Sokgot is a collective noun for various types of traditional Korean undergarments. They were worn as part of a hanbok before the import of Western-style underwear. Women usually wore several layers of undergarments, the more layers they had the richer they were.[1] Undergarments were considered very important, thus it happened that the quality and material of the underwear was better than that of the visible outer layers.[2]
There were several types of sokgot: underskirts were generally named sokchima (Korean: 속치마), while underpants were referred to as sokbaji (Korean: 속바지). Under a jeogori, sokjeoksam (Korean: 속적삼) and sokjeogori (Korean: 속저고리) were worn.
A clothing item similar in function to today's panties was called dari sokgot (Korean: 다리속곳), which was a wide band of cloth pulled through in between the legs and tied with ribbons at the waist, forming a shape similar to the Japanese fundoshi. Above this came the lowest layer of underskirts, called soksokgot (Korean: 속속곳). One of these layers was a mujigi chima (Korean: 무지기치마), which itself was sewn of several layers at knee-length, its function was to give shape and volume to the chima, raising it. Above this a daesyum chima (Korean: 대슘치마) was added. Noble women also wore a noreunbaji (Korean: 너른바지), a kind of additional underpants.[3]
Male undergarments were significantly simpler, under the pants a pair of sokgoui (Korean: 속고의), underpants[4] were worn, while jeoksam (Korean: 적삼) came under the jeogori in winter, and was worn on its own in summer.[5] [6]
