Fashion Tips — June 19, 2026
My half-sister is almost ten years younger than me. I only met her 8 years ago, and she didn’t even know I existed. That’s a long story that I’ll have to tell one day.. but for now, her daughter just turned one, which means I had a Dohl to dress up for.
The party was just starting to swing when I walked in. My mother-in-law was at the stove, frying mandoo and warming suyuk — Korean potstickers and beef brisket. I jumped in.
I didn’t know most of my sister’s friends. Helping is easier than being witty with strangers — I know this about myself. The kitchen has a job. I do the job.
Once the food was out, I started mingling. My sister’s friends were warm.
OK so the outfit. Pink pleated skirt. Black satin tank. Navy cardigan with tiny roses scattered across it. Someone told me once you shouldn’t mix black and navy. I broke that rule a decade ago — the trick is to let the textures do the work. Satin against wool against pleated cotton, and suddenly nobody cares about the color rule. Black Lady Dior.
But the gift was the hanbok. My mother bought it for my own daughter years ago — pale pastel blue layered with pink, the kind of soft combination that doesn’t lock a baby into pure pink. It hung in my closet, waited, and then this weekend it traveled down the line: from my mother, to my daughter, to my niece. Three generations of girls in our family — in eight years of officially being a family.
Then came the 돌잡이 (doljabi). You set out a tray of symbolic objects in front of the baby and watch which she grabs. Stethoscope is doctor. Pencil is scholar. Money is a life of comfort. String is a long life. Microphone is entertainer.
She went for the gavel.
A lawyer. Of course. The smallest person in the room with the strongest sense of who gets to talk and when.
My sister is a baker. She made two cakes — a tall one covered in fresh flowers, the kind you shoot from above, and a low-sugar banana cake with fresh raspberries as the smash cake. The smash cake was almost a crime because it turned out to be one of the best cakes I’ve eaten this year. I went back for a piece after my niece had destroyed her serving.
The math of having a sister you didn’t have until you were already an adult: eight years of knowing her, one Dohl, three generations of hanbok, one gavel for the future, two cakes for the day. ROI on showing up: incalculable.
xo, Jenni