The colored lapel around your Do Bok!

[FangPwnsAll7]

When you advance from belts, you can usually get a colored lapel on your Do Bok if you reach a certain rank. In Tang Soo Do, the first belts are, in order: White belt, yellow belt, orange belt, orange belt with a green stripe. Then it goes to green but you have to give your sensei your do gi and they do it for you. You can usually get it back in a week.

When doing this, my school gives a temporary "beginner" gi.

The belts ranging from white to orange with a green stripe are usually seen as 'white belts' still, since they haven't completely developed the meaning of the form itself yet.

You can have a green lapel with a green belt, and a red lapel with a red belt.

For Black Belts you get it sewn all around your gi.

Your thoughts on this?

[darksoul]

In my style we don't do that. Pre-purple belt wear white gi's and graduate to a black gi at purple. Besides that, we do not add anything else to the gi. Patches, sure, but that's mostly personal touches.

We can mix gi colours at 2nd Dan (or 1st Dan if you are an instructor.)

2nd Dan - White top, black pants

3rd Dan - Black top, white pants

4th Dan - Red top black pants

5th Dan+ - Full Red, Red Top and White Pants, Red Top and Black pants with Red Stripes

[DWx]

When you advance from belts, you can usually get a colored lapel on your Do Bok if you reach a certain rank. In Tang Soo Do, the first belts are, in order: White belt, yellow belt, orange belt, orange belt with a green stripe. Then it goes to green but you have to give your sensei your do gi and they do it for you. You can usually get it back in a week.

When doing this, my school gives a temporary "beginner" gi.

I think this only happens in Tang Soo Do and related styles.

In ITF TKD blackbelts have black edging around the bottom of their dobok and when you're 4th dan and up and an instructor you can have black stripes down the arms and legs.

[Dobbersky]

When you advance from belts, you can usually get a colored lapel on your Do Bok if you reach a certain rank. In Tang Soo Do, the first belts are, in order: White belt, yellow belt, orange belt, orange belt with a green stripe. Then it goes to green but you have to give your sensei your do gi and they do it for you. You can usually get it back in a week.

When doing this, my school gives a temporary "beginner" gi.

I think this only happens in Tang Soo Do and related styles.

In ITF TKD blackbelts have black edging around the bottom of their dobok and when you're 4th dan and up and an instructor you can have black stripes down the arms and legs.

Yeah its definately a Korean Based Arts thing, seen it in Tang Soo Do, Hapkido, TaeKwon Do and Choi Kwan Do (although the CKD people love their "special Doboks too" seen a few other Korean based styles that I can't think of the name of that even have Cravates and Gold "Trim" around their Doboks.

I wonder if it has anything to do with Korean Tradtional dress, anyone able to add?

[FangPwnsAll7]

I see some schools that do this, but not many. They don't do the gold trim thing in TSD, I don't think.

[DWx]

Yeah its definately a Korean Based Arts thing, seen it in Tang Soo Do, Hapkido, TaeKwon Do and Choi Kwan Do (although the CKD people love their "special Doboks too" seen a few other Korean based styles that I can't think of the name of that even have Cravates and Gold "Trim" around their Doboks.

Are you thinking of Kuk Sool Won? I think they wear the cravates on special occasions, Wikipedia says this is modelled after ancient Korean generals.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kuk_Sool_Won#Uniforms

http://www.kuksoolwon.com/site/news/generals-uniform-changes

I wonder if it has anything to do with Korean Tradtional dress, anyone able to add?

The Taekwon-Do uniform, and this might also be true for other Korean styles, is supposed to be modelled after the hanbok, the traditional Korean dress. They often have coloured collars. I don't know if and what symbolism there is behind the choice of colours or why the collar is coloured.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanbok

[bushido_man96]

In my organization, instructors get a solid stripe around the collar on the dobok.

[evergrey]

I am terrible at sewing and actually have commissioned my Sensei's mom to shorten my dogi sleeves for me, lol! Glad I don't have to do all that, or ask Sensei to!

[FangPwnsAll7]

The instructor thinks I'm the one who sewed the patch on my gi, but my mom actually did it. I really don't know how to sew either.

[vantheman]

At my school, its white gi until purple belt (about 15 months), and a black gi for purple and beyond. Once someone gets their black belt, they get a blue gi (it was originally a black gi with a yellow lapel, but that has since changed) Instructors and masters get a blue gi with black sleeves.