Fashion/Style
iuseoulbeats

IU: Last Fantasy Concept Review

33
Written by On December 8, 2011

Not too long ago, soloist IU released her newest album, Last Fantasy, and with it a brand new music video for her song, “You and I.” The album has a coming-of-age theme to go along with IU’s upcoming twentieth birthday. In Korea, people are considered adults after they turn twenty, and the album plays on IU abandoning her childlike innocence and becoming a mature woman. Naturally, the fashion reflects this as well.

IU’s concept photos for Last Fantasy are simple and sweet.  She is the focus of all the photos, posing around a white room with furniture and objects alluding to childhood. In all the photos, she wears white boots with undone laces and white fishnet tights styled in natural-looking waves, which represents the innocence.  The short dress and fishnets add maturity to the look, mixing with the innocence and childlike nature of the photo shoot to create the theme of a woman on the edge of adulthood.

In “You and I,” IU has four different looks. At the train station, IU wears a long, cozy-looking colorblocked sweater over a long black shirt and red-and-pink socks. The comfy-cozy look is cute and suitable to the situation, playing a girl waiting for her mechanical boyfriend to wake up. She dresses like anyone would for laying around the house.

When the song begins, IU and her dancing crew appear. The male dancers wear brown sweaters and trousers while the female dancers wear bright red dresses, white tights, and different types of heels. In contract, IU wears a black mini dress with a lace collar, white tights, and green mary janes. I find the womens’ outfits adorable. They go along with the theme, are simple and cute, and have the vintage childlike-charm that I love so much.  Bonus points that IU’s mary janes are green and not black or red.

At 2:58, IU’s third outfit appears, dressed more like a teenager. She still wears white tights and her hair is still in the same style, but she now wears a long-sleeved pink sweater and gold mini-skirt. At 5:42, IU appears as an adult in this scene, with shorter hair and a black top with a golden bow around her neck.  Although her outfit didn’t deviate that much from her previous outfits, it gets across that the look is more “mature”, implying that she’s an adult.

Overall, I liked IU’s comeback fashion and it fits well with the overall concept of showing the evolution of a child to an adult. What are your thoughts on it?

(Soompi, YouTube, The Abracadabras)

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  • Anonymous

    She always looks like pedo bait. This concept is no different. I mean really, a 19 year old woman wearing pigtails? Give me a break. She caters to her ajhussi fan base and it’s gross.

    • saylor

      yeah she does sometimes.  it makes me uncomfortable considering i like her and thinks shes talented. 

    • Anonymous

      I can totally understand why you’d say that. I like IU and the music video and I obviously like the outfits she wears in the video, but she does look very young and innocent. I think that was supposed to be the point. I read that the music video is about a young girl (child?) whose grandfather or uncle built her a mechanical boyfriend that will only wake up when she becomes an adult. So the girl builds a time machine and enters into it. Throughout most of the music video, she’s meant to look like a young girl and at the end she’s meant to be a young woman. So, I think the concept was illustrated pretty well and creatively, but the music video is very aegyo-y. It’d been better if her dancing and outfits and demeanor became more “mature” as the video progressed.

      • tegami

        When I was a young girl, I mostly wore jeans or shorts and t-shirts.  I’d only wear dresses for important occasions and their hemlines would almost always be past my knees. 

        I don’t know if it’s only me, but the way she was dressed to represent her younger self as a child did not fly by me.

        I wouldn’t have a problem with these outfits if only her company would be truthful about the concept, which is nothing but just another sexualized lolita look.  

        • Anonymous

          I get where you’re coming from and normally I would also not approve of the hemline of the dresses, but this is K-pop. How often do idols wear appropriately lengthed dresses or shorts? I thought the dress lengths were pretty typical of K-pop.

          Ughhhhh. The sexualized lolita theme can’t go unnoticed but it’s soooo creepy!

        • Blueprint

          I heartily dislike IU  Just saying this upfront. 
          “sexualized lolita look”/facepalm.You all are too. fucking. obsessed. with. sex. Even Freud would be freaked out by you all. It’s meant to be a light-hearted concept, and you’re deeming it as a sexualized lolita look.Don’t tell me; you’re a feminist that loves 2NE1 because they have “swag”.

    • Anon

      this is kpop, though – it’s not any more strange than SNSD carrying around large lollipops for “Kissing You” (most of them were older than IU at the time) or HyunA doing a hyper-sexualized concept in “Change” when she was IU’s age. It’s pop music; there will always be an undercurrent of sex appeal for any image.

      • Anonymous

        You don’t think I know that, Anon~? Do you want me to list every fucking KPOP act that ever existed? Thanks for stating the fucking obvious.

        • Anon

          if it bothers you so much, maybe kpop isn’t for you then. why bother with the anger and swearing? it’s not like we’re discussing politics, lol.

        • Anonymous

          Whoa there. Calm your tits

        • Angy8993

          First of all, calm your tits. Your reaction makes it seem like Anon insulted or bashed you when all he/she was doing was only trying to explain.
          Second, if you know the reason behind her looking like “pedo bait” why are you even bringing it up then?! We all know she’s popular among ajhussis and yes it’s gross but what are we suppose to do about it? Being bitchy and complaining about it isn’t going to stop the pedos from drooling over her and it isn’t going to stop Loen Ent from taking advantage of her to increase her sales.

    • Blueprint

      I heartily dislike IU  Just saying this upfront.

      Why are all the people on this website so obsessed with sex and female empowerment? Must explain all the crazed, irrational blackjacks that lap up 2NE1′s “style” and “fierceness”. It’s a damn cute/innocent concept, not fucking lolita. Christ, you guys are sick as fuck, attributing EVERYTHING to some kind of sexual appeal.

      The level of pretentiousness and frequency of groupthink in the comments section is disturbing.

      • Anonymous

        You must be one of the many who fap to this shit then. 

        I have no problem with female who dress their age. I love Gummy, Tasha and Baek Ji Young. 
        I have a problem with a 19 year old woman dressing up like a baby prostitute.

        It’s disgusting.

        • Blueprint

          I just said I heartily dislike IU. Read. Also, anybody who faps to IU is fucked up.

          See, that’s the kind of closed-minded, egocentric response I expected. You deem her stage clothes as “dressing up like a baby prostitute” simply because you think that way. Surprise surprise, the world doesn’t revolve around you and your fashion sense. One example: in East Asian countries like SK and Taiwan, greater exposure of legs is common, while cleavage is frowned upon more so than in the West.

          If there’s one thing I despise in k-pop, it is ignorant fans like you who prance around forcing their beliefs and values on Korean culture without realizing Korean culture and their culture may actually be different. That short-sightedness really steams my beans.

          I too like BJY.

          • Anonymous

            You’re saying that just because East Asia digs the ‘cute-lolita’ concept that it’s okay for IU to dress up like a grade schooler? IU’s company is playing up her youthful looks to appeal to the fetishes of older men, her biggest fan base. You don’t see a problem with that? Really? 

            You do realize that South Korea has an underage sexual assault epidemic, right?

          • Blueprint

            How in the world are you interpreting what I said as “just because East Asia digs the ‘cute-lolita’ concept that it’s okay for IU to dress up like a grade schooler”?

            Ah, right. That closed-mindedness of yours. Dude (or girl), simply because YOU think it’s cute-lolita doesn’t mean it is cute-lolita to East Asia. Chalk that up to differences in culture. 

            I don’t totally disagree with you in that IU’s company is marketing her for mass appeal, but they aren’t catering “to the fetishes of older men” (who are also not her biggest fan base). The cute girl next door look is a concept that matches her looks (and I presume her personality). Simply because her company is capitalizing on that doesn’t mean they’re dangling her out on a clothesline to attract horny old men.

            Another thing: your idea of youthfulness and your perception of dressing-like-your-age seem to be the things that are holding your mind from being open.

            I looked up SK’s supposed underage sexual assault “epidemic”. No results. There was one massive case, but that was a localized matter.

    • pivotandsway

      and it’s not just her concept but the way people (meaning older men) behave towards her as well. I can hardly ever watch shows with her on them because it makes me really uncomfortable, like yesterday on Happy Together 3 when she did a “sexy dance” for the first time ever supposedly. All of it just grosses me out. BUT I don’t think there’s anything wrong with a 19 year old wearing pigtails lol. If this is what makes her money I mean more power to her but I’m free to find it unappealing. The thing you brought up about assault is interesting too when considering the way young Korean women are portrayed in the media, but of course I couldn’t draw any conclusions from it at this time.

  • Anonymous

    Is it just me or it feels like Good Day: Part 2? -______-

    I like IU’s style and after watching her live stage, I like the song even more. However, I found the backup dancers’ style kinda lousy. Those backup dancers in Maybee’s “Goodbye Valentine” dressed up to the concept but here, the way the dancers dressed is not so fairy-tale like, especially the guys. I mean, sweater again????!!

    • Anonymous

      The mens’ outfits are so bland! It looks like what a guy would wear to work. I just liked the girls’ looks. I’m a sucker for vintage-looking dresses and white tights.

  • saylor

    I love the music video. wow. it’s really whimsical. 

  • Oh Ji’s Ho

    What I took away from that video is young girls have long hair in pigtails and wear skirts that are a millimeter away from a possible crotch shot, and adults females have short hair and are fully covered….. I liked the video’s whimsical feel and this being the first time that I’ve ever heard/watched anything of hers I found her voice to be pleasant and surprising, but 20 or not she still looks like a child and I found the pigtails to be a bit much.  If it hadn’t been spelled out for me that this is a video of her growing from an child to a girl on the verge of adulthood, I wouldn’t have picked that up from the concept. To me the concept came across as a time-traveling love story, but I could have missed the true point due to not understanding Korean and therefore not knowing the story in the lyrics….

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_FS52P3WGP37JJ6YJNRLPPBVS4E A

    Any old school fans reminded of Kim Ji Yoon’s Adult Ceremony, just a tad?
    I appreciated that she experimented with her sound, and updated some of the melodies of her old tracks (some were VERY familiar) but overall, I wasn’t blown away by the concept. The idea was well done, and the title single had a really good MV with it (very magical), but it wasnt really defining in IU’s career, imo. And she kind of looks like Wednesday from Addams Family :P

  • http://twitter.com/MonicaDBSK Monica

    I actually thought this album went half a step down from her Real Album in terms of maturity. And I hate hate hate the pigtails and her childish outfits in her performances.

    • Anonymous

      I haven’t actually seen any of her performance outfits. Are they a lot different from those in the music video? The outfits in the music video are short and youthful but I wouldn’t call them childish.

  • juliaa

    I love everything about this album.. at first I didn’t like the songs but the more you hear them the more you like it especially the lyrics are very sophisticated which I enjoy love the instruments as compared to an electric sound which is getting overused these days. I feel like it is a step up from her last album b/c of the variety to genres in this album and you can really hear the maturity of the music. Especially like how not cheesy her lyrics get well at least for me. it doesn’t hurt that Lee Hyun Woo is cute too haha

  • Anonymous

    On a pure visual level, I adore IU’s look. I think she comes off as sweet and endearing in her dance outfits and long sweater ensemble, which are all a nice contrast to her mature look with short hair at the end of the video. Though I think she looks cute in pigtails, I felt that they were a bit overkill with the whole look together. Additionally, her skirts in the dancing parts of the video are just barely shy of constantly flashing. But considering that this is k-pop, and she has a strong older male fanbase, this comes as no surprise to me (though still a bit creepy).

    What truly strikes me is that this whole video (and album) is about IU becoming more mature, as if all of her previous music and mvs were made of sheer innocence and sugar. However, we have already seen IU do a mature concept a few years ago with her “Lost Child” mv. The viewer sees her both as a forlorn bride and as a widow. And she pulled off the look very well. Of course, to gain popularity in the world of kpop, she had to regress in the maturity of her music. So now, instead of having a solo artist who could have been creating lots of mature music, we have a solo artist who went to cutsiness and can now grow up in front of our eyes for our enjoyment.

    • Anonymous

      I agree with you and everyone else about the pigtails, to be honest. It would’ve been better if she had different hairstyles. The hairstyle in her concept photos would’ve worked fine.

  • Anonymous

    I agree with Monica. This album shows nothing about maturity. In terms of music is not very different from her previous works.

    I love the MV aesthetics, and the idea behind it – of a girl making a time machine to meet her prince. I know it looks very fairytail and childish, but I think it’s sweet. But regarding of growing into a mature woman, I found this MV failed at doing a meaningful portrait and the result was rather insulting and sexist (but that’s typical of K-Pop).

    She oozes of sexual charisma during her teenage mini skirts dance, totally eye-candy to the average male viewer born in culture that obsesses over lolita sex. Yet when she turns into a woman, it seems that she loses her a sex appeal to become a ‘plain, full-clothed lady’, portraying the perfect image of a ‘marriable woman’ in a patriarchal society full of double-standards, reminding us again that ‘adulthood’ in Korea is not sexy. This MV is the reason why I hate and love K-Pop at the same time.

    • Mindi

      how to hyori fit into your idea that adulthood is not sexy then? Koreans don’t dread adulthood, but they value innocence a lot more than Western nations.

    • AAA

      Learn to spell.

      • July

        …what are you talking about? Their spelling is perfect. Sure, their grammar is a bit off, but your comment reeks of butthurt.

        Personally, I think IU is beautiful, but bland.

  • Anonymous

    I watched this MV again and I love it. My problem is still the same: the male dancers’ outfit. Add in another problem, I can’t seem to like that pink-metallic outfit of her. In above photos she sure has pretty pretty outfits, why don’t she use that instead? And the heavy makeup of her kinda bugged me… especially when she can looks extremely pretty with “toned down” make up… ;_;

  • Guppy

    First let me start out by saying that I am a female and I heard her songs first before I ever saw a  picture or MV of this girl.  I like her signing and I think she is talented and pretty.  However, I do feel that her company could give her a better image.  This whole coming of age is greatly mismanaged.  I kept thinking of Son DamBi’s song Queen when I think of IU.  Especially the whole line of “Listen well and find yourself, hey listen…wake up… hey little girl turn around … wake your hidden self … that captivating girl”.  The whole thing feels like they are trying to fit her into a mold.  She was born on 1993 which makes her 19.  At 19, girls are still in that transition where they are stuck in between adulthood and last remnants of childhood.  They are discovering themselves. She still has many things to discover and experience.  Let the girl try different styles and discover her own style and preferences.  Being an adult does not preclude one from being cute.