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Specific Techniques

Completely hand-sewn. Elements were sewn inside out and then turned, so that all seams are invisible

Iconographic Meaning

The floral decorations indicate that these were decorations for a woman’s bag.

History Of Use

Such decorations were used on bags or pouches worn at the waist and used to carry eyeglasses, the wearer’s wooden identification tag, cigarettes, or other things. Those with floral decorations were used by women.

Description

Fragmentary ornament. Ribbons and stuffed decoration for a waist pouch or glasses case. Consists of a narrow ribbon of dark blue fabric to which are attached three three-dimensional stuffed embroidered fabric triangles and, at the end, four double-sided ribbons of patterned silk gauze in light green, bright green, and dark pink. The stuffed triangles are made of tan, dark blue, and dark pink silk, from the top down. Each is embroidered with different floral motifs, and each has a tuft of silk thread in various colours at each lower corner except for the first, which has only one.

Narrative

Most of the clothing in the J. McRee Elrod Collection was made for him and his family by friends while they were living in Korea, much of it by Kim, Sung Sook. She and her family lived cooperatively in the same house as the Elrod family. While they were there, the Elrods preferred to wear Korean clothing on very cold days and for social occasions. They found it to be more comfortable than western clothing in cold weather, as public buildings were unheated in the period immediately following the Korean War. It also was more comfortable for floor seating in Korean homes, and easier to store with limited furniture than western clothing.