Singer Lee Chan-Hyuk recently drew attention with distinctive fashion and performance at the Blue Dragon Film Awards celebratory stage. Official YouTube screengrab
Here is a singer who 'believes one should try everything on a bucket list before dying, wishes a funeral were a celebration made of dance and applause, and worries about the end of love'. It is Lee Chan-Hyuk, who delivered a celebratory performance at the 46th Blue Dragon Film Awards. Many who watched the stage have left rave reactions praising Lee Chan-Hyuk, the session players, and the musical theater actors. In 2019, as he was no longer an 'akdong (child)' and the group name changed to 'AKMU', he now seems closer to an artist who elevates the stage into an art form, beyond being a musician.
I have thought Lee Su-Hyun's tone is unrivaled and have liked AKMU's songs, but I did not know Lee Chan-Hyuk's music well. I had never listened to his solo songs. Watching the Blue Dragon Film Awards stage, I heard his music for the first time. So, while preparing this piece, I roughly looked into his tracks during AKMU activities along with how his ideas and fashion philosophy have changed since debut. Then I realized this: while many are moved by his stage and songs, I was moved by his fashion mindset.
People all want to find a style of their own. Yet when you hold fast to your own style, there comes a time when you collide with the wall of the world or the gaze of the public (finger pointing). Based on confusion about oneself, a sense of lack, or a habit of comparison, that can make the self shrink. But this is precisely when you can awaken to what is a little more like yourself. From debut, because Lee Chan-Hyuk was with the outstanding vocalist Lee Su-Hyun, he pondered how to find his own color, and amid such confusion and wandering, after military service he prepared and released a solo album. I would venture that this is when his fashion and music began to blend harmoniously and create synergy.
Lee Chan-Hyuk's fashion brings to mind the suffix '~less (without)'. It is fashion that transcends genderless, prejudice-less, and ageless boundaries. In fact, he has a small frame and has said he enjoys wearing womenswear, and you can tell the clothes he wears would suit anyone, man or woman. Even at this Blue Dragon Film Awards celebratory performance, looking at the performers with him, it was striking that rather than the 'conventional, habitual' pretty, slim dancers seen in many celebratory stages, there were musical theater actors whose diverse looks, body types, and styles came together.
At his entrance, Lee Chan-Hyuk wore a white suit topped with a shabby gown that evoked a ragged busker (a style favored by those who love the grunge look and grunge music, usually resembling unkempt, worn clothes). I see it as an outfit that carried both a wish to respect formality and a hope that everyone here (actors in neat suits and dresses) would enjoy the moment freely. In the song titled 'Endangered Love', many moves use shoulders, hips, and footwork, and without the sackcloth-like gown the lines of the dance would have looked quite flat. It was a choice that captured the awards ceremony that is the Blue Dragon Film Awards, the mood of the song, and even a fashion philosophy of formlessness (breaking form).
After returning from the military, he began in earnest to be tagged as a fashion person, a description he said makes him cringe. I also think that label does not suit Lee Chan-Hyuk. His fashion is less 'fashion' people than 'people' fashion.
Many people worry about what to wear to stand out, to look pretty, to look cool. Lee Chan-Hyuk, however, chooses by asking what clothes (self) he wants, and therefore does not consider the gaze of others. "I thought that look was right because everyone liked it, but it turns out it is okay even to do what everyone does not like." Because of that, what he said on a variety show in 2021 is all the more memorable.
He freely expresses his thoughts through song, and those thoughts are deep and philosophical. Such a musician is rare and precious. In the song he wrote and composed in 2017, 'Pretending to Be Ugly', he says this.
"So it seems you want to make me look that ugly/ You must think if you keep saying ugly, ugly, I will become ugly/ They are really funny kids, right? haha I think they are very amusing kids"
The reason Lee Chan-Hyuk's stage at the Blue Dragon Film Awards drew attention was not only that the song, the people with him, and the performance were excellent, but perhaps also because of the 'handsome mindset' about the inner and outer self that he has consistently shared.
■Lee Moon-Yeon
Author and wardrobe management coach. Provides personal coaching for a healthy style and relationship with clothes and also writes. <On Weekends, Clean Out Your Closet> <The Problem Is Clothing Habits> <At Forty, How to Express Myself Without Being Ruled by Clothes>. Instagram @ansyd81
한글기사 원본(Original Korean Story)