Idols and Their Stylists Under Fire for Revealing Stage Costumes

On August 20^th afternoon, in KBS 2TV ‘Music Bank’ rehearsal was still going on in Seoul.

All of a sudden, singer Hyuna received a notice from the filming crew that she needs to change her costume. She was only wearing jeans and a leather jacket, but the shirt inside her jacket was a problem. When she danced, her bellybutton was slightly visible. Eventually, she had to change into a long one-piece dress to cover up her revealing bellybutton.

Not only Hyuna, but also SISTAR was found too revealing with their costumes. In their mini one-piece, their black shorts appeared to look like underwear.

“I wore another pair of underpants inside the shorts…” commented SISTAR.  They, too, eventually changed their one-piece by rolling it inside so that the pants were ‘revealed.’

That day, Hyuna and SISTAR were only problematic in the new dress-code. However, every week, normally three or four teams are found questionable by the broadcasting companies for being too revealing. Ever since the beginning of August, Hyuna’s “Bubble Pop”’s being too explicit, these kinds of enforcements have been taking place.

Then what kinds of clothes do they need to wear?

According to the girl groups’ stylists, bellybutton may never be revealed. Also, showing more than half the chest area, having a big hole on the shirt is also “not air-able.” Shorts that look like underwear are also condemned.

Around this time last year, there was also a strict enforcement on costumes. At that time, Nine Muses and SISTAR were also disapproved with “revealing” costumes. When SISTAR was performing with ‘Shady Girl,’ they were criticized with black pants that looked like underwear. They changed the colors, but were still required to change their clothes. Nine Muses wore Garter belts and showed off the “pant-less fashion” and were harshly disapproved with the “scantiness.”

SISTAR’s stylist Kim said, “It has gotten severely worse from last year.” She continued with, “Whenever I prepare costumes, I often come up with creative and original ones. Even though I prepare them with a lot of effort and care, I do not know what kind of criticism I would receive, so I am always nervous.”

Nine Muses gave up their sexy image, and decided to continue on with the cutie-girl image. Nine Muses’ stylist Hyewon Hong said, “I’ve prepared 10 different costumes for their debut, but none of them made onto the stage without any type of reprobation. I’ve prepared 7 different costumes for Figaro, and this time, I’ve prepared them carefully based off last year’s issues.”

Hong continued frustratedly with, “It’s the same outfit, but different broadcasting companies always have a different thing to say. I can never pinpoint what they exactly want—it differs from day to day, and also depends on their mood, so it is very disheartening.”

Dal Shabet’s “Bling Bling” was also prepared with a sexy hot-pants look, but had to quickly change costumes after seeing the strict enforcements taking place.

Dal Shabet has said, “Nowadays, girl groups change from skirts to hot-pants, and hot-pants to long pants. When costume problems surface too frequently, it’s not too good for us singers, so let’s be careful!”