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You can’t blink once in Seoul without seeing Twice—selling bottles of Pocari Sweat on TV, grinning coyly from posters in every other subway stall. Since their creation in 2015, and the explosive popularity of songs like “TT” and “Cheer Up,” the nine-member multicultural girl group has swung the K-pop pendulum back toward unadulterated sugar pop. It’s the twee hand gestures and wide-eyed innocence first made famous worldwide by bands like Girls Generation and Wonder Girls and that Twice themselves are taking overseas, as seen in a headlining set at KCon New York this year.
Yet Twice is putting their own spin on the thing. Take their latest album Twicetagram, which officially debuted this morning with a new music video for the lead single, “Likey” that racked up more than 2 million views in five hours. It is entirely made for and by the social media generation (the girls range from 18 to 22 in age), named after the Instagram account they use to communicate with more than 3 million followers. Rather than album art or other promotional fare, they share cute, casual selfies, often enhanced by heart stickers and the cat-ear Snow filter. “On set, in the waiting room, every moment we get, we are constantly taking photos and videos to share with our fans,” they revealed as a group. The key is sheer quantity (Nayeon and Chaeyoung shoot the most) which then, they humbly admit, leads to quality: “If we take a ton of them, a lot of pretty ones are sure to come out, no?”
To better recall their feed, much of “Likey”was shot on iPhones and in the at times grainy footage, Twice’s take on K-pop style shines brighter. They tread firmly in ’90s schoolgirl nostalgia—of the sort hugely popular on Instagram and on the street in Seoul—but laid in with the innocence is a bit of edge. Think cut-off shorts and cropped velvet tank tops, or little plaid dresses grounded by black combat boots. “Our vibe is bright and healthy, so we do pick colorful clothes to match that,” explains Nayeon. Color does often come to the forefront—a blue Windbreaker cinched with a pink Stussy belt, then topped with a fuzzy pink Alexander Wang beanie from Fall 2016—but there are a few silhouettes in regular rotation, too. “Glasses or hats, gym clothes, and Spris sneakers, we wear a lot,” says Jeongyeon. “And when we wear shorts, we always add socks that pop.”
All that said, there is a single item that defines Twice and that every member can’t live without. “Chokers!” says Sana. “At shows and just day-to-day, we tend to wear a lot of shoulder-baring pieces, so we like to emphasize that with a choker—usually a hint of rose gold, as that’s our favorite color.” The ’90s staple has been trending for some time now, but its adoption by Twice makes perfect sense. It is sweet and girlish, but with a knowing bit of bite. Leveraging that will only keep the fans coming.
