The aim of this study is to enhance understanding of government and association-led fashion support programs through in-depth interviews with program managers, identifying areas for improvement. A phenomenological approach, which explores the essence of a particular phenomenon as it manifests in human life to obtain an in-depth understanding of how individuals who have experienced the phenomenon perceive it and its meanings, is adopted. Evaluation criteria for receipt of supports included qualitative factors such as design, branding, product viability, market potential, and completeness, assessed by a panel of academics, buyers, stylists, media critics, distribution experts, press personnel, and designers. Some support programs provided stage-specific assistance based on revenue or business duration, while others required brands at vastly different stages—for example, in their fifth year or over twenty years since launch-to compete within the same program. Challenges faced by designer brands included limited budgets, timing constraints, poor inter-agency communication, and administrative burdens. Suggested improvements involved engaging fashion industry experts in policy planning, integrating export data from overseas production, simplifying documentation, revising regulations, fostering cross-industry collaboration, and establishing fashion venture funds to support competitive brands and accelerate growth. Future plans include expanding support through cultural content and material innovation to boost global recognition of Korean fashion brands. Findings indicate that strategies for vitalizing emerging Korean fashion designers include cross-industry collaboration, expert-led policy development, securing specialized investment funds, and elevating Seoul Fashion Week’s significance as a global platform to increase brand visibility and facilitate domestic and international orders.

This study explores the operational challenges of emerging fashion designers in South Korea through in-depth interviews. The findings reveal significant challenges across key components of brand operation: product and image development, production, sales, promotion, and finance. Designers sought to express original narratives through their collections each season but encounter significant obstacles, such as limited production capacity, lack of marketing resources, and financial instability. Small order volumes hinder securing manufacturers, forcing designers to reinvest most revenue into sample development, with little left for labor or growth. Based on these insights, the study proposes three strategies to strengthen designer brand growth. First, it is necessary to ensure the efficient operation of numerous institutions and associations in Korea through systematic and continuous support at each stage of their programs. Each institution and association should independently run their own separate support programs to improve their expertise, optimizing the government’s limited budget. Second, adopting an agency model for emerging fashion designers, similar to entertainment agencies, can be effective. In this model, agency-affiliated celebrities act as muses for clothing lines and merchandise, enhancing sales via strategic promotion and marketing while encouraging mutual growth through revenue sharing. Third, the Korean fashion designer industry’s distribution structure needs reform.

This study aims to identify the diverse types and characteristics of signatures that appear in contemporary fashion while primarily brand focusing on emerging Korean designer brands. To this end, qualitative content analysis using news articles and in-depth interviews with 15 emerging Korean designers were conducted. The news article analysis revealed six types of signatures: design based on formative sensibility expression, strategically constructed designer/brand identity, brand practices carried by cultural and spatial experiences, craftsmanship and custom production, contemporary reinterpretation of traditional designs, and text-based visual symbolic systems. The result of the in-depth interviews identified five types of signatures among emerging Korean designer brands: design expressions evolving from designer and brand identity, production emphasizing practicality and craftmanship, brand experiences based on spaces, visual narrative symbolism, and limited-edition items. Unlike established fashion brands that focus on fixed visual or textual elements through strategic planning by the established fashion brands, emerging Korean designer brands gradually and dynamically develop signatures which are grounded in personal philosophy, ethical values, and ongoing interaction with consumers. The findings of this study imply that the signatures of emerging Korean designer brands are not merely aesthetic repetitions, but are instead representations of evolving and situated expressions that interacts with and responds to socio-cultural changes and contexts.

Contemporary fashion research has paid increasing attention to the sublimity in the context of postmodernism. Sublimity is considered essential in contemporary fashion design as it arouses complex emotions which verbal expression cannot describe. Therefore, contemporary fashion designs need to be interpreted in terms of the sublimity. Through a detailed review of literature, the present study discusses Kantian and Lyotardian sublimity as main theories representing conventional and cotemporary concepts of sublimity. This paper selected five Korean fashion designers who won the prize of Samsung Design Fund from 2006 to 2019 and actively introduce their works every year. Images were collected to analyze their designs introduced from 2018 S/S to 2019F/W at their website. In addition, formative and color characteristics were analyzed to identify the changing features of s sublimity. Major findings of analyses are as follows. First, all designers’ collections reflected both male and female sublimity with the respect to its formative characteristics. Color characteristics of sublimity indicated that Jeong, Wook Jun’s collections represented features of male sublimity and other designers works showed elements of female sublimity. Essentially, the typical contemporary concept of the sublimity was found in the designs of Seo, Hye In. Consequently, female sublimity is more inclusive than male sublimity, while being opened to otherness.

Clothing, as a signsystem, implies many different meanings according to different circumstances. Korean fashion designers’ designs also imply various meanings. Therefore, the purpose of this study is the exploration of Korean fashion designers’ design characteristics through Greimas’ Semiotic Square. As sublimity is the most representative characteristic of modern fashion design, this study discusses the in-depth aesthetic meaning innated in Korean fashion design through the semiotic square proposed by Greimas. To fulfill this goal, Korean fashion designers were sought after on the internet; consequently, four Korean designers became subjects for the analysis. Their collections were analyzed according to predefined criteria adopted and modified from previous studies. Sublimity characteristics were applied to Greimas’ and Floch’s semiotic squares for further interpretation. Results of the study indicate that sublimity, which is typically found in Korean fashion designs, varies depending on different points of view. In terms of culture, this study discovered a relationship of contrariety between sublimity and beauty. This finding opposes the theory of Greimas’ semiotic square, in which sublimity stands as a contradictory of the technician. According to the culture industry theory, suggested by Held, the technician is an implication of sublimity. Through a technician, sublimity may pose as a complementarity or implication of beauty. Finally, sublimity might substitute beauty as well; furthermore, it constitutes practical valorization in the semiotic square of Floch. Moreover, the artist present as a ludic valorization stands as a contradictory, while art, serving as a utopian valorization, enacts as a contrary.

With the increased importance of design creativity in global fashion marketplaces, there have arisen numerous promotional strategies for new fashion designers in Korea, yet little research has been done on this subject. This study examines the new fashion design promotion policies in Korea and their effects from the designer's perspective. First, we analyzed the contents of twenty-one strategies from thirteen organizations regarding the types of support from the strategies. As a result, four distinct types are identified: new designer recognition; information and consulting support; brand incubating; and marketing support. Next, we performed in-depth one-on-one interviews with eleven designers who had been awarded from one or more of the fashion design incubation policies. The results reveal that the incubating policies' cash rewards and space support are found to be most effective. In terms of the revised fashion and brand consulting policy, “brand operation” had an influence. In addition, fashion the new brand advertisement and marketing policy had positively influenced the “brand development.” However, throughout the interview, designers note that the quality of education and information provisions need some improvement. Furthermore, the designers indicate the lack of supervision and professionalism from the marketing departments. Based on this content, this study emphasizes the necessity of an effective fashion design promotion policy, and strategic and consistent support for the whole fashion promotion team. At the minimum, an integrated and united supervision by the organization is necessary and should be taken into consideration.