In this study, an empirical analysis was conducted on the use of Korean design elements in the Hanbokwave project in 2022 in order to identify the expressed fashion characteristics and define Korean style. A case study was conducted on 98 items of clothing representing 10 Hanbok designer brands, and an analysis card was developed and used that classifies the silhouette of each item in detail. The analysis showed that in addition to the traditional skirt and Jeogori, the four stages of simulakr’s image were prevalent in various fashion items such as shirts, blouses, jackets, crop tops, vests, dresses, and pants. In the composition of sleeves, many western clothing methods such as set-in-sleeve use and adjustment, hardcover buttons, and zippers were used to fuse the three-dimensional structure of western clothing and elements of traditional Hanbok to redefine it as postmodernism. It was recognized as a modern fashion, such as the trend of mixing and matching tops and bottoms, not a skirt and Jeogori set, by layering traditional clothes without hesitation or using them as a dress. As for the silhouette of the bottoms, the A-line showed a high frequency, and the prominent shape was identified as a traditional element widely used in modern Hanboks along with the element of wrinkles. This study is thought to be used as practical data for design development for the globalization of K-fashion in the future.

This study explores the possibility of creating new experimental hanbok designs by accommodating the latest world fashion trends and the changing needs of consumers, in order to attempt to overcome the limitations of traditional Korean fashion design. To do so, We analyze works by contemporary Korean fashion designers to investigate current developments in Korean fashion design and to identify areas of improvement within hanbok design. The results show that most contemporary hanbok designs repeat stereotypes of traditional hanbok with minor modifications. So there arises a need to create new hanbok designs that are clearly distinct from traditional hanbok but also maintain its core features. To develop such designs, I apply the techniques of deconstruction fashion, which allow making experiments with form, composition, and materials use to realize new aesthetics. The use of CLO 3D fashion design software also proves to be very efficient for developing experimental designs. The study results make meaningful contributions to the development of virtual clothing and 3D fashion for hanbok, particularly as metaBUS, a cloud-based research synthesis platform, is rapidly gaining ground, and reality and virtual reality are increasingly mixed in everyday life. This attempt at 3D design of hanbok is expected to trigger more creative experimentation in hanbok design.

The purpose of this study is to find an expression method for Korean fashion design that can have competitiveness in the global fashion market. For this, fashion specialists at home and abroad were interviewed, focusing on their opinions on the Korean motifs outlined in existing literature studies. First, aesthetic sense and expression characteristics that have appeared in existing studies on Korean art, Korean traditional costume, and Korean fashion were explored. As a result, they were categorized into: Modesty/plainness, freewheelingness, religion/custom, and humor/joke. During this process, Korean design motifs were extracted based on the aesthetic characteristic and expression method of aesthetic sense. According to the opinions on Korean design motifs and Korean fashion design works drawn from the interviews with fashion specialists at home and abroad, Changhomun was the favorite design motif to be utilized in Korean fashion design. The Korean specialists thought that visual design motifs were important, while the overseas specialists had more interest in abstract design motifs, which embody the background and story behind the motif. Regarding the fashion design associated with the Korean design motif, all specialists at home and abroad favored the design using ceramics and wrapping cloth. Regarding the choice of fashion image, Korean specialists chose the design utilizing Hangeul as the most Korean, while the foreign specialists chose designs reflecting the design motifs of Hangeul and Hanbok for women. The Korean specialists chose relatively more Korean images, while the foreign specialists chose more eastern images or other images than Korean images.