K-Pop's School Uniform Era Is Not Going Anywhere

The gakuran moment in NCT WISH's Japanese single 'BOY MEETS GIRL' — released July 15 as part of the double A-side 'YO-I-DON! / BOY MEETS GIRL' — is a genuinely sharp creative move. The gakuran is the classic Japanese male school uniform: a black stand-collar jacket with gold buttons, and in NCT WISH's version, the second button is engraved with a star. That detail is a direct nod to a Japanese graduation tradition where you give your second button to someone you love. It's the kind of costume-as-storytelling that makes a school uniform concept land harder than just throwing blazers on a group and calling it a day.

The school uniform — or 스쿨룩, school look — is arguably K-pop's most durable stage costume concept, and the reason it keeps coming back is pure visual shorthand. Classroom, uniform, chalk dust: the viewer already knows the emotional territory before a single lyric lands. First meetings, one-sided crushes, the specific ache of a hallway glance — all of it reads instantly. In a content environment built on short clips and thumbnail scrolls, that instant readability is a real strategic asset.

What's actually interesting is how the concept's emotional register has shifted decade by decade. The timeline the source maps out:

• EXO, 'Growl' (August 2013): Shirts half-open, neckties loose, aggressive choreography. The uniform as rebellion — the bad student who doesn't follow the dress code.
• BTS, 'Boy In Luv' (February 2014): Still rough-edged, the uniform framing a clumsy, intense teenage crush.
• SEVENTEEN, 'Mansae' (September 2015): The pivot point. Playful, light, the uniform now signaling a boy who likes a girl rather than one who's angry at the world.
• NCT DREAM, 'My First and Last' / 'We Young' / 'We Go Up' (2017–2018): The uniform tied to the members' actual coming-of-age, making the concept feel documentary rather than costume.
• TWS, 'Plot Twist' (January 2024): Debut single, the awkward pause before saying hello for the first time — what the source calls 'boyhood pop,' the school look at its most hesitant and earnest.

For girl groups, the school uniform has carried different weight. Girls' Generation's debut 'Into the New World' (August 2007) set the template: white shirts, pleated skirts, a clean and composed image that defined an entire era of girl-group aesthetics. GFriend leaned into it hard from their January 2015 debut 'Glass Bead' through 'Me Gustas Tu' and 'Rough,' building what became known as 'power-pure' — the image of a girl running full-speed toward something, uniform flying.

NewJeans pushed the concept somewhere more casual. In 'Ditto' (December 2022) the uniform was worn the way you'd actually wear it — moving through hallways, sitting in gyms, nothing overly styled. 'Bubble Gum' (April 2024) went further: white short-sleeve shirts and navy shorts, a summer uniform that read more like weekend clothes than a stage costume. No plaid skirt, no necktie. The school look stripped back to something that felt genuinely worn-in.

Heartstopper — Hearts2Hearts (하츠투하츠), who debuted in February 2025 — took a different angle entirely with 'FOCUS' (October 2025). Grey uniform styling, sharp synchronized choreography, and a deliberate move away from innocence toward something more composed and confident. Same uniform silhouette, completely different energy.

The uniform also solves a practical group-styling problem: matching outfits create visual unity in performance, while small variations — a different badge, a cardigan swap, a tie color — let individual members read distinctly in the same frame. For a group debuting and trying to establish member identities fast, that's a real advantage.

NCT WISH's gakuran is the most culturally specific version of the concept in recent memory — not just 'school uniform' as a vibe, but a particular garment from a particular culture, with a particular ritual embedded in the costume design. It's the school look concept doing something it hasn't quite done before: using the uniform to localize the group's identity to a specific market while keeping the emotional core (first love, youth, the weight of a small gesture) completely intact.