Modernism is an internationally accepted design style. In addition, traditional Korean costume is not the clothing of the past, but its form is also used in modern fashion. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to examine the social and cultural contents of the morphological structure of traditional Korean costume, in order to derive the design characteristics of modernism and examine the global applicability of traditional Korean costume structure. For this study, photographic materials from museums, schematic drawings of relics, and Hanbok production books published by government agencies were analyzed. Further, this study examined traditional Korean costume, especially the modernism characteristics derived from Paul Greenhalgh and previous studies. The results are as follows. First, The traditional Korean costume is a cut based on basic shapes, along with a silhouette appears according to the background of the times. Second, the characteristics of modernism can be divided into universality, functionality, and simplicity. Third, as a result of analyzing the form structure of traditional Korean costume based on the characteristics of modernism, universality is expressed as standardized form, functionality as practical aesthetics, and simplicity as sustainable diversity. Furthermore, Korean costume has a difference in that was greatly influenced by various Eastern ideas and aesthetics of the late Joseon Dynasty. These findings provide a perspective of modern reinterpretation of the uniqueness and universality of traditional Korean costume in line with globalization by utilizing the design characteristics of modernism, an international style.

A lot of work has been done on the topic of Korean traditional costume. In spite of the amount of the work, however, not much work has appeared that summarizes the overall research trend in such a way that we gain insights into the future direction of the Korean traditional costume field. This study aims to work out an analysis of the research trend that may shed light on the current status of the field and also on the things that have to be done to further develop the Korean costume design field. The analysis reported in this work is based on the articles that appeared in two journals: Journal of the Korean Society of Costume published by the Korean Society of Costume (2,661 articles from the year 1977 to 2019) and Journal of Korean Traditional Costume published by the Society of Korean Traditional Costume (762 articles from the year 1998 to 2019). The result of the analysis shows that only a very small amount of work is devoted to actual designing of Korean traditional costume, and this has to change to globalize Korean traditional fashion and draw worldwide attention to it. So more work is needed particularly on actual designing of Korean traditional costume. This does not mean that we simply have to maintain tradition and replicate the original designs, but we have to endeavor to work out novel designs by, for instance, creative destruction and restructuring, maintaining the essence of the tradition of Korean costume.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the gender role changes of Korean women reflected on their costumes during 20th century. To analyze the diachronic gender role changes, social environments(education, job, economy, family systems, mass-media) of 20 th century were inquired by 10 years and comparatively analyzed with 680 images of representative costumes each periods. The results are as followed. 1) 1900s～1910s: The most representative women's gender role was a wise mother and good wife. Therefore the adopted western costume, a symbol of civilization, were represented women as a passive and sexual object of man. 2) 1920s～1930s: 'Shin Yeosung (Modern Girl)' was the representative gender role of that time. They were the symbol of enlightenment and new education. Their costumes influenced to the changes of traditional Hanbok in functional side. 3) 1940s～1950s: In World War II. a strong and stubborn women were wanted to support their family. They threw feminity and changed their costumes into an active and functional 'Mombbe'. 4) 1960s～19970s: Women asserted Gender equality and resisted the traditional women's gender role. Mini Skirts and Unisex costumes were symbolic costumes reflecting the changes. 5) 1980s: The self confidence of women's gender role affected the androgynous look and bodyconscious look in modern fashion. 6) 1990s～2000s: Now, the dichotomy of gender role is not no longer effective way to understand the social changes and fashion trend rather than personal characteristics and lifestyle trends.