What to Wear Under Hanbok, Plus Toilets, Shoes and Escalators

Wear a plain white top — a short-sleeve tee in summer, a thin white inner layer with a shallow neckline in winter — and whatever bottoms and trainers you like. Hanbok is not a change of clothes. It is a layer you put on over what you are already wearing, so the only part that really matters is your top half.

For ten years I ran a hanbok rental shop opposite Gyeongbokgung: 100 to 200 customers on an ordinary day, 400 to 500 at peak, more than nine in ten of them from abroad and the largest group from Greater China. The questions at the counter every morning were the same ones, in roughly the same order. What should I have worn? Where does my phone go? And, a little later and a little more quietly: how do I use the toilet in this?

This is the long version of those answers. The short version is item 6 in the ten mistakes first-time renters make. This one spends most of its time on what happens after you walk out of the shop.

What should I wear under a hanbok?

On top, a plain white short-sleeve T-shirt in summer. In winter, a white inner layer whose neckline is not cut deep. That is the whole answer, and the reason is the fabric.

Rental hanbok is made of thin material, and a lot of it is see-through to some degree. Put a pale pink or ivory jeogori — the short jacket — over a striped, printed or brightly coloured top, and the pattern shows through in every photo. White under a light jeogori simply disappears. A deep neckline is the other problem: it shows above the jeogori’s crossed collar.

Bottoms barely matter. The chima — the long wrap skirt — is tied high and falls to the floor, so a dress, a long skirt or jeans all vanish underneath it. For men, the hanbok trousers usually go on over your own.

One distinction worth getting right, because it touches free palace entry: jeans under the skirt are fine; jeans instead of the skirt are not. A jeogori over visible jeans does not count as hanbok at the gate.

	Summer	Winter
Top	Plain white short-sleeve tee	Thin white inner, shallow neckline
Bottoms	Anything — jeans, dress, long skirt	Anything — the chima covers it
Shoes	Your own trainers	Your own trainers
Avoid	Busy prints, strong colours	Thick hoodies, turtlenecks

Why is winter the awkward season?

The difficult mornings at the counter were nearly all in winter. Someone arrives in a thick hoodie or a turtleneck, and there are only two options: take it off, or put the hanbok on over it. Neither is good. Taking it off means standing in whatever is underneath; leaving it on means the jeogori sits bulky across the shoulders and the collar will not close neatly.

And because hanbok fabric is thin, it adds very little warmth. In winter you end up wearing it over your own top whatever happens — so make that top a thin one in the first place, and keep the warmth in places that do not show.

For what a cold-month hanbok day is actually like, coats included, see hanbok by season.

Do I need the petticoat?

The petticoat — sokchima — goes under the chima, and its job is volume. Without it the skirt hangs fairly straight; with it, the skirt stands out in the full bell shape you see in photographs. It can look a little artificially puffed up, and some customers prefer to go without. Most want it, because the skirt looks fuller.

Whether it costs extra depends entirely on the shop.

Petticoat
Listed as included free	15 of the 28 shops on this site
Where it is charged	₩2,000–5,000

Three shops that include it free, in alphabetical order: Hanbok Girls, Palace Fox and YES Hanbok. Every shop’s free inclusions are laid out side by side in the price comparison.

Inclusions are as listed on each shop’s page here as of October 2026. Check at the counter before you pay.

What shoes do you wear with hanbok?

Your own trainers. Some shops do lend shoes, but most of them are uncomfortable, footwear is hard to keep clean between customers, and a shop has to stock every size to make it work. For a day of walking — palace courtyards, Bukchon slopes, the walk back to return the outfit — trainers are the most comfortable thing you can have on, and a floor-length skirt hides them in most photos anyway.

The customers who did ask for traditional shoes were almost always doing wedding-style photos or another special shoot, where the feet are in the frame and nobody has far to walk.

Where do you keep your phone and wallet?

Two places. Many shops give you a small bag to go with the outfit. The other, and the one I saw most often, is the pockets of your own trousers under the skirt. Lift the hem, reach in. It is not elegant, but nothing falls out and your hands stay free for photos.

How do you use the toilet in hanbok?

This is the most-asked question of all, and it has the least dramatic answer.

Women: you do not need to untie anything. Lift the skirt, lower your own trousers as you normally would, and that is it. The one thing to watch is the hem — keep it gathered up and off the floor, because public restroom floors are often wet and anything on them ends up on the skirt.

Men: the hanbok trousers usually go on over your own, so it is simply two layers down instead of one.

Why should you hold your skirt on an escalator?

This is the one nobody thinks to warn you about. The gaps on escalator steps carry a black lubricant. If the bottom of a floor-length skirt brushes into it, the hem comes away with a dark mark that barely washes out. It is awkward for everyone: the customer often has not noticed until the counter, and the shop is left with a garment that may not clean up.

When you step onto an escalator, take hold of the front of the skirt and lift the hem a little clear of the steps, and keep it there until you step off. Ordinary light wear is part of renting; how deposits and damage are actually handled is in deposits, passports and stains.

What if the goreum or skirt ties come loose?

The goreum is the pair of long ribbons that close the front of the jeogori and tie in a bow on the chest. The chima has its own ties, wrapped around the body high under the arms. Both loosen with walking, sitting and posing, and it happens often.

Shops will retie them, and many show you how before you leave. But plenty of people then retie them wrong. If you are anywhere near the shop, just walk back in. It takes the staff a minute, and everything you photograph afterwards will look the way it should.

If you are still choosing a time block, how long to rent hanbok compares 2 hours, 4 hours and all day. The whole process, from choosing a shop to walking through the palace gate, is in the Gyeongbokgung hanbok rental guide.

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I ran a hanbok rental shop opposite Gyeongbokgung from 2015 to 2025, with more than 1,000 outfits on the rails. Very few of the problems that came back through the door were about the hanbok itself. They were the turtleneck in January, the patterned top showing through a pale jeogori, the dark line on a hem from the station escalator. Each of them was settled before the customer left home, by what they put on that morning.

Compare 28 hanbok shops near Gyeongbokgung →