In the context of a globalized society where diversity, equity, and inclusion (DE&I) have emerged as pivotal values, the fashion industry is undergoing scrutiny for its practices related to body DE&I. This study examines the nature of the discourse surrounding body DE&I within the fashion industry, focusing on how such discussions are shaped, disseminated, and manifested in both the industry and broader society. Critical discourse analysis is applied by utilizing, content from the New York Times and leveraging Fairclough’s analytical framework encompassing textual, discursive, and social practices. The findings indicate that the New York Times emphasizes diversity, with a significant focus on the shapes and sizes of women’s bodies, developing a narrative centered around women’s bodies through visible and representative domains. The analysis suggests conflicted discourse, with prevailing critiques against the fashion industry’s standardization of beauty and superficial inclusivity efforts. Moreover, the industry’s adaptation to social demands for body DE&I is observed as sporadic, often leveraging non-normative bodies as a marketing strategy rather than genuinely embracing diversity. This study highlights the importance of continuous, in-depth discourse and social practices regarding DE&I within the fashion industry, as well as the need for systemic changes and policies that genuinely reflect societal demands for inclusivity. The findings provide a foundation for future investigations into the multifaceted relationship between fashion discourse, DE&I, and social practices, advocating for a more inclusive and critically aware fashion industry.

Comprehending the prevailing ideals of the body within a specific era requires grasping the intricate interplay between social phenomena and the evolution of clothing. Accordingly, this study investigates the distinctive facets of the perception of the Neo-Confucian body as reflected in men’s dress during the Joseon Dynasty. We examine a comprehensive body of scholarship, literature, and historical records concerning the body and dress. Additionally, we also employ a framework developed by M. Y. Kim, which categorizes the Neo-Confucian body in three ways: as the natural body, the cultural body, and the body as a fully-realized moral subject. Our findings unveil three crucial insights: firstly, guided by Neo-Confucian discourse positing appearance as a manifestation of innate energy (氣), men’s dress was deliberately designed to demarcate stylistic distinctions in women’s dress; secondly, the Chinese gwan (冠) was employed as a tool of self-cultivation (修身) to symbolize the legitimacy of Joseon’s Neo-Confucian governance; and thirdly, sim-ui (深衣), a philosophical emblem of Confucianism extensively represented across through an intensified exploration of historical sources, served as a means to consolidate the political standing of the Neo-Confucian faction. As a consequence of these factors, the attire of noble men conferred upon them both sexual and moral ascendancy as political entities; men’s dress became a visual manifestation of the legitimacy of their power, thus embodying Neo-Confucian ideals. This study carries significance by applying a discourse analysis approach to Korean dress research and elucidating the factors underlying the development of men’s dress during the Joseon Dynasty.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the obligatory wearing of masks has led to increased consumer demand and the diversification of mask design. Accordingly, it is necessary to understand the inner meaning and characteristics of masks in the pandemic situation. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to analyze the characteristics of fashionable masks and their new cultural meaning under the COVID-19 pandemic. This research is based on literature review and empirical research. Drawing on an investigation of the historical evolution of masks and their transition under the pandemic (exhibiting differences in mask culture among countries and regions), this study analyzed 54 distinctive fashion masks designed by fashion brands and influencers that appeared from January 2020 to January 2021. The characteristics of fashion masks identified under the influence of the pandemic are as follows: Message delivery on political issues and human rights; psychological defense and expression of individuality; and conspicuous display via luxurious materials and luxury brand logos; moreover, the design of the mask uses the same material, color, pattern, decoration, and other methods as clothing to achieve the overall style. Over the course of the pandemic (and even in post-pandemic lifestyle), fashion masks are becoming more diversified conveying new social and cultural meanings.

The aim of this study is to investigate morphological characteristics of Hanbok images in children’s books and propose a direction for the modernization and globalization of traditional culture. This study examines 43 children’s books by contemporary foreign illustrators that contain Hanbok illustrations and analyzes them from postcolonial perspective. The results include the following three attributes: first, the transformation of clothing structure and donning method that confuse fundamentals of Korean costume; second, the Westernization of silhouette drawing with tailored garments analogous to Western dress; and third, extension to East Asian dress that represents Hanbok mixed with Chinese or Japanese costume and use what is considered to be the East Asian patterns instead of Korean traditional ones. These attributes are based on Eurocentrism, which expresses and interprets the East from the Western view point with continuously distorted image of the East. Korean illustrators also painted Hanbok incorrectly, which could influence foreign illustrators. Nevertheless, traditional dress illustrated in various ways has artistic value and has a popular global impression. Further, it enables children to experience either own or other cultures through dress illustrations. Thus, the outsider requires an in-depth understanding of other cultures, while the insider needs a critical perception of their own culture as described by others while revisiting the original resources. Furthermore, we suggest follow-up research on Hanbok for subsequent generations; publishing translated books on various topics, producing and disseminating a primer for diverse readers, and essentially receiving counsel from experts.

The aim of this study is to investigate fashion activism that supports sustainability by pursuing social transformation through social media. This is achieved by publicizing the environmental and labor problems of the fashion industry. For this study, a literary survey and netnography were conducted from January 2017 to November 2020. We classified and analyzed environmental and labor issues that could be considered fashion activism on social media. The results are as follows. First, movements for conscious consumption appeared as #haulternative, #fashionourfuture, #SecondHandSeptember, and #wornwear projects. These movements are concerned with buying used goods, re-dressing clothes owned by individuals, and transforming and wearing them with new methods. Second, activism for environmental protection includes #fashionOnclimate by Global Fashion Agenda and Sustainable Fashion Matterz’ #Watermatterz. These movements are directly involved in learning about the seriousness of environmental destruction caused by the fashion industry and participating in environmental protection with critical awareness. Third, the #whomademyclothes and the Clean Clothes Campaign are activism for improving the working environment, and are playing a role in publicizing labor issues by informing the general public about inadequate working conditions linked to the fashion industry. Thus, fashion activism on social media examined in this study can contribute to visualizing chronic problems that hinder sustainable development within the fashion industry.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the characteristics of the fashion narrative from the commercial and artistic viewpoints by identifying and evaluating the attributes of the fashion narrative and analyzing the fashion narrative focusing on various cases according to fashion media. Louis Vuitton, a brand of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy (LVMH) group that operates the entire fashion community platform, is recognized as an influential luxury company with enormous capital and capabilities. This study targeted Louis Vuitton to examine the fashion narrative. The common results of Louis Vuitton’s fashion narrative according to the communication platform are as follows. First, it emphasizes well-designed craftsmanship and artistry to convey the value and meaning of the brand. Second, it expresses the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie using traveling for finding life purpose, nature, and freedom as common denominators. Louis Vuitton connects, shares, and engages with customers by crossing the communication platform and trying multi-sensory changes based on the fashion narrative of the ‘artification’ message encompassing craftsmanship, innovation, and travel. The fashion narrative of Louis Vuitton applies tools (e.g., design, direction, stage, and props) differently according to the nature of media. In other words, the fashion narrative in the form of transmedia storytelling is a marketing communication strategy that indicates the representation means and direction of a brand’s goals by remediating the brand narrative in various ways through the communication platform.

The purpose of this study was to review and establish the two concepts of art film and artistic expression in Prada fashion films, through a literature review of domestic and international case studies, as a form of luxury branded content, Prada fashion films are considered to artistic film genre. For the study, aesthetic expression in art films as discussed in the previous research was divided into four types. The study method was to review fashion / art films from the founding of YouTube, specially, works that used digital images from Thunder Perfect Mind, which was introduced in Prada in 2005, to Nylon Farm in 2018, stylistic features were searched by film. In addition, for this study, fashion film was analyzed based on the typology of art films. The following conclusions regarding artistic expression were drawn from this study : First, the Prada fashion films represent a transition to advanced art through a conceptual approach. Second, the causal relationships personality psychology can be cited through the disturbed and fragmented narrative lines. Third, the films help people identity Prada’s aesthetics by humanizing the luxury brand. Fourth, the films are a feature of serialization.

The body is an important object of costume expression, and the reflection of the aesthetics of the body according to age, culture, individual or group determines the form of the costume. In particular, British artist Leigh Bowery provided many designers and celebrities with original design ideas. Leigh Bowery’s costumes are related to the carnival concept. Thus, this study analyzed Leigh Bowery’s life and works, and examined Michael Bakhtin’s grotesque carnivalesque theory. Based on Bakhtin’s carnival theory around 100 works by Leigh Bowery, in the form of YouTube videos and DVD clips were analyzed in this study. The results of the analysis Leigh Bowery’s body and costume research are as follows. First, this study can define fetishism as a characteristic of costumes such as body suits, harnesses, high-heeled boots, and stockings, that stress the body. Second, the character of the body is not expressed as that of an idealized body, but the fat and ugly aspect are revealed. Third, Leigh Bowery’s costumes are characterized by ambiguity. The costumes blur the boundaries between women and men. Fourth, common sense, combined with normal and bizarre, brings out a strong sense of carnival humor with ridiculousness arising from the gap between reality and reality. His performance has had a significant impact on victims of discrimination or unequal treatment in sexual, racial, and age-related situations. This study should inspire many designers through the study of Leigh Bowery’s body expression and dress, but it also introduces fashion icons that are not well known in Korea.

The purpose of this study is to review and establish the three concepts of upcycling, zero-waste fashion design, and regional sustainability through a review of domestic and international case studies. Furthermore, it will provide the theoretical basis for using upcycling as a regional sustainability practice to create zero-waste fashion design. To conduct an empirical study, we systematized the stages of the survey on waste resources in Changsin-dong, the sourcing and utilization of waste resources, the design-planning stage, and the co-production with pattern and sewing masters as a suggested practice for regional sustainability. Through this study, we propose the possibility of regional sustainability by developing and sharing the method of zero-waste fashion design. The conclusion of the study as follows: First, upcycling fashion designs can be extended to a regional sustainability practice by taking the characteristics of social design into account. Second, by providing a design development process and methodology suitable for regional sustainability application, it is helpful to revitalize regional upcycling fashion brands and communities by providing data for upcycled fashion branding. Third, as part of the revitalization project for the Changshin and Soongin areas that started in 2014, using the region’s economic, cultural, and environmental characteristics to make and sell high-value, upcycled fashion products will contribute to social and economic achievements and aid in solving regional problems.

As fashion has concentrated increasingly on inner values, it has become more directly connected with human life and society. This study analyzed anti-fashion, a movement that resists mainstream society and culture, which it views as causing inner conflicts such as competition, mammonism, consumerism, and egoism by fixating solely on the pursuit of growth and improvement. The study examined Kinfolk, an independent lifestyle magazine, to determine the essential values and principles that comprise this movement’s refusal of mainstream modern society. The analysis of Kinfolk identified the following characteristics of, the Kinfolk lifestyle: essentialism, nature-friendliness, retro sensibilities, socio-ethical awareness, and diversity. Essentialism refers to the pursuit of essence, brevity, innovation based on tradition and slow life. Nature-friendliness involves communion with nature and humanity, animal-friendliness, de-industrialization, de-urbanization, and nomadic behavior. The components of the retro sensibility include nostalgia, and interests in vintage culture, and handcrafts. Diversity encompasses commonplaceness, various subcultures, agelessness, genderlessness, acceptance of other cultures, and new understanding. The analysis identified the tendencies of anti-fashion in Kinfolk magazine as simplicity, naturalism, resistance to novelty, ethics, and inclusiveness. Anti-fashion pursues the essential values of human life that have been lost or forgotten in modern society. It is important to pay constant attention to the values of minority, non-mainstream and indie cultures that represent anti-fashion. It exerts considerable influence and has great potential as an area for the development of various style-based paradigms rather than as a single fashion direction.

This study is a theoretical research to investigate a methodological framework for analyzing the representation of women in fashion photography. For this study, this article attempts to develop a conceptual framework of the visual representation system through Lacan’s gaze theory, and analyze the representational aspects of women configured by gendered characteristics in the visual representation system. Structuralizing the visual representation system based on that theory, the gaze, the image/screen, and the subject of representation in the Lacan’s triangle diagram are replaced by the camera as the signifier of gaze, the representational image, and the seeing subject respectively. In the visual representation system, the camera creates a male-oriented visual field and structures a relationship of gendered power between male gaze as the seeing subject and female eye as an object to be seen. Looking into the representational aspects of women in this visual representation system structuralized by male gaze, women are represented in a way that reflects male desire through masquerade to comply with the patriarchal gaze, or differences that emphasizes the uniqueness and autonomy of women released from a patriarchal discourse. This study would be significant in that it provides theoretical basis for an analytic approach to the representation of women in fashion photography which we accept as a fixed one through the ideology of naturalization.

Zero-waste is sustainable development for ensuring continuous interactions with the environment as well as for the next generations, while expanding across industries. Zero-waste fashion design does not necessarily mean that we should stop making clothes in order to reduce waste, but we consider the social values of sustainability regarding the environment, humans, and profit. In particular, in the pre-use stage of zero-waste fashion design, fashion designers play critical roles. The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology for the realization of zero-waste fashion design through establishing the typology of zero-waste pattern making (ZWPM) as well as exploring the practical implications of zero-waste fashion design. For the realization of zero-waste fashion design that draws from pattern-making principals, this study categorizes zero-waste fashion design into zero-waste pattern cutting (ZWPC) and non-pattern cutting (NPC). ZWPC is based on drafting patterns on a piece of fabric, which can enable the sharing of patterns and processes, while NPC requires little- or non- cutting/sewing in optimizing a piece of fabric, bringing the possibility of creating indefinite forms. ZWPC is sub-categorized into tailored and non-tailored, and NCP into draped and folded. Then, by implementing the typology in undergraduate design programs, this study tests and completes the design methodology for the realization of zero-waste fashion design.

This study, which focuses on a masquerade, starts from the concept that all men exist as visual objects as well as visual subjects before discussing an issue of sexuality to inquire into masquerade characteristics of fashion photography. Masquerade is a concept that can describe various and multidimensional attributes of humans in social norms prescribed separately for men and women till now, and the concept has not yet been introduced in the field of fashion. However, it is considered a measure to analyze contemporary expressions of sexuality, on which a need for this research is raised. This study looks into the basic concept of the object and the ego through a psychoanalysis-related literature review. This study, then inquires into Jacques Lacan's notion of gaze and Roger Caillois's theory of mimicry through related specialty publications. This study reinterprets the concept of masquerade from Lacan's perspective and carries out an empirical analysis of masquerade characteristics in contemporary fashion photography based on the result drawn in parallel. Sexual masquerade shown in fashion photography based on the concept of masquerade is as follows: first, it appears as normative sexual description, divided into male and female by social norms; second, sexual ambiguity, obscuring the distinction between the sexes through playful and bombastic forms; and lastly, sexual subversion, disguising as the opposite sex through putting on clothes of the opposite sex.

Entering the twentieth century, corsets began to disappear with the tendency of concentrating on slim bodies and youth. As corsets proceeded to be discarded, they began to be internalized as a means of controlling the body; 'muscular corset' takes hold. However, the internalized corset increasingly appears to be externalized again in contemporary fashion. This study investigates how natural body is reconstructed as socio-cultural image drawing on the relationship between the signifier and signified of corset. As for the research methodology this study conducts literature survey to investigate the internalization of corset. This study proceeds to examine the subjects of fashion collections from 1980 to 2010 and samples the outfits which represent the externalization of corset through case analysis. Through the discussion of the study, the relationship of signifier and signified in the externalization of corset is argued as follows: first, by maintaining signifier and signified of the traditional corset as underwear, aggressive eroticism of corset has been observed, second, by perceiving corset as the agency of the body, fetishism of corset dissociates the function of sexual object from corset while distorting the relationship of signifier and signified, third, through embodying the notion of muscular corset literally, the ironical representation of corset as a torturing device of female body deconstructs the traditional relation of signifier and signified of corset.

As a type of intimate architecture, fashion has always mediated the dialogue between clothes and the body, or fashion and figure. This study seeks to inquire the current aesthetic consciousness of the body and dress in Japanese avant-garde fashion and intends to research the features and meanings in the pastiche of Western sartorial convention in Japanese avant-garde fashion in order to examine the changing aesthetic attitude in postmodern fashion. The study investigates subjects of the fashion collections of the turn of the twenty-first century, when pastiche strategies frequently appeared in Japanese avant-garde fashion, through the methodology of literature research and case analysis. The results of the study are as follows: by developing the strategy of pastiche, Japanese avant-garde fashion exposes the defectiveness of the Western idea of the idealized and standardized body for mass productions, thus freeing design from its traditional confinement to the human body. Drawing on the re-conceptualization of the sartorial convention of Western tradition, Japanese avant-garde fashion designers tend to experiment with extreme exaggeration in form, refusing to subscribe to the traditional Western values built on the balance and symmetry of the body. Through the combination of the past and the present as well as the inner-wear as outerwear strategy, the historical pastiche challenges convention and symbolism, which results in the discord between signifiant and signifié of clothing.

Haptic systems have been widely used for both virtual reality and augmented reality application including game, entertainment, education and medical sectors. Clothing designers and retailers initiated using AR and VR technologies to help the consumers find style with the perfect fit. Most of the developed augmented reality shopping is implemented by overlapping the image of the clothes on the customer so that he/she can find the fit. However, those are only visual information and the customer cannot experience the real size and the stiffness of the clothes. In this paper, we present the haptic upper garment which provides the haptic feedback to the user using cables. By controlling the length of the cable, the size of the clothes is set and by stiffness control, the compliance of the fabric is implemented. The haptic garment is modeled for precise control and the distributed controller architecture is described. With the haptic upper garment, the user’s experience of the virtual clothes is greatly enhanced.