A Study of Symbolism in the Composition of Korean Men's Trousers Interpreted with Figures

남자 한복바지구성의 상징성 연구 - 도식을 중심으로 -

When analyzing forms in the human body and clothes, we conceptualize each part into a cone, sphere, and cylinder, and the esthetic characteristics of our fashion culture and esthetic fashion characteristics of Koreans are composed by expressing with universal images such as circle, square, and triangle when forms are expressed in a plane. To determine how the structural principle of shapes that are the shapes of all things and basic to geometry, i.e., circle, square, and triangle, applies to clothes that cloth our body called the small cosmos, we discussed the symbolic meaning hidden inside the structure of Korean clothes based on the basic pattern drafting method of Korean men’s traditional trousers. We drew the conclusion that Korean men's trousers composed of circles, triangles, and squares express the five elements diagram through their plane structure, are designed in circles with cones and pyramids, and are made to well express the principle of the small cosmos of our body. Moreover, when the basic pattern of Korean men’s trousers explained with the antipathy diagram is viewed to create all things while maintaining opposite and complementary relationship with Sangsang (mutually benefitting factor), it would be correct to say that the principle of the top verse the bottom is viewed as conflicting. From the structural point of view, since the philosophy of the Samsu principle (the principle of 1, 2 and 3 in which 1 represents the heaven, 2 represents the earth, and 3 represents the people) is hidden in Korean men's trousers in which Hurimalgi (the part of trousers corresponding to the waist band of Western pants) is the circle representing the heaven, Marupok is the square representing the earth, and Sapok is the triangle representing the people, we could look at deep meaning of our ancestors expressed in our clothes.