For over two decades, a new Korean Wave has been sweeping the West as South Korea’s popular music (K-pop), cuisine and cult skin-care products spread via the Internet and social media. But for all the rich culture being exported, traditional Korean dress has remained relatively unexplored.

That’s about to change with the Asian Art Museum’s “Couture Korea,” the first exhibition of its kind in the United States, on display Nov. 3-Feb. 4, 2018.

The exhibition examines how historic and contemporary Korean styles and traditions have informed fashion in Korea, and beyond. Co-presented by the Arumjigi Culture Keepers Foundation in Seoul, it will feature over 120 works that range from re-creations of Joseon Dynasty garments and authentic artifacts from the museum’s collection to 20th and 21st century fashion from Korea and Europe.

For Hyonjeong Kim Han, the museum’s associate curator of Korean art, the real signature of Korean fashion isn’t any one particular technique or garment: It’s the overall sense of subtlety and restraint that distinguishes it from other cultures’ traditions of dress.

“It’s not an aesthetic that is about opulence or overt display in the way it’s presented,” says Han. “There’s a simplicity, but also important symbolism to the pieces and to each layer that’s worn traditionally. That continues to be true today.”

The exhibition will be presented in three galleries divided chronologically as well as thematically. Han says the galleries were designed to offer museum-goers a progressive experience where each room builds upon the last, so people “can make the connection from the past to the present in dress.”

Past: ‘What is hanbok?’

The exhibition begins with an exploration of the fashion of the Joseon-dynasty (1392-1897), which was heavily influenced by the Confucian customs and philosophies of Korean society. The first gallery is centered around the hanbok, a traditional Korean ensemble that Han says is “probably the most familiar piece of Korean dress.” For women, hanbok includes a high, full chima (skirt) over a longer jeogori (blouse). For men, the hanbok includes the addition of baji (pants) and an outer po (robe). Most of the garments in the first gallery have been reproduced based on historic relics and representations of fashion in the art of the period, including a re-creation of King Yeongjo’s pre-1740 dopo (robe) that displays the precision of Joseon construction.

Recently discovered tombs from the era have also yielded new information about what was worn in the most intimate layers.

“There’s no historic record for undergarments,” says Han. “They didn’t get passed down from generation to generation. Now with the excavation of these tombs, we know that for upper-class women there would have been six, seven layers of skirt. For Confucian society it was very important to be buried in your finest pieces, including the undergarments.”

Also on view in the first gallery are the bolder, more colorful celebratory first birthday ensembles upper-class children wore. “The first birthday was very important in a culture where infant mortality was high,” says Han. “To make it to that first birthday was very significant.”

Present: ‘Between East and West'

The second section of the exhibition looks at two storied 20th century fashion designers still creating today: Korean couturier Jin Teok and German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Jin, whom Vogue international editor Suzy Menkes called “a fashion magician who works different dimensions,” is known for her modern riffs and reinventions of traditional Korean themes. The gallery includes a silk organza men’s trench coat by Jin that’s a take on the po and an ensemble from the designer’s 1995 “Blood” series that was inspired by the embroidery on hwarot wedding robes. Among Jin’s signatures are her frequent use of white, a hallmark in Korean fashion.

“Koreans have highly revered the beauty of the color white, and that of the unadorned, the pure, the plain,” Han says. “That concept and reverence relate to the Korean people’s love for white-ware pottery, like the traditional Moon Jar we have on view in our gallery.”

The white cotton Strata gown from the designer’s 2000 “Earth” series is an example of how Jin reinterprets the layers of the Joseon era into the sculptural halter-like top.

“It is an honor to see my contemporary designs among the historic garments that helped to shape them,” Jin said via email. “I hope audiences find meaning and inspiration in drawing that connection.”

Lagerfeld’s 2016 Chanel cruise collection drew from Korea in a number of ways, from the contemporary K-Pop set of the runway show to the color schemes and fabrication techniques. The patchwork of traditional Korean bojagi wrapping cloths informs prints, blouses and outerwear on display. A floral patterned, mother-of-pearl embellished ensemble is juxtaposed by Han in the exhibition with a Joseon mother-of-pearl and tortoiseshell box.

“Because of the relatively short exposure, few Western designers apply Korean motifs or traditions to their designs,” Han says. “Among the few, Lagerfeld should be acknowledged for his nuanced interest in craft, design, materiality (and) respectful references.”

Future: ‘From Seoul to San Francisco’

The exhibition’s final gallery looks to contemporary Korean designers Im Seonoc and Jung Misun. Like Jin, both designers have adapted traditional Korean themes to their own modern aesthetics. Im’s sculptural silhouettes evoke the hanbok with their simple shapes that suggest the built-upon layers of the Joseon ensemble, but she uses Neoprene and other modern fabrics. Jung’s relaxed fit and draping techniques look wholly contemporary but wink at Korean tradition with the inclusion of details like single-loop ties at the waist. The gallery will include interactive features such as transparent fashion sketches that can be layered over one another to show how ensembles are built upon each another. But it’s not just Korean fashion designers who are inspired by the past.

“There’s a movement now with young people in Korea where some of them dress in recreations of traditional clothing and get together,” Han says. “It’s almost a form of cos (costume) play, but it reflects an awareness of how these pieces have informed other design.”

It’s that conversation between tradition and modernity that makes Korean fashion so ripe for exploration.

Tony Bravo is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: tbravo@sfchronicle.com

K-Fashion Bash: Style reporter Tony Bravo will moderate a panel, “From Seoul to San Francisco,” on Korean fashion’s ongoing influence. 1:30 p.m. Nov. 19, Asian Art Museum, 200 Larkin St., S.F. www.asianart.org.