Skip to content
Busan news
Breeze in Busan

Busan Celebrates "Hip Busan" Makeover Event on Parents' Day

Busan, South Korea – The city of Busan and online fashion platform Musinsa have unveiled a heartwarming photo shoot titled "Hip Busan," featuring a group of vibrant senior citizens, in celebration of Parents' Day today. The project, capturing the theme "Youth of Today," features five senior residents whose stories of perseverance and style are setting new standards for what it means to embrace life at any age. The "Hip Busan" event began as a campaign to collect stories from residents over the

By Maru Kim
May 8, 2024
Updated: Feb 7, 2025
2 min read
Share Story
Busan Celebrates "Hip Busan" Makeover Event on Parents' Day

Busan, South Korea – The city of Busan and online fashion platform Musinsa have unveiled a heartwarming photo shoot titled "Hip Busan," featuring a group of vibrant senior citizens, in celebration of Parents' Day today. The project, capturing the theme "Youth of Today," features five senior residents whose stories of perseverance and style are setting new standards for what it means to embrace life at any age.

The "Hip Busan" event began as a campaign to collect stories from residents over the age of 60, focusing on their lives and experiences in Busan. After receiving stories from March 25 to April 4 under the theme "The Story of My Dear Person and Busan," the city selected five individuals from a competitive pool of applicants—a testament to the community's enthusiasm and the poignant resonance of the initiative.

Selected through a rigorous competitive process, the participants include:

  • Jeong Kyung-jin, a lifetime mariner, celebrated for his dedicated maritime career.
  • Hwang Won-tae, a pharmacist who spends his free time as a volunteer, sharing joy through medicine and song.
  • Song Gap-sun, a childcare provider who is finally realizing her modeling dreams.
  • Yoon Ki-ho, who embodies the "youth of today" by living each day to the fullest.
  • Lee Ju-won, who has spent 45 years mastering the craft of tailoring and now dreams alongside his son.

The makeover session tailored each individual’s look from head to toe, considering personal styles and preferences. The results were remarkable, providing participants with a fresh and modern look, some experiencing makeup and fashion styling for the first time since their wedding day, decades ago.

The backgrounds chosen for the photo shoot were as symbolic as they were aesthetic, incorporating the daily lives and workplaces of the participants. Locations included a small curtain shop in Dong-gu, a singing pharmacist's pharmacy in Yeongdo-gu, a quaint jetty reflecting the life of a mariner, and a rejuvenated factory space in Sasang-gu, showing Busan’s mix of traditional and modern landscapes.

Following today's photo release, Busan city plans to sequentially unveil individual photo card news and videos capturing the participants' reflections on the experience. The entire process, documented and shared on official social media and Busan's YouTube channel "BusanTube," plans to foster a deeper connection with residents and showcase the city’s community-focused initiatives.

The spokesperson for the city, expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to record the "youth of today" for the senior participants and their families. He emphasized the city’s ongoing commitment to creating content that resonates with and includes its citizens, reinforcing Busan's reputation as a city worth being reborn in.

Related Topics

Share This Story

Knowledge is most valuable when shared with the community.

Editorial Context

"Independent journalism relies on radical transparency. View our full log of editorial notes, corrections, and project dispatches in the Newsroom Transparency Log."

Reader Pulse

The report's impact signal

0 SIGNALS

Be the first to provide a reading pulse. These collective signals help our newsroom understand the impact of our reporting.

Join the deep discussion
Loading this week's participation brief

Join the discussion

Article Discussion

A more thoughtful conversation, anchored to the story

Atlantic-style discussion for this article. One-level replies, editor prompts, and moderation-first participation are now powered directly by Prisma.

Discussion Status

Open

Please sign in to join the discussion.

Loading discussion...

The Weekly Breeze

Independent reporting and analysis on Busan,
Korea, and the broader regional economy.

Independent journalism, directly to your inbox.

Related Coverage

Continue with related reporting

Follow adjacent reporting from the same newsroom file, with linked coverage that extends the current story's desk and context.

What Busan’s tourism rebound does not fix
NewsApr 23, 2026

What Busan’s tourism rebound does not fix

Visitors are back, but the sectors that give the city economic depth remain under pressure — leaving Busan busier on the surface and more exposed underneath.

Continue this story

More on this issue

Stay with the same issue through adjacent reporting that carries the argument, context, or consequences forward.

Can Smart Monitoring Change an Aging Industrial Complex in Busan?
NewsApr 16, 2026

Can Smart Monitoring Change an Aging Industrial Complex in Busan?

At Seobusan Smart Valley, Busan is trying to use an integrated control system to manage the risks of an older industrial complex. Whether that becomes a working public-safety tool or a technology showcase will depend on results the city has yet to prove.

Busan’s Two Futures
NewsApr 13, 2026

Busan’s Two Futures

Busan is aging, losing younger residents, and struggling to sustain confidence in North Port, its flagship waterfront project. With World Design Capital 2028, the city is trying to show that visible ambition can still produce real urban renewal.

More from the author

Continue with Breeze in Busan

Stay with the same line of reporting through more work from this byline.