'Teukjong Sesang' hanbok scholar Park Sul-nyeo revealed regrets behind her glamorous fame.
On the 5th episode of MBN 'Teukjong Sesang', hanbok scholar and hanbok artisan Park Sul-nyeo appeared. Park Sul-nyeo's hanbok shop in Insadong, where the breath of tradition flows, was flooded with unceasing customers, and Park Sul-nyeo, wearing a hanbok of beautiful green silk embroidered with flowers and butterflies, oversaw everything from detailed designs to mannequin displays.
She said the hanbok shop she opened in Cheongdam 23 years ago is the main store, and she opened a second branch in Insadong, which she said is where she has been focusing recently. The Cheongdam hanbok shop was also her place of livelihood.
After a busy day she drove home in a luxury foreign car and, without a look of fatigue, ate everything including mugwort greens with grain rice and meat, covering carbohydrates and proteins, then video-called her daughter studying in Germany and dedicated herself to exercise. Park Sul-nyeo, who was judged to be in a prediabetic stage, was healthy despite being in her 70s. She exercised by cycling for more than an hour a day or stretching, showing efforts "to keep doing the hanbok work she likes until the end."
Park Sul-nyeo is famous as a hanbok artisan. She was the craftsman who made hanboks worn by celebrities across fields and generations, including BTS, IU, Chloë Grace Moretz, Amanda Seyfried, Kim Yuna, and Margot Robbie. Recently, the wedding hanbok for Shim Hyungtak and Saya also came from her hands.
However, she was filled with remorse and apology toward her family. Park Sul-nyeo said, "My husband is in Tongyeong, my son is 38 and living alone, and my daughter is studying alone abroad," and added, "After all, when you reach your 70s you end up living alone. If you don't endure and enjoy living alone in your own way, I think you won't be able to do it," as she enjoyed single life.
Park Sul-nyeo, who said she paid no attention to housekeeping and childrearing because she was making hanboks, confessed, "My husband raised the children by himself. He looked after them like a husband without a wife. I couldn't bear it anymore so I quit my job. Because I couldn't take care of the children alone, I eventually resigned," and added, "I was a bad mother. My husband ended up doing all the housework and all the childcare."
Park Sul-nyeo also regretted that her mother, who had sent her out as a housemaid because of poverty but later took her back and raised her to the end, had suffered. He said he had been sewing hanboks because he hated being poor and said, "I was really desperate. I hated poverty. If I had lived comfortably, would I have pulled hanbok along so long and so stubbornly? Would I have tried? I wonder," and, "Even though my mother was said to be on her deathbed, I was at a fashion show and couldn't go. I couldn't be at her deathbed. My face was on my business card then and now. My mother put that up," and broke into tears.
Now Park Sul-nyeo has an older brother, a younger sister, and a brother who recently underwent breast cancer surgery. She said especially her older brother was like a father who readily provided a large sum of money when she first opened the hanbok shop.
Park Sul-nyeo said, "My brother had a cerebral aneurysm. I didn't even know that. My brother had surgery, it recurred, he collapsed, then he couldn't get up and was kept alive," and said, "Isn't there an old saying that if you make a burial shroud you will live a long time?" She made a blanket and burial shroud neatly for her brother and gave them to her nephew. The aunt and nephew cried.
Her close friend, actress Park Jung-soo, sharply comforted Park Sul-nyeo's regrets. Park Jung-soo said, "You have nothing to regret. Nothing is free. Why do you think the name Park Sul-nyeo exists in Korea? It's because you lived hard," comforting her that it couldn't be helped given her great reputation.
[Photo source] MBN 'Teukjong Sesang'
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