Despite its historical association with oppression, fear, and marginalized femininity, modern reinterpretations of the figure of the witch position it as a symbolic entity combining historical context and literary imagination. This study analyzes contemporary fashion designs that incorporate witch imagery, focusing on the designs' representational methods and aesthetic characteristics. It includes a literature review examining evolving perceptions of witches across different eras as well as visual and formal analyses of post-2010 fashion collections, using image and text materials from Showstudio.com and other online sources. In various realms of visual culture–including art, film and drama, advertising, product design, and halloween costumes–the image of the witch is no longer confined to traditional iconography. Instead, it is continuously reimagined, taking on expanded and multifaceted meanings that attest to its unique and evolving nature. This study identifies two primary expressive types: direct iconographic appropriation, employing traditional motifs such as pointed hats, black cloaks, and pentacles; and metaphorical suggestion, using dark tones, deconstructed silhouettes, and layered styling to imply the witch's essence. The analyses also highlight three aesthetic characteristics: empowered sensuality, expressed through sheer fabrics and dramatic makeup; supernatural mysticism, combining natural and occult symbols; and uncanny playfulness, which subverts traditional motifs through fantasy and humor. Ultimately, the witch in contemporary fashion serves as both a stylistic code and a visual signifier of cultural narrative and identity. This reimagining has contributed to the development of new aesthetic systems in fashion and broadened the visual culture and design innovation discourse.
Using the S-O-R framework, this study investigates the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer behavior in live commerce. Social presence, consumer trust, and service satisfaction were selected as key variables, and their influence on service adoption intention was empirically examined. A survey was conducted with consumers in their 20s, and data were analyzed using regression analysis and PROCESS Macro Model 6. Findings show that platform interactivity significantly enhances social presence. Source characteristics positively impact both consumer trust and service satisfaction, while content informativeness exerts a statistically significant positive influence on all three variables. Mediation analysis revealed that social presence affects adoption intention indirectly via service satisfaction and also through sequential dual mediation involving trust and satisfaction. The direct path from social presence to adoption intention was not significant, underscoring the critical role of service satisfaction in the adoption process. These results suggest that while interactivity strengthens perceived social presence, it is ultimately trust and satisfaction shaped by source credibility and content informativeness that drive adoption intention. The study contributes to understanding of consumer psychological responses in digital retail environments and offers practical implications. Enhancing content quality and strengthening source appeal are essential strategies for boosting consumer adoption of live commerce services.
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.
This study explores the temporal changes in and structural characteristics of consumer discourse on the Hanbok experience from 2015 to 2024. A total of 9,227 posts containing the keyword “Hanbok experience” were collected from Naver and Daum news, blogs, and cafes using Textom text mining software. The study period was divided into three phases: 2015–2017 (popularization), 2021–2022 (post-pandemic consumption shift), and 2023–2024 (global expansion and digital integration). Frequency and term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) analyses were conducted on key terms, followed by semantic network analysis and community detection using the Wakita–Tsurumi algorithm to compare discourse structures across periods. Additionally, quadratic assignment procedure (QAP) correlation analysis with UCINET was used to examine discourse continuity and change. Consumer discourse consistently featured keywords related to traditional tourist sites, services, and emotional experiences, with online and regional content emphasized during the pandemic. Recently, discourse evolved by integrating digital technologies, K-pop, and metaverse trends, reflecting new cultural consumption forms. Spatially, the focus shifted from Seoul to regional and modern spaces, while experience methods and events diversified beyond traditional frameworks. Network analysis showed recurring core clusters, indicating resilient key concepts despite social shocks, such as the pandemic. Hanbok experiential tourism evolved from a focus on traditional culture to one that combines modern fashion and digital technology. This study underscores the evolving role of hanbok experiences as a sustainable cultural tourism product that integrates fashion, digital technology, and immersive event design, providing valuable insights for future tourism and cultural content development.
The purpose of this study is to develop customized suit designs incorporating flower and bird painting patterns from Korean folk painting and to propose differentiation strategies for customized fashion design in Korea. The research was conducted in three stages. First, concepts and types of customization were examined through theoretical analysis, identifying the characteristics of customized design. Second, flower and bird painting patterns found in Korean folk painting were classified according to their symbolic meanings and developed into digital patterns. Third, flower and bird painting patterns from Korean folk painting were utilized in the suit designs following the principles of customized design. The results are as follows. Customizations were classified into three types: simple combination, selective adjustment, and creative assembly. The characteristics of customized design were identified as customer participation and product modularity. The symbolic meanings of the flower and bird motifs were categorized into six themes: happiness, wealth, longevity, fertility, love, and protection against evil. The resulting digitally developed patterns sought to integrate traditional cultural elements into customized fashion design. The final suit designs demonstrated hyper-individuation through modular assembly, enabling both customer participation design and product modularity. Detachable elements that modularize the jacket structure enhanced customizability while promoting sustainable and eco-conscious design practices.
This study aims to analyze the expressive characteristics and aesthetic meanings of the uncanny in digital fashion, exploring its potential as a significant aesthetic device within contemporary fashion discourse. Drawing on theoretical frameworks by Freud, Heidegger, and Lacan, the study examines how digital fashion imagery disrupts conventional aesthetic norms through uncanny visual expressions that evoke psychological tension and perceptual ambiguity. A combined methodology of comprehensive literature review and systematic empirical case analysis was employed. A total of 96 digital fashion examples were collected from platforms including Google, YouTube, Showstudio and Instagram between January 2020 and March 2025. Selection criteria specifically targeted images exhibiting morphological variability, sensory instability, and ontological uncertainty, which are the three core expressive characteristics identified through both theoretical insights and empirical analysis. The results confirmed the consistent presence of these expressive characteristics in digital fashion works and further illuminated their aesthetic implications: digital fashion reconfigures the sensory framework, blurs ontological boundaries, and expands aesthetic experience by challenging viewers’ perceptual and cognitive expectations. In conclusion, this study deepens understanding of digital fashion aesthetics by systematically examining the uncanny within digital contexts and highlights the potential of digital fashion to expand aesthetic boundaries and possibilities for expressions based on sensory experiences.
This study examined how perceived scarcity influences consumer purchase decisions in the context of preorder fashion, with a focus on the mediating role of purchase pressure and the moderating role of hedonic shopping value. A survey was conducted with 300 consumers who had previously purchased fashion products through preorder platforms in Korea. The key constructs –limited time/quantity scarcity, product scarcity, time pressure, financial pressure, purchase delay, purchase intention, and compulsive buying– were validated using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Structural equation modeling showed that perceived scarcity significantly increased purchase pressure. Specifically, limited time/quantity scarcity heightened time pressure, while product scarcity heightened both time and financial pressure. In turn, time pressure positively influenced both purchase intention and compulsive buying, whereas financial pressure led to increased purchase delay. Mediation analysis confirmed that time pressure fully mediated the relationship between limited time/quantity scarcity and both purchase intention and compulsive buying, while product scarcity exerted both direct and indirect effects, particularly on compulsive buying. A multigroup analysis further revealed that hedonic shopping value did not moderate the overall structural model but had significant effects on specific paths. Consumers with high hedonic shopping value were more sensitive to product scarcity and experienced greater purchase pressure than those with low hedonic shopping value. These findings offer valuable insights for marketers who employ scarcity tactics in preorder strategies and highlight the importance of psychological mechanisms in shaping consumer behavior. Theoretical implications and future research directions are also discussed.