Hanbok Threaded Culture, Art And Beauty Through Jersey City — And Called A New Generation Home

JERSEY CITY, NJ — The first person down the runway at the Harborside Atrium on Aug. 29 was 90 years old.

Soon Jae Anna Lee makes dolls. She had never modeled anything. Seventeen more followed her, and the last of them were sisters, 3 and 4, who walked holding on to their mother.

The eighteen are Korean American residents of Bergen, Essex and Hudson counties. Most of the adults run small businesses. Each spent four months in training at KCED Media Studio in Fort Lee to walk for about ninety seconds.

Hanbok does not usually leave the house. A first birthday, a wedding, indoors, among people who already know you.

"Hanbok is usually worn inside the family, at a first birthday or a wedding. Presenting it in a public space in Jersey City, in front of people who had made no plan to see it, is a different act. It places the tradition in the civic life of the city rather than in a private one," said Sylvia Kim, founder, president and executive director of KCED Foundation.

Under the theme "K-Culture: Tradition Reimagined, Beauty Redefined," the show opened in ceremonial silk and gold-leaf brocade and closed in lighter fabrics and modern colorways. The same silhouette, redrawn. Garments came from Goong Story and Fashion Stitches with Grace.

When it ended the group walked out of the atrium and onto the Hudson River promenade and stood for a portrait, Lower Manhattan across the water behind them. People out for a walk stopped. Several of them took pictures.

The audience inside had been whoever happened to be crossing Harborside that afternoon. Families had driven in for it from towns that sit close to Jersey City without ever really knowing it. Artists came over from New York — Lab43 Studio, Lauren Nakao Winn and Shootmenycmodels — and stayed afterward to talk about the work.

Kim grew up in Hudson County and has spent more than thirty years between there and Bergen. She reads the afternoon as a beginning rather than an event.

"For our generation, Jersey City was close and unfamiliar at the same time. Our children are the ones who choose it," she said. "There is a generational story inside this culture, and an artistry in it, and behind both are the ventures our next generation is building. Harborside is where those meet. We have taken one step."

The next one is larger, and free. Chuseok K-Fest 2026 runs from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17, at Jersey City Hall Plaza, 280 Grove St. It is hosted by the City of Jersey City through its Office of Cultural Affairs, KCED Foundation and the Korean Chapter of the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce, and it is open to the public. The day includes a K-food market, K-beauty and wellness, a kids culture zone, cultural performances, a K-pop showcase, community awards and a second hanbok fashion show. The first edition was held inside Jersey City Hall, which Kim said she believes made it the first Korean Chuseok festival staged inside a U.S. city government building.

The August program was produced by NamHee Lee and directed by Jace Lee of Jace Runway Making, with Saerom Hong as master of ceremonies. Hair and makeup were by Beauty_artistar, with Koh Aesthetics and Jolieterre Beauty. It was photographed by KCED Media, Lab43 Studio, Lauren Nakao Winn and Shootmenycmodels. Financial support came from KERAS Biolab, OOAHAN Fashion and Sacco & Fillas LLP. The show was presented within World Flavor Fest 2026 at Harborside, hosted by the Hudson County Chamber of Commerce.

KCED Foundation Inc., which produced the August program, is a 501(c)(3) public-interest media organization. It operates a community newsroom and broadcast studio serving immigrant communities in Bergen and Hudson counties, and produces civic information, community reporting and cultural programming across North Jersey. Information on the October festival is at kcedfoundation.org.