After 14 years of supporting roles, she finally got her leading part—and her everyday style has been a fashion reference point all along

Fourteen years into her acting career, Cha Jung Won still manages to feel fresh and current in a way that makes you think she just arrived on the scene. She started in 2012 with the film Scary Story and worked through supporting roles in dramas like She Was Pretty, Lawless Lawyer, and Special Labor Inspector Jo. But while she was stacking those credits, she was also becoming known for something else: her eye for fashion.

She got recognized for her style sense partly through her work as an MC on Follow Me, where she could talk about what she was wearing and why. Naturally, she started getting styled and noticed by the fashion world. Then in 2025, she got her first lead role in the film Crash, and suddenly everyone was paying attention to her as the main character, not just the reliable supporting player. This year she's been on tvN's Kill It: Style Creator War, showing off her fashion knowledge even more. So let's break down how she actually dresses when she's not on a film set or a fashion show stage.

Blue raglan, brown mini, and knowing when to ground a bold top

Start with a cobalt blue raglan tee—the sleeves are definitely the statement, with that sharp color contrast against the cream body. There's an 'ICONIC SINCE 2006' text printed on it, which already gives it this retro-sports vibe.

To balance something that bold on top, she grabbed a dark brown denim mini skirt and a dark brown suede belt to match, then brown suede sneakers at the bottom to tie it all together. The whole lower half is anchored in that brown tone, so even though the top is screaming, the outfit stays grounded. But then there's this white mini handbag that basically refreshes the whole thing, preventing everything from getting too heavy. She got the balance—playful top plus serious bottom—exactly right.

Black and white striped tank, white pants, and the one bag that takes it somewhere else

Black-and-white striped sleeveless top on top of white wide-leg pants—that's already clean and summery. But then she carries a black quilted chain bag—you can see the gold YSL logo pretty clearly—and suddenly that casual look turns sharp.

The genius move here is that she's wearing black flip-flops to keep it relaxed, but that bag elevated everything. It's proof that when you're going minimal on top, one investment piece at the accessory level can completely change the whole vibe. Casual becomes curated in basically one move.

Black sleeveless, blue denim, and finding the sweet spot between bare and elegant

This is the one I spent the most time studying. Black sleeveless turtleneck paired with this pretty indigo wide-leg denim, and then she's wearing black ribbon-detail ballet flats—very Parisian, very deliberate.

Here's what kills it though: the brown tortoiseshell hair band. That one element across the top of her head does what a lot of outfits need five pieces to accomplish—it pulls your eye upward and breaks the monotone of black and denim. She's also carrying this soft black leather bag that's minimal but real leather, so it reads expensive without being loud. Everything is minimal here, but the composition is so intentional that it never reads as boring. She threaded that needle perfectly.

So Cha Jung Won's style is basically about remix-ing basics in smart ways. She doesn't rely on wild prints or over-the-top details. She's working with pieces most people already have—striped tanks, black sleeveless tops, denim, neutral shoes—and then she's thinking carefully about tone-matching. Browns go with browns and whites. Blacks stay simple. When she does add color like that blue raglan, she compensates by keeping the bottom in the same family so it doesn't fly apart. Her accessories—the bags, the hair bands, the belts—are how she either leans into a vibe or subverts one. So if you want to copy what she's doing, take your basics, think about tone, and then pick one accessory to either sharpen it or soften it. That's the whole formula.