Korea’s annual expo of Hanbok, traditional Korean costume, kicked off Thursday through an online platform.

Hosted by the Hanbok Advancement Center and Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, the major hanbok fair brings together 73 hanbok ateliers in Korea.

The Hanbok Advancement Center newly launched the online hanbok store (hanbokexpo.com) for the first-ever online hanbok expo, offering nearly 800 of traditional and modernized hanbok and accessories with a 30 percent disｃount on average. The online hanbok store will run through December.

The online hanbok fair will include a livestreamed hanbok sale on the official YouTube channel of Hanbok Expo Live and Naver Shopping Live (shoppinglive.naver.com) for major hanbok fashion houses to promote their merchandise. The livestreamed hanbok sale will run through Sunday presenting around 200 hanbok from 22 fashion houses.

On Sunday, the online hanbok sale will also run on the Chinese e-commerce platform Taobao Live Streaming, starting at 8 p.m. to promote Korea’s six hanbok ateliers in China.

“We have held the annual hanbok expo in early September for a few days, but we moved to the online platform this year to maintain the government’s social distancing restrictions,” an official from the Hanbok Advancement Center told The Korea Herald.

By Park Yuna (yunapark@heraldcorp.com)