The trend today among young women — even the female soldiers — in the hermit kingdom is high-heeled dress shoes with fancy ornaments. (image: yarr.me/Creative Commons)
SEOUL, Aug. 1 (Korea Bizwire) – Would you believe that stilettos are in vogue in North Korea? “Chosun Shinbo,” the newspaper for the Pro-Pyongyang Federation of Korean Residents in Japan, printed an article on July 30, introducing “Botong-Gang Shoe Factory” and reporting that shoes with elaborate designs are gaining popularity among young North Korean women recently.
The trend today among young women in the hermit kingdom well known as one of the world’s most conservative countries when it comes to women is high-heeled dress shoes with fancy ornaments, wrote the article. “Wedge heel” shoes as well as shoes that are designed ornamentally with laces and strings are also popular items.
Highly-popular “Moranbong Band,” North Korea’s answer to K-pop girl groups, also performs in stilettos, reflecting on such a trend in the nation.
The owner of the shoe factory, Li Mi-Ok, said in an interview with the paper, “Young women in North Korea nowadays don’t wear anything with heels shorter than 5 centimeters.”
In contrast to the past, North Korean men are now also keen to follow trend in fashion and consider design as an important factor when choosing their shoes as much as women, according to the article.
For North Korean men, it is high-heeled shoes with long and pointy tips that are in the latest vogue, which is not that much different from what is trendy in South Korea. Kim Jung Eun, the young strongman of the country, is also known to fancy high-heeled shoes to cover his short height.
Botong-Gang Shoe Factory is the largest shoe factory in all of Pyongyang, the North Korean capital, with a total of 950 employees, which makes 50 different types of shoes and distributes them to all over the nation.
The news article said that since designs are becoming more and more important for their customers, the factory hires eight of professional shoe designers and constantly looks to come up with new designs by receiving suggestions from customers and having shoe designing contests among the employees, twice a year.
On the other hand, North Korea has been augmenting investment in light industries to aid livelihood of their people since Kim Jung Eun took office, and has propagandized their achievements in the industry through the media.
By J. H. Kim (jhkim@koreabizwire.com)
