Close Friends With Choi Soo Jong and Ha Hee Ra: Lee Tae Ran's Secret Couple-Gathering Formula Is Just Two Colors
KBS award-winning actress who plays heavy character roles wears the gentlest palette off-duty—soft pink, navy, ivory, and one brown bag. Here's how 51 looks effortless at formal dinners.
- 51-year-old Best Actress for villainous role dresses like the softest version of herself: two colors only, one accent piece max, always balanced
- Her couple-dinner uniform: ivory cardigan + black skirt + brown bag—formal enough, approachable enough, photograph-proof
- The formula works because muted tones (pale pink, navy, ivory) plus one grounded accent creates intentional polish without trying

Some actresses run in actor circles so tight they do actual friend-group hangouts together. Lee Tae Ran is one of them. She met Choi Soo Jong on set in 2010, worked alongside Ha Hee Ra in 2015's Weeping Woman, and both couples now socialize regularly—she's mentioned this several times on variety shows. Lee Tae Ran married a same-age venture entrepreneur in 2014 in a famously fast timeline: they dated six months, he either committed or she told him to organize his thoughts, and he showed up days later with a ring. She's told this story multiple times.
Her career path is unusual. She worked in inventory and computer accounting for three years after high school, then attended acting academy, debuted via SBS Talent Awards in 1997. She became known as the replacement lead in Soongyoung Obstetrics & Gynecology, won KBS Best Actress twice for Yellow Handkerchief and The Notorious Seven, and played military captains in two separate dramas. In Crash Landing on You she played the severe matriarch and later got recast as the sympathetic version. Through last year and into this year she headlined The Glamorous Days as the main villain Go Seong Hee, which surpassed 20 percent viewership, and she took home 2025 KBS Best Actress. The fandom nicknamed her Gan Tae Ran. Born in 1975, she's 51 now, 170cm tall.
What does someone who won awards for playing ruthless characters actually wear at home? Four photos will explain.
**① Pink knit + striped shirt layer + white trousers, with dog**

Studio shot with her poodle: soft pink V-neck knit with a blue striped shirt pulled through and layered outside, sleeves and hem visible. Ivory trousers below. Hair pulled low into a bun. Pink and blue stripes sound like a clash but both read muted so they actually sync. The layered shirt-outside-the-knit is the entire vibe, and somehow her poodle matches her color story. Nothing like the frightening villain character from The Glamorous Days appears in this photo.
**② Black leather jacket, white shirt, phone strap**

Mirror selfie in a salon: shiny black leather jacket, white shirt buttoned all the way to the neck inside, pink phone strap. Long wavy hair flowing. Leather can read severe, but a white shirt buttoned to the collar reads conservative enough to soften it. At 51 this combination reads younger than anything from the show. Black and white only, with one pink accent doing the work.
**③ Ivory knit cardigan, black long skirt, gallery reception with flowers**

Outside a gallery holding flowers: ivory knit cardigan over a black floor-length skirt. Brown leather bag on her shoulder, sunglasses on top of her head. Bright top over dark bottom makes you taller because the eye travels up first. That one brown accessory anchors the whole neutral palette. This is the exact outfit you wear to a dinner where Choi Soo Jong and Ha Hee Ra will be there—comfortable but complete, never apologetic, photograph-ready from any angle. You can show up somewhere and look put-together without trying.
**④ White golf sweater, white padding vest, brown pleated skirt, golf course**

Golf course in whites and one brown skirt: white knit with white quilted vest on top, brown pleated skirt, white brim visor, white golf shoes. Unified white top, brown accent below. Holding a club, posing looking down—editorial moment. Someone who played North Korean army captains and ruthless CEOs is out here styling herself feminine and sporty.
Line them all up and a formula emerges. Two colors maximum, accents arrive via a layered shirt or a bag or a skirt as a single statement, and hair shifts from tied to loose depending on context. This is someone who won an award for playing a villain and then dresses like she's barely containing softness. The Glamorous Days audience remembers her as terrifying, but her real life reads the opposite. Give that ③ combo—ivory cardigan with black long skirt—a try this autumn.

"Won an award for playing a ruthless villain but dresses in soft pink knits and structured whites—her real-life palette is everything her on-screen character isn't"



