American sizes, and the ribcage width (i.e.: 32, 34) was limited to smaller sizes. Also: bring your own bathing suits! I looked for weeks to find a bathing suit and all I found was the last large size of the most hideous bikini from H&M out of sheer desperation. Jean + floral + rainbow + barf + strings + gold + large = I’ll take it!
Now one thing I don’t want to do is discourage you from shopping for clothing in Korea, because you can find really awesome stuff. I just want to prepare you in advance from being disappointed and giving up. I suffered from a lot of body image issues my first two years in Korea, because everyone is really small and thin. While I wasn’t overweight in Canada, I looked like a beast beside everyone else, and I don’t mean the cute Fiction dancing kind. All the clothing I tried on either didn’t fit or made me look even bigger in the wrong places. I got to the point where I was like, “FORGET IT! I’M NOT EVEN LOOKING!!!” *throws self on bed sobbing like a Disney character*.
The problem was that I wasn’t being realistic with what could fit me or look good on me. When I talk about “free size,” that will be the biggest roadblock to finding clothing in Korea, especially because the free size clothing is the so plentiful, so cheap, and also SO AWESOME LOOKING! In order to keep from being burned by Korean free size, I would recommend heading to your local Emart or HomePlus (it’s like a WalMart, Target, or Zellers) and spend some time trying on clothing there to get to know Korean clothing. They have a change room, unobtrusive employees, and a range of sizes in the 85 – 105 format. Even if you don’t like the style or you think it looks stupid, just try it on to get a feeling for what you can pull off.
After I did that, I discovered how to make the baggy style look good on me, that 99% of button up shirts/dresses won’t fit ever, tight sleeves won’t fit over my bicep, that certain fabrics will stretch nicely, and how much a skirt/dress/tank top will shorten when I wear it. Now I can tell my Korean dress size just by looking at a dress and pressing it up against my body. Now I can shop for free size and tell right away, “Ah, this fabric won’t stretch at all, it will totally not fit me” or “this is a great size but once I put it on, it will become a shirt and not a dress”.
The last advice I’d give you is to embrace some baggy clothing because the summer in Korea is disgusting hot and you won’t want your clothing touching your body. I found that the simple baggy dresses can make me look like I’m wearing a garbage bag, but the ones that fall off the shoulder, or have a weird asymmetrical cut to them, can look really funky. They may not be as flattering as a fitted dress, but if you match it with cool shoes and awesome accessories, hold your head up high with confidence, you’ll look like a fashion leader.
P.S. Simon here. Boobs.
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YES ZELLERS! CANADA FTW! But did you know they’re taking out Zellers?! They’re getting replaced with Walmarts and Targets! D: So when you take a trip to Canada in the next six months or so, they’ll be no more Zellers :(
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Now I know should I ever move to Korea like I one day hope to, I will just have to take my whole closet and then some :-P I have a large chest and I’m a plus size girl. I have a hard time finding button shirts here in America that will not expose my boobs to the world. They can do that enough on their own.
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awesome video! fighting!
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I’ve been watching bits and pieces of their blog and this one is funny. True – asian girls have smaller frames but I never knew shopping over there was such a pain in the butt…loved the skirt comment LOL.
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Same way as they do in the United States…hospitals are common and I think they have disability money like we do in the states,,,
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Martina, next time you dye your hair, will you show us how you do it, and what brand of dye you use? I recently attempted to dye my hair a purple and it failed MISERABLY. Maybe you could show us on OpenTheHappy? THANKS! <3
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I’ve been wondering…why doesn’t Simon just make his own ranch…you only need a couple of ingredients…buttermilk is the only truly difficult one, i think….
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What’s the job market like for a foreigner? I’m majoring in graphic design and would love to make a living in Korea doing it. Any advice?
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you guys make the greatest video’s…such great advice from a western perspective. I’ve always wanted to work and live in Asia (Korea or Hong Kong) and watching this helps me to believe that it one day might be possible!
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I shop on Yesstyle, favorite brand…Orangebear. there are only a few brands that have my size but orangebear is my favorite :)
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I’m glad you went with this topic!…even though, I’ve never had this problem when I go to Japan. Granted, I’m definitely petite to US standards (5’1″, minimal curves), so most things fit when I’m shopping in Asia. But for my taller friend (5’7″), who was in Japan in with me for a month, suffered to find cutesy dresses that didn’t look like a shirt OTL
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I’d be so screwed if I went there, I’d have to bring ALL of my bras xD
Anyways, question:
How do Koreans react to foreigners/What do they think of foreigners? Do they travel much? What do they think of other countries? Are they interested in other cultures, or not?
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I have a question for you that is kind of on the same topic. You are always saying that Koreans are small, petite, tiny, skinny, etc etc…are there ANY large/plus sized Koreans? I know here (U.S) diet books, diet remedies of all sorts, diet foods are popular and a HUGE business. What is it like there? How extreme?
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Hi, I’m Korean.. and I’m 172cm so about 5’8? sometimes, I do feel tall, but then if I go out in the large city, I see a lot of tall women. However, plus sized/large women are not really common.. For example, in America, I see large sized people everywhere but in Korea, there’s really none because of our gene or whatever lol. But you will sometimes see large sized people.. and in Korea, people are ALL on diet whether you are skinny or fat. Like the girl who looks perfectly fit and slim, even she would be on diet.. It’s so bad.. My sister has curvy body and everything but she’s always on diet 24/7 for like her whole life. I can’t say for if diet products are huge business in Korea.. but people always go on different diets like lemon detox, or just eating meats or eating sweet potatoes and calling that as diet remedies lol.
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My experience with clothing in Korea was pretty similar to yours.
An additional note about bras:
My friend assured me that my size was available at the lingerie store. I needed 30D, which isn’t as big as it sounds because even the cups are smaller on smaller band/ribcage sizes. I was so excited, because it is difficult and expensive in the US to get a bra to fit a small ribcage; I thought I was finally going to have options. Well, the supposed 30D was more like a 30B with enough padding to make the wearer LOOK like a 30D. A big disappointment.
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When I was in Thailand, Cambodia, and the Philippines, I noticed similarities in sizes. Korea has regular free size, and then baggy free size. Things I bought in Thailand were more like regular free size in Korea if a little bigger. small feet. hmmm. usually the sizes start at 220 I believe.
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Hey! I LOVE this bit! I have the same problem. Valley girl is definitely my fav, I just wear opaque tights underneath when the dress is short!. Also VIVIEN always has my size (80DD -34DD at home), it’s a Korean brand, and can be found everywhere. They are a bit pricey, but I became used to paying higher prices for bras years ago at home.
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I wear an extra small in America, but I have trouble buying clothes even here because of my shoulders and boobs (Inverted triangle wooo) There are some really cute Korean (as in, the sign’s in Korean, the clothes tags are in Korean) boutiques in my area that I’ve been planning to go to, it’s nice to have some warning ahead of time :)
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maybe I should go live in Korea then XD they would have all my sizes whereas here in California I usually have to just buy clothes that are a little bigger. For example I always have to wear a belt because pants are too large!!! So Korea here I come! lol
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I did a lot of clothes shopping while I was studying in Korea. At 5’10”, it was impossible to find pants or long-sleeved shirts that were long enough. And about the dresses, yeah they are definitely shorter on westerners than on Korean girls. I bought a few dresses and have to wear waist belts/cardigans to hid the fact that my chest makes the waist line higher in the front than the back. Damn boobs XP
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If you can, or have not already, the only thing I can recommend to remedy many problems like this is to have a military friend that can either get you on base/post, or can go to the BX/PX and buy these things for you. They even have deodorant! lol
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I never had a problem with the baggy free size clothing…but with other things, the problem was not my boobs (I’m only a B cup), but rather, I have an oddly large rib cage! >____< So nothing "fitted" actually fits! TT^TT
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how depressing my boobs already make it hard for me to find cloths, and Korean fashion is so cool.
?What do koreans think about autism? I saw a statistic that autism is being diagnosed 1out 38 pt. Do these kids get to go to school or do they go to a special school?
The reason why I ask is bc I have an autistic child myself. Thanks
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i love wat ur wearing martina :)
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I’m a medium-size clothing person in US/Europe, but a FAT FATTY in Korea. Even though I’m Korean. I usually shop at EMart or dig around a bit in random stores. And don’t get me started on pants, because I have a gigantic butt and pants hardly fit me. Never tried a plus size store, but I didn’t want to damage my self esteem further. So IF YOU WANTED TO KNOW HOW OVERWEIGHT AND SUPER LARGE KOREAN PEOPLE FIND CLOTHES IN KOREA, THEY CAN… YOU JUST FEEL SHITTY ABOUT YOURSELF AFTERWARDS *goes to a corner to cry*
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My first time to comment on here.. well, I just wanted to say that even though I’m a D cup (european D cup xP) I don’t have any problems with buying clothes in Korea but maybe that’s because… I’m slim xD apart from my chest, the rest of my body is in xs/s size O.o so the only problem is that sometimes I have to buy an M size for my upper body in order to fit my boobs in, lol XDDD but there was one time when I was trying to put on a dress but it was sooo completely NOT elasticfantastic that I just gave up = =’
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I bought a free size dress from a Korean Clothing store on-line. And it named all the things Martina mentioned.
1. It was was short
2. Fit me nicely….till the chest area…..stupid buttons… waaa… :( Martina I feel your pain.)
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Usually my biggest problem is price ._.
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I simply won’t shop for clothing in Korea, ’cause… that just won’t happen. xD;;
I remember my mom telling me last year to pack light before coming to Korea, and I told her that, as a bigger gal, there’s no such thing as “light.” LoL. She said to pack less, and if I needed any more clothes, we could go around Itaewon since they’d have bigger sizes thanks to all of the foreigners. I didn’t take that chance, but I am curious about if it’s true.
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I feel your pain, girl~! *boobie-squish hug* T_T
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Why don’t you try custom tailored dresses?
I am sure you can find reasonably priced shops for you.
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Martina your not fat and never were, asians are just naturally super stick thin, tbh I prefer your size.
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So, even though I’m a white girl, the boobs thing probably won’t be that much of a problem for me when I move to Korea. It’s kinda sad when most of my Korean friends have bigger boobs than me…. :( I’m more worried about finding jeans that fit me.
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I agree with Dark Hollow. I don’t really go for girls with too big of boobs
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Why is it sad? There are so many different types of breasts, shapes and sizes, nothing be sad about. Embrace your body, what does it matter if some random person prefer big instead of small? There’s too much to this world than for us girls to bother so much about our bodies, we should rather enjoy it and respect it.
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This is extremely helpful.
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So seeing as I’m not tall by any means (I’m 4″11) I suppose a lot of the dresses might be overly long? Or is my height a little more convenient than yours Martina? Though it doesn’t help with the above C bust.
Thank you for this informative video, this is seriously one of those must know topics. And I’m glad you included Panties and leggings in your post of things to bring. I’m realllyyyy glad a woman of average size and measurements for some western women (like me!$is over there.
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From my friends who are on the shorter side they never really had a problem. Pants and things here are made shorter than at home (I dont hem mine here, but at home I usually have to cut off 4 inches at least and I’m 5’5″). There are LOTS of tailors who do great alterations!
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I guess then I would be really lucky going to asia to by bras :( Can’t get that many here -.-
But the dress part…I guess it’s close to impossible to find a dress for a 6′ tall girl T.T
want to have a cute dress T.T
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…wow seriously? Hahahaha I thought it was American too!!! It’s so…cowgirlish :p
No wonder it’s in almost every town in Aus :O
I love their stuff btw.
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Hey Martina, very well done this new post. I was just wondering about that. Here in Brazil I go to stores and the opposite happens to me: I’m too small to fit in the smallest size. The clothes are really nice and beautiful, but they just don’t have my size at all. So I end up going to the kids section, trying to find something less fancy and this kind of thing and usable by an adult. Maybe I would find my true happiness at Korea or Japan, then. :)
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Thanks martina! i’m going to Korea to study abroad in a couple of weeks so i’ll take your advice!
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this was very handy to know :D cause I’m above c xD and it’s still my dream to visit korea once :D (or live there that would be even better :O)
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dont they have brand outlets like miss selfridge, topshop or dorothy perkins there..? cuz most countries do..rite..?
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SO. Where’s teh p0rn0z? Booby pictures?
>.>
<.<
……WHAT??!! No boobies??? D:
Gah what a rip off. I'm leaving. Boo.