This study analyzes the expressive characteristics of fashion design through sensory experiences, focusing on the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s exhibition Sleeping beauties: Reawakening fashion. It aims to explore the creative and innovative potential of fashion design that utilizes sensory experiences while proposing new directions for future fashion exhibitions and the design field. The research scope includes 220 garments and accessories featured in the exhibition. Based on theoretical considerations and case studies, this research classifies and examines fashion design characteristics from the perspectives of olfactory, tactile, visual, auditory, and multi-sensory experiences. The findings indicate that olfactory experiences enhance emotional engagement by integrating fragrance with storytelling, while tactile ones increase immersion through fabric texture and structural elements. Visual experiences strengthen aesthetic appeal and narrative through various digital technologies and lighting effects, while auditory ones convey the emotional messages of fashion design using sound and music. Additionally, multi-sensory experiences combine multiple sensory elements to provide viewers with an immersive, multidimensional experience. This study confirms that sensory experiences expand the creative possibilities of fashion design and suggests new exhibition strategies that integrate sustainability and digital technology. Beyond simple stimuli, sensory experiences foster emotional connections and contribute to enhancing fashion design’s artistic and cultural value. Therefore, this research highlights the importance of integrating sensory experiences with creative approaches and technological convergence to amplify the social and artistic impact of fashion design.

Exhibitions are becoming a new important marketing tool in the fashion industry. Consumer’s interest in the haute couture and arts is increasing in parallel to the increase of the need of museums to attract visitors. While many fashion brands have been holding exhibitions, very few studies have investigated the effectiveness of exhibitions. This study aims to obtain practical implications which can be applied to further exhibition marketing processes. To this end, the main goals of this study are thus as follows: (1) to analyze the fashion exhibition cases by categories; and (2) to examine customer satisfaction by the fashion exhibition types and to determine how customer satisfaction affects the brand image. In order to classify the fashion exhibition types, a total of 160 cases held in the last five years in all over the world were collected and the range was set to the B2C fashion exhibition practices. For quantitative analysis of the customer recognition, the survey was distributed to total of 309 participants. Each of respondents evaluated three stimuli therefore the nine stimuli were respectively evaluated by 103 people. As a result of our analysis, nine types of fashion exhibitions were derived by two criteria, namely, (1) the main purpose of an exhibition and (2) the contents of an exhibition. Most fashion exhibitions are held with the goals of aesthetics, sociability, and remembrance. Exhibitions display various fashion products, such as apparel, shoes, bags, and jewellry, fashion photography, as well as various artistic media, such as video, drawings, and installation arts. The nine types of fashion exhibitions were used as a stimulus to quantitatively verify the effectiveness of fashion exhibitions. According to the results of the statistical analyses, customer satisfaction and brand image were significantly different in the fashion exhibition type but the exhibition type does not directly affect the brand image. This study provides a better understanding of the growing influence of factors on the fashion exhibitions and extends the limited research area by verifying the response of fashion exhibition visitors on the marketing level. Moreover, our results provide practical implications for fashion brands to establish successful exhibition marketing strategies.