This study aimed to examine the recent Hanbok school uniform design directions to contribute to the distribution of Hanbok school uniforms and the accumulation of Hanbok-inspired fashion design sources. We reviewed 16 academic papers published on Hanbok school uniform designs from 1998 to 2023 and summarized the design features proposed therein. We also analyzed 172 items of Hanbok school uniform designs developed under the Hanbok school uniform promotion project hosted by the Hanbok Advancement Center between 2019 and 2022. We found that the recent Hanbok school uniform design characteristics conformed to the design directions proposed in previous studies in terms of line, color, fabric, and textile pattern. Conforming design characteristics include the following. Overall, silhouettes were straight and moderately fitting to the body. Detailed straight and curved lines from Hanbok were applied. Designs showed traditional Hanbok colors, including white, black, and navy. Machine washable cotton and various blended fabrics were used. Modernized traditional patterns such as Saekdong, cloud, and Gwae were applied to textile designs. In contrast, some characteristics of recent designs deviated from the proposed design directions. Barrel silhouettes were found in casual styles of uniform items, including sweatshirts, hoodies, and jumpers. A wider range of materials, including fleece, quilted fabric, brocade, and Jinju silk, were used. Uniforms had looser silhouettes and were made with modern washable materials to meet students’ preference for casual uniforms.

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.

The aim of this research is to develop a clothing and textiles studio course for preservice home economics teachers applying principles of Project-Based Learning (PBL) and maker education to equip future teachers with the ability to nurture creativity among adolescents. The studio course was developed in the following stages: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation. We concluded that the resulting course met the following objectives extracted from the 2015 revised curriculum of home economics subjects: to promote creative and environmentallyfriendly fashion design and styling abilities, gain the ability to use makerspace tools, understand flat pattern making and sewing processes, and develop creative thinking, aesthetic sense, and communication skills. Furthermore, the educational effects of PBL and maker education were confirmed through student comments on the course. Students mentioned the practicality of the material in their actual lives along with their enhanced integration of the subject material, self-directedness, aesthetic sense, ability to learn through trial and error, collaboration and communication, and sharing. Based on results from the implementation and evaluation stages, a clothing and textiles studio course should include the following modules: introduction of terms and tools, submission and sharing of clothing reformation and upcycling techniques, introduction to hand sewing, pouch making, heat-transfer printing, 3D printing, mask making, hat making, vest making, and the final team project on fashion styling. It is important for instructors to provide detailed guidelines on selecting personas for styling, looking for available materials, and selecting materials online.

This oral history study explores the past and present Japanese menswear customtailoring culture. Two master tailors with more than 50 years of experience and two young tailors with less than a year of experience were interviewed about the tailor training process and environment, working conditions, thinking and behavior, and societal and governmental efforts for vitalizing custom-tailoring. The results indicate, first, a 10-year apprenticeship was required in the past, whereas young tailors today must register for three-year professional tailoring classes. Tailors then and now have been trained in a similar sequence of pants, vests, and jackets. Second, regarding working conditions, tailors had to provide gratitude services to their masters for a few years, even after their training ended. In contrast, young tailors today must continue a probationary period after their three-year schooling; however, they experience difficulty with finding tailoring shops for their probation. Third, in terms of thinking and behavior, master tailors learned their trade to earn a living, whereas young tailors today entered the field due to their interests in it. In addition, young tailors want a systematic learning process, whereas master tailors learned their skills while on the job. Last, tailoring academies today are run by tailoring shops and societies. Career exploration programs are offered to elementary and middle school students by the Kobe government in association with the local tailoring society to provide tailoring experiences.