WEEKENDER Embroidery has a long history. The craft in Korea has evolved alongside textiles for over 2,000 years, reflecting cultural identity across historical eras and blurring the boundaries between art and technique.
Fiber and textiles should be understood and researched from an engineering perspective, as structural design is inseparable from the creation of fabric.
Embroidery has a long history. The craft in Korea has evolved alongside textiles for over 2,000 years, reflecting cultural identity across historical eras and blurring the boundaries between art and technique.
Sim Yeon-ok, a professor at the Department of Traditional Arts and Crafts at the Korea National University of Cultural Heritage, published her third book “2,000 Years of Korean Embroidery” last month to shed light on the lesser-known mastery of Korean embroidery.
While previous research on Korean embroidery focused on aesthetics, Sim, as a textile engineer, looked at embroidered works through a microscope to examine their details and structure. Sim said her former professor Min Gil-ja, a pioneer in Korean textile research, inspired her to delve into the field.
“Fiber and textiles should be understood and researched from an engineering perspective, as structural design is inseparable from the creation of fabric. Most of Korea’s clothing history was studied by historians and domestic science majors, who did not have much knowledge of engineering,” Sim said. “Professor Min encouraged me to study in China as understanding Chinese textiles was essential for studying Korean textiles considering the exchange between the East Asian countries.”
Sim went to the China Textile University in Shanghai, now Donghua University, in 1992, right after the diplomatic ties between China and Korea were established. “I am one of the first South Korean doctoral students in China,” Sim said.
Sim’s devotion to Korean textiles is represented in her previous books “5,000 Years of Korean Textiles” (2002) and “2,000 Years of Korean Textile Design” (2006).
“My first book was inspired by Jennifer Harris’ book ‘5,000 Years of Textiles.’ This book encompasses the history of textiles worldwide, but Korea is not even mentioned. So I researched the history of Korean textiles extensively, finding its place in the overall history of textiles,” Sim explained.
“The history of textiles in Korea is 5,000 years old because the oldest spindle whorls, which signal the beginning of weaving and textiles, found on the Korean Peninsula are 5,000 years old. Most significant relics related to the history of textiles exist in Korea and I was able to tie Korean textiles in with world history.”
Her interest shifted to embroidery, a field that has not been studied deeply in Korea’s textile history.
“When Sudeok Museum of Sudeok Temple in Yesan, South Chungcheong Province, held an exhibition on embroidered Buddhist treasures, I was asked to write a piece for its catalogue. Despite the amount of embroidered relics, there was barely any research on it and almost none in English. As I studied embroidery further, I made many fascinating discoveries including the way our ancestors saved expensive silk threads for satin stitches and used different stitching techniques,” Sim said.