Kim Jong Un Bans Citizens Ripping Off His Stylish Leather Coats

best car insurance - #1:Kim Jong Un Bans Citizens Ripping Off His Stylish Leather Coats 

SEOUL, South Korea—Follow the leader on whatever he says—just don’t imitate his dress style. That’s the lesson to be drawn from reports that North Korean authorities are busy ordering people to stop wearing discount leather jackets that look like the high-end coats that Kim Jong Un has been photographed wearing while cheering on missile tests and ordering his people to work harder to overcome the county’s grave economic difficulties.
While most of North Korea’s 25 million citizens cannot afford more than the simplest garb, leather jackets reminiscent of the country’s all-powerful dictator have become the go-to fashion in the capital of Pyongyang and other cities where members of the upper crust of military officers, government officials and members of the ruling Workers’ Party live and work.
“Authorities in North Korea are cracking down on residents wearing leather trench coats,” Radio Free Asia, a U.S.government-funded news operation with extensive sources in North Korea, is reporting. They’re saying “it is disrespectful to emulate the fashion choices of the country’s leader.”
The crackdown comes as Kim approaches the tenth anniversary since he assumed power after the death of his long-ruling father, Kim Jong Il, on December 17, 2011. Since then he's been photographed in fashionable suits, sports shirts and headgear, often worn only once and never seen again. Nothing, however, has caught the imagination of North Koreans so much as the iconic long leather coats that make him at once a macho figure, sporting and prosperous, as well as a fashion leader.
The identity of Kim Jong Un’s tailoring staff—presumably there’s more than one tailor—has never been revealed, but their style has been copied everywhere in North Korea, made rather coarsely at factories in the country or fabricated in China and smuggled across the Yalu or Tumen River borders.
“Leather trench coats became popular in 2019 after Kim appeared on TV wearing one,” RFA reported. “At first, real leather coats imported from China were snapped up by rich people who could afford them, but soon garment makers began to import fake leather to make them domestically.”
The high fashion trend reached an apotheosis of sorts at the military parade of the 8th Party Congress last January when Kim and assorted toadies on the reviewing stand were all wearing look-alike leather coats. Even kid sister Kim Yo Jong was swathed in one, setting a trend that caught on among well-to-do women as well as men.
It all got a bit much, however, when hundreds of lower-ranking types were seen wearing shoddy copies. Who do they think they are? Some felt it gave the impression they were almost mocking the ruling elite. It was as though suddenly the less fortunate had found a way to satirize their leaders without getting sent to prison or even tortured and executed.
“To put a stop to the cheap imitations, and the cheap imitators who wear them,” said RFA, “literal fashion police patrol the streets to confiscate the jackets from sellers and citizens sporting the look.”

No doubt one reason for the extreme image sensitivity is that Kim Jong Un has been the target of much speculation as his weight descended from over 300lbs to an estimated 260lbs in recent months.