The objectives of this study were to investigate whether heel height changes in the U.S. market occur in a cyclical pattern and heel heights show greater within-year variability over time. Heel height data from U.S. Vogue’s spring and fall editions were analyzed over the time period 1950~2014. A total of 1581 pieces of data were measured in millimeter units using Adobe Illustrator and standardized by dividing the height of the heel by the shoe length through the curved sole line. To analyze the cycle pattern of heel heights, the yearly averages were standardized by using three-year moving average technique to average out the irregular components of time series data and give a better indication of the long-term fluctuation of heel height. To identify the degree of within-year variability of heel height, the standard deviation of the average measurements for a year was calculated, and then decade averages were drawn from the yearly averaged standard deviation. One-way ANOVA was conducted to compare the within-year variability of data in heel height over the time period studied by decade. The results showed: First, there was a trend toward higher heels from the early 1950s to 2011. Second, four cyclical movements of heel height were observed from 1950 to 2007, and heel heights gradually decreased after 2008. Third, the within-year variability significantly increased over time, especially after the 1980s.

While borrowing from the theory of lookism, defined as “prejudice toward people because of their appearance” (Tietje and Cresap 2005, p, 31), this paper ventures into an emerging pattern of consumer behavior—designing one’s own body with the help of a surgical blade. The “designer body” idea has gradually moved from futuristic fiction to the exclusive domain of celebrity personalities and has lately arrived in the more mainstream marketplace (Kim, 2015). Available statistics indicate a growing number of plastic surgeries and clinic locations, the booming popularity of the aesthetics surgery specialty in medical schools, and burgeoning medical tourism with the goal of aesthetically reinventing one’s body (Akam 2014). Consumer vocabulary has embraced “rhinoplasty” and “liposuction” and lovingly transformed the dry medical jargon into the softer slang terms “rhino” and ‘lipo.” While breast augmentation is the most popular surgical procedure, in this work we purposely focus on the face. Unless veiled, the face is the body part that is always on display. In addition, we intentionally perform this study in the specific cultural domain that places strong metaphorical value on the face and has historically developed the dignity-centered concept of “saving face” as a major guiding principle of life. The choice of South Korea within this vast cultural realm seems the most logical given the fact that twenty percent of women in the country have something surgically done on their faces, which is arguably the highest known proportion in the world (Willett 2013). Finally, South Korea’s emphasis on Confucian values is part of our approach. Our research objective is to understand the interplay of major cultural forces that define the embrace of a novel mass marketed product (plastic surgery) designed to correct one’s genetic make-up. Considering marketing to be one such cultural force (Fedorenko 2014), we specifically aim to conceptualize its role in an ongoing interaction with Confucian values. What makes a culture rooted in conservative beliefs and respect for the elderly so openly question and surgically correct the “quality” of the body received from one’s parents? Does it happen because of or in opposition to Confucianism? Does fashion simply extend its province by converting desirable pointy noses and v-shaped chins into “in” items similar to pointy shoes? These research questions have shaped our qualitative methodological approach (Strauss and Corbin 1998) that relies on the juxtaposition of norms and values dictated by Confucian beliefs and those manifested through marketing channels. To uncover the normative messages and consumer directions coming from marketers, we turn to the so-called language of the street and perform close analysis of fifty advertising billboards and street signs promoting plastic procedures and located in Seoul, the capital of South Korea. We read both visual and textual data against the traditional Confucian literature. This methodological direction for our study was developed with the purpose to fill in the gap in the existing research, as detailed in the literature review, followed by the analysis of data, discussion of our findings, and the final section outlining a potential course for future research.

The purpose of this study was to find whether hemline cycles exist and whether hemlines show greater within-year variability over time. Utilizing US Vogue data from 1950 to 2013 on hemline length of women's daywear, total 2102 day-dresses or skirts on full fashion pictures were analyzed. The skirt length was divided by the total length of figure in the picture which was measured from shoulder to ankle. Aggregated yearly means smoothed by means of three-point moving averages were used to provide a better indication of the long-term direction of movement of the hemline. Within-year hemline variability was smoothed by the way of three-point moving average as well. The data showed five cycles on hemline change processes. The first cycle took 21 years from 1950 to 1971, which was the longest period and had the biggest hemline changes. The second cycle was the shortest from 1971 to 1977, in which hemline moved between below-knee length and midcalf. The hemline in the third cycle moved between midcalf and miniskirt. The third cycle took 16 years from 1977 to 1993. The forth was a short cycle from 1998 to 2001, and hemlines moved moderately between below-knee length and above-knee length. The fifth cycle has been on going since 2001, and the hemline has been getting longer after 2007. The within-year variability of hemlines was bigger in 1980s than previous years and was steadily increased.

Modern society attaches great important to state of the technology, but, unconscious desire and subconscious are also discussed in an important value. In the social background of such madness is acting as an artistic inspirational to the many people. At such a time, fashion photographs also being used medium which speak for people's desire. Editorial fashion photographs with unusual stories or including experimental visual elements unlike fashion advertising have increasing. The subject of this study is the formative characteristics in recognition of madness from ancient times until now and find out new meaning of the unusual and informal form of editorial fashion photographs showed in Vogue Italia since 2000. The analysis data of this study, we used 36 photographs of editorial fashion photographs taken by Steven Meisel, Tim Walker and Miles Aldriege. The final process of analysis made in with agreement of 10 major people. We used photograph's basic visual elements as analysis to avoid arbitrary interpretations. The content of this study is drawing in editorial fashion photographs from the viewpoint of Michael Foucault's Madness theory, Deleuze and Felix Guattari's Madness as the aspects of desire. The madness images in the editorial fashion photographs were showed as Decadence, Blindness, Violence and Grotesque based on the analysis results from above. The formative characteristics of editorial fashion photographs enabled the awareness on the value and importance of madness in modern society. These editorial fashion photographs can be the source of our wider perspectives for changing recognition of madness.

The advent of various arts and remarkable development of mass media since 1980s accelerate fashion photographs' advancement. The expression of fashion through photographs can represent characteristics of ages, societies, cultures, traits of designers and techniques of photographers. In addition, that is the tool which contains economical role as a product and artistic role as photos. Therefore, this study examines hyprt-reality images in editorial fashion photographs. Hyper-reality means the reproduction which represents the reality of life more actually. Hyper-reality through photographs elevates reality of virtual things and creates the confused situation which haunts the boundary between reality and reproduction. This study classifies the hyper-reality in editorial fashion photographs into three groups by their external traits, ideal reality, collapse of reality, and restoration of reality. First, ideal reality is represented as harmony among fashion, characters, and space, causality of fashion with time and circumstances, positive will, and melting with nature. Second, collapse of reality is expressed as in harmony between fashion and situation, violence, fetishism and symbol of death. Third, restoration of reality is shown as recurrence to nature and images of utopia to express dignity of life.