White canvas flows like waves from the ceiling tiles of Jowa, a South Korea-inspired fashion boutique that opened in the Bishop Arts District last November. Thanks to transparent wires, clothing racks appear to float. Every item on those racks has been imported from South Korea. They are each precisely placed. And if you look closely, there’s only one of each piece in the whole store.
Growing up in Ulsan, South Korea, Jowa founder Eunhwa “Kate” Jung spent all of her pocket money in the city’s many diverse fashion boutiques. When she eventually moved to Texas with her husband, she was disappointed with her style options. So in 2018, she founded Jowa, an online venture born out of her deep appreciation for South Korean fashion. Her online store grew in popularity, and Jung hosted pop-up events in cities like Austin, New York, and Chicago. She says the positive attention fueled her decision to open her brick-and-mortar showroom in Bishop Arts.
With it, Jung says her primary goal is to curate quality clothes and accessories while introducing Korean style to a Dallas clientele. Jung says she ventures back and forth to Seoul, South Korea’s capital, to look at local designers’ latest fashions and bring back pieces she likes. Jung’s stock of each item is limited, and most sell out quickly. “However, they are replaced quickly with new items, ” she says. Jowa refrains from bulk orders to ensure that her customers acquire distinctive pieces. When you stroll down the street, you won’t encounter others wearing the same outfit.
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Jung describes her one of a kind selections, which range from a string of freshwater pearls to colorful cashmere socks to a skirt with folds that hide the buttons that run from top to bottom, as “minimal classic with a little twist.” Jowa offers a range of men’s, women’s and unisex options. Customers can browse from one section to another without interruptions, finding a piece that they look and feel good in, which is the whole mission of the store.
Its name, Jowa, translates to “It’s good” or “I like it.” Jung says she chose it to sum up her ethos. And when talking to customers, she playfully uses it to pay them her highest compliment: “You look
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.GOT IT!Korean culture is having something of a renaissance at the moment. And like the rest of the country, North Texans are jumping at opportunities to immerse themselves in what Korea has to offer.
Carol Linda Claus
If you look at it briefly from the window of a moving car, the shopping center off Old Denton Road in Carrollton seems like any other strip mall: a block of bland suburban real estate that would normally host insurance agencies, office supply stores or, if you’re lucky, your preferred pizza chain. But the area more commonly known as Carrollton Koreatown transcends the unremarkable buildings.
It's a vibrant melting pot that draws people from across North Texas — be it the Korean-American community local to the neighborhood, or K-pop or food enthusiasts looking to get a tad closer to their dream destination.
Korean culture is having something of a renaissance at the moment. K-pop band BTS is dominating the American charts, having landed six No. 1 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. K-drama Squid Game is the most-watched Netflix series of all time with 1.6 billion hours of watch-time logged. Bong Joon-ho’s 2019 film Parasite was hailed as an instant classic upon release and became the first foreign language film to win Best Picture at the Oscars.
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“Once you overcome the 1-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films, ” Bong Joon-ho quipped while accepting the award for Best Foreign Film at the 2020 Golden Globes. This tongue-in-cheek comment now reads more like a prophecy that extends far beyond prestige cinema.
Like the rest of the country, North Texans are jumping at opportunities to immerse themselves in what Korea has to offer. Special interest groups on Facebook such as “DFW Kpop” and “Asian Grub in DFDub” boast thousands of active members. K-pop groups in particular have become a resource for locals looking to buy and sell tickets and merch as well as a space to find local fan events.
Carrollton Koreatown has become an increasingly popular spot for these enthusiasts to lean into their interests offline. If you’re wondering if the hype surrounding Korean beauty is real, VT Cosmetics might be able to sway you. If you’re already acquainted with popular Korean dishes like bibimbap or kimchi but are wondering what’s different about how Korea does corndogs, Oh K Dog would be happy to educate you. Or if you’re a K-pop superfan looking to score some merch, you can visit one of several shops in the area that specialize in just that.
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One of these shops is the aptly named Pink Box, a store that beams a rosy glow to passing shoppers, even in the daytime. It advertises itself as a fashion accessory store, and while it does have a sizable offering of jewelry, it’s the merch that catches the eye.
The store’s walls are lined with memorabilia for every K-pop group you have and haven’t heard of. Fans can browse their selection, light in its cotton candy hues yet dense in its souvenir-to-square-foot ratio, to find anything from posters and postcards to stickers and keychains with their idol’s face on it. The store maintains a loyal customer base that, according to the staff, grows every time a K-pop tour comes through North Texas.
The magnitude of fandoms represented in the shop may be overwhelming to the uninitiated, so it’s no surprise the staff are dedicated K-pop fans themselves.
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“I shopped here a lot before I was an employee, ” says Remington Ballard, an employee at Pink Box for the past nine months. “I knew the store and I knew a lot about the retail.”
Rose Miller, the manager on duty, chimes in: “Same thing for me, ” she says. “I decided to work at this store because I shop here a lot and I like the things.”
Both Ballard and Miller have gone so far as to study the Korean language, Ballard as part of his college language credit and Miller as part of an independent club. They both wish to visit Korea one day.
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Ballard and Miller are far from the only K-pop fans to take their dedication to the next level by learning the language. A recent study found that Korean is now the second-most learned language in Texas, just behind Spanish.
This isn’t the first time that a foreign country’s pop culture has captured the imagination of Americans. In the 2000s, all things Japanese were in vogue. The internet was leading to an increased availability of anime and manga series while also bringing attention to Japanese street fashion, and the music industry took note of this trend. Britney Spears released an anime-style music video for her single “Break the Ice” in 2009 and, perhaps most infamously, Gwen Stefani went through her “Harajuku girl” era, when she hired a posse of Japanese backup dancers, whom she called Love, Angel, Music and Baby after her debut solo record, to follow her around.
The singer recently referred to herself as a “superfan” with an “innocent” relationship with Japanese culture, but the sole act of renaming four real people to match the names of Stefani's album, clothing brand and fragrances did not come across as respectful.
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That’s always been a running thread when other cultures, particularly non-white cultures, trend in America. The lines between appreciation and appropriation are easily blurred.
While the Korean boom will never be fully exempt from that, there is something about it that feels different. It goes beyond music fandom into finding meaning in the culture as a whole. Your favorite K-pop boy band might inspire you to watch a K-drama. Your favorite K-drama might inspire you to try the food. The food might inspire you to learn the language, and so on.
Language of Love Zeinab Aly grew up in the suburbs of Dallas. She graduated from Plano West High School, studied business and vocal performance at Southern Methodist University and landed a highly desirable job at a “Big Four” accounting firm in downtown Dallas after she graduated. She has since left all of that behind to move to Chuncheon, South Korea, where she teaches English at a private kindergarten.
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Aly was passionate about music growing up and received scholarships to study opera in college. Her parents were hesitant about her pursuing a fine arts degree and encouraged her to also study something more practical. She describes her career almost like a fluke, saying she simply “meandered” into business. At the time, she thought it was something she could combine with music. Aly says this was her plan before she was “beat down by the real world.”
Aly got a job in international tax consulting, working with clients all over the world on fulfilling tax
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