Lovely Runner Drama Outfit Ideas for Women’s Everyday Wear: Copy Im Sol’s Style with Real Korean Brands

The second the Lovely Runner (달리기 러너) finale aired on tvN, Korean fashion communities did not wait around to process their feelings — they went straight to 29CM and started screenshotting outfits. Im Sol’s wardrobe hit something specific, something that generic “K-drama fashion roundups” never quite capture. This is an attempt to actually decode it.

These are real lovely runner drama outfit ideas for women everyday wear — grounded in Korean brand data, Naver community analysis, and the cultural concept that makes this aesthetic mean something beyond just pretty clothes.

Why Im Sol’s Style Became a Fashion Moment in Korea

Im Sol, played by Kim Hye-yoon, exists across two timelines in Lovely Runner: a 1990s high school setting and the present day. That dual structure gave the drama’s costume team an unusual creative canvas. The result is a wardrobe that layers 90s Korean nostalgia over contemporary feminine dressing in a way that felt genuinely fresh.

After the drama aired in spring 2024, searches for ‘임솔 패션’ spiked sharply on Naver. The Instagram hashtag #러블리러너패션 had accumulated over 200,000 posts by mid-2024, and Naver Cafe fashion communities were flooded with threads asking “where is this cardigan from?” within days of each episode dropping.

The reason this landed so hard with Korean women aged 18–30 comes down to one word: 청순 (cheongsun). Translated loosely as “pure and innocent,” cheongsun in fashion means effortlessly feminine — soft fabrics, gentle colors, nothing aggressive or attention-grabbing. It’s a deeply Korean aesthetic ideal, and it’s not the same as the Western “clean girl” trend, even though both involve minimal fuss.

Clean girl is minimalist, often cool-toned, sometimes bordering on clinical. 청순 룩 (cheongsun look) is warmer, softer, and intentionally delicate — it reads like someone who woke up looking like a film still from a quiet afternoon scene. Where clean girl reaches for sharp lines and neutral function, cheongsun reaches for lace collars, loose cardigans, and the kind of floral print that looks like it was picked, not designed. The emotional register is completely different.

Lovely Runner’s costume team built Im Sol’s entire wardrobe inside that register, and Korean women recognized it immediately as the 순수한 사랑 (pure love) aesthetic made visible — which is exactly why the drama’s fashion became its own cultural conversation.

The 5 Core Outfit Formulas from Lovely Runner You Can Wear Daily

Forget cataloguing every single outfit from the show. These five formulas are the ones Korean fashion communities actually recreated — the wearable, daily-life versions that translate outside the drama’s production design.

Formula 1: Oversized Band Tee + Midi Pleated Skirt

This is Im Sol’s most-discussed casual look, and it works because of a very specific Korean silhouette logic. Pairing a relaxed, slightly-too-big top with a longer, structured skirt creates what Korean stylists describe as a ‘날씬해 보이는데 안 노력한 것 같은’ (looks slim but doesn’t seem to be trying) effect. The volume is balanced, the waist is implied rather than cinched, and it reads as effortless rather than constructed.

For the tee, look at 유니폼브릿지 (Uniform Bridge) — their vintage-washed graphic tees run approximately ₩49,000–₩65,000 (~$36–$48 USD) on 29CM and have the right weight and drape. For the skirt, 스타일난다 (Style Nanda) carries pleated midi skirts in dusty rose and cream for around ₩45,000–₩59,000 (~$33–$43 USD). YesStyle carries comparable pleated midi skirts from Korean indie labels at $18–$28 USD if budget is a priority.

Formula 2: Cream/Ivory Knit Cardigan + Light-Wash Straight Jeans

Korean fashion communities named this the ‘after-school softness’ look — and the key styling detail that makes it read Im Sol and not just generic casual is the shoe choice. Korean women pair this with loafers, not sneakers. Specifically, a rounded-toe loafer in camel or black keeps the softness intact; a chunky sneaker shifts the entire vibe toward streetwear and loses the cheongsun register entirely.

로맨틱크라운 (Romantic Crown) — one of the brands Korean fashion communities identified as closest to the drama’s sourcing — sells a cream ribbed cardigan at approximately ₩69,000 (~$50 USD) on 29CM. YesStyle equivalent cardigans from Korean brands hover around $22–$30 USD with a 2–3 week shipping window.

Formula 3: Floral Baby-Collar Blouse + Wide-Leg Trousers

This is from Im Sol’s present-day timeline, and it’s the most directly shoppable formula right now. The baby collar (아기 카라) detail is a cheongsun staple — it frames the face softly and adds a deliberate sweetness that Korean styling relies on for this aesthetic. Watch episode 6 for the clearest on-screen reference: the blouse-and-trousers pairing appears during the café scenes and generated significant community discussion almost immediately after airing.

The styling logic here is about intentional contrast — the blouse is delicate and feminine, so the trousers need to be relaxed and slightly structured to ground the look. Wide-leg trousers in off-white, oatmeal, or sage work; anything too tailored tips the balance toward office wear and away from the soft-casual register Im Sol occupies in those scenes.

마뗑킴 (Matin Kim) sells a floral baby-collar blouse at approximately ₩89,000 (~$65 USD) on 29CM, and it is genuinely close to what appears on screen. 로맨틱크라운 (Romantic Crown) also carries floral collar pieces in the same price tier. These are not dupes — they are the actual brands Korean communities traced back to the costume sourcing. For wide-leg trousers, 스타일난다 (Style Nanda) offers linen-blend options around ₩55,000–₩69,000 (~$40–$50 USD). YesStyle stocks Korean-brand baby-collar blouses in the $20–$32 USD range, though the fabric quality tends to read lighter than the 29CM originals.

Formula 4: Pastel Hoodie + Bike Shorts Under a Flowy Skirt

This layered athleisure-meets-feminine combination is uniquely Korean and often confuses international audiences on first encounter. It comes primarily from Im Sol’s 90s high school timeline, where the costume team leaned into the era’s Korean campus fashion — a period when sportswear and feminine silhouettes coexisted without tension in everyday dressing.

The styling logic is counterintuitive but deliberate: the bike shorts underneath the skirt add visual structure and a sporty undertone that stops the look from becoming too soft. The hoodie, kept in a washed pastel — think faded lavender, dusty peach, or pale mint — ties both elements together. Korean Naver fashion communities specifically called out this layering as ‘여성스럽지만 활동적인’ (feminine but active), which is exactly the balance the drama’s costume design was chasing for the younger Im Sol.

널디 (Nerdy) carries washed-pastel hoodies at approximately ₩59,000–₩79,000 (~$43–$58 USD) on 29CM — the weight and color palette land closest to the on-screen versions. For the flowy skirt layer, 스타일난다 (Style Nanda) has chiffon and gauze midi skirts in the right softness range at around ₩39,000–₩55,000 (~$28–$40 USD). YesStyle carries Korean-brand pastel hoodies starting around $18–$26 USD, and the bike-shorts-under-skirt layering pieces are easy to source there separately at low cost.

Formula 5: White Lace-Trim Slip Dress + Chunky Knit Cardigan

This is the most purely cheongsun formula in the entire drama, and the one Korean fashion communities referenced most when discussing the ‘순수한 사랑’ aesthetic made wearable. It appears across both timelines — a testament to how effectively the costume team made one core aesthetic thread through the show’s entire visual identity.

The tension that makes this formula work is deliberate contrast in weight: the slip dress is light and delicate, the cardigan is oversized and substantial. Korean stylists consistently describe this pairing as ‘무거운 가벼움’ — heavy lightness — a combination that feels grounded without losing its softness. The lace trim on the dress does significant work here; without it, the formula tips into minimalism and loses the cheongsun register. Keep the cardigan chunky, keep the hem of the dress peeking below it, and the whole look holds.

마뗑킴 (Matin Kim) carries lace-trim slip dresses at approximately ₩99,000–₩119,000 (~$72–$87 USD) on 29CM, and several Naver community threads pointed to Matin Kim specifically when tracing this look’s sourcing. For the cardigan, 로맨틱크라운 (Romantic Crown) chunky knit options sit around ₩79,000–₩95,000 (~$58–$70 USD). YesStyle stocks lace slip dresses in the $16–$28 USD range with a solid selection of Korean indie labels — pair with any Korean-brand chunky knit cardigan on the same site to keep the aesthetic cohesive.

A Note for International Shoppers

If 29CM shipping to your country isn’t straightforward, YesStyle is the most reliable aggregator for Korean indie brand pieces outside Korea. Expect a 2–3 week shipping window, slightly lighter fabric weights than the Korean originals, and prices that run roughly 40–60% lower than 29CM equivalents. For the formulas above, prioritize getting the silhouette and color palette right — the cheongsun aesthetic is more forgiving of fabric substitutions than it is of proportion mistakes.

Alternatively, Korean brands like Style Nanda and Matin Kim ship internationally directly from their own websites, which closes the quality gap significantly if you’re willing to pay closer to Korean retail pricing.

Why the ‘순수한 사랑’ Aesthetic Still Hits in 2024

It would be easy to read Im Sol’s wardrobe as nostalgia — and partly, that’s accurate. The 90s references, the campus softness, the intentional delicacy all carry a backward-looking warmth. But the reason this aesthetic landed with Korean women in 2024 rather than reading as costume isn’t just the drama’s execution. It’s timing.

Korean fashion in 2024 has been in active conversation with what femininity means post-pandemic — after years of streetwear dominance, oversized silhouettes, and the kind of fashion that keeps its emotional distance. Cheongsun is a direct counterpoint to that: it asks for softness, for warmth, for dressing as a form of gentle self-expression rather than armoring up or blending in. That’s not a regression. It’s a deliberate choice, which is exactly what makes it feel current.

Im Sol’s style works as everyday wear because it never demands effort that shows. The formulas above are built for real mornings — not editorial shoots — and that’s precisely why Korean fashion communities gravitated toward them over the drama’s more elaborate production pieces. Wearing this aesthetic carries a quiet intention: you’re not trying to be seen so much as you’re choosing to feel like yourself. That’s what 순수한 사랑 looks like when it leaves the screen and walks out the door.