• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.66 no.7
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• pp.154-170
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• 2016

The female leadership styles in the 21st century have been established as a major axis. Especially, the fashion of female politicians being exposed to the public during political activities has become a main element of a measure displaying visually female leadership styles in the 21st century and image making as well. Consequently, this study conducted qualitative research through the interview method to figure out regular voters' thoughts in depth about images being required for female political leaders and the fashion maximizing those images, and drew the detailed design elements. Suggesting the clothes design reflecting those elements for female political leaders by 3D virtual clothing works emerging as a new market creating profits related to fashion. The images which female political leaders have to have and were extracted through the interviews in this study, showed as feminine, strong leader, honest, and intelligent images, and also it was shown that female political leaders displaying proper images depending on the circumstances and using those images in politics rather than sticking to a fashion identity were favored by interviewees. The present study intends to contribute to being used as basic data of various research and fashion items of virtual reality and establishment of successful fashion strategy for female political leaders.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.315-326
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• 2015

Woman leadership has been remarkably highlighted with women's accelerating entry into society. Domestic and overseas interests about political leaders began with the age of media and they are rapidly spreading worldwide with the development of internet, SNS and blog. Along with this phenomenon, exposure of images has been remarkably increasing and fashion has been also used as a political strategy. However, the research on woman political leaders has been insufficient so this study selected Geunhye Park, Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton as representative woman leaders for the research. 149 pictures of Geunhye Park, 171 pictures of Michelle Obama and 124 pictures of Hillary Clinton from the articles containing their pictures from Jan. 2002 to Dec. 2013 were analyzed, focusing on their gender. The three woman political leaders' typical images of femininity, masculinity and androgyny were categorized respectively and the period and works in which those images had been expressed were reviewed. Also, fashion styles of the images pursued by each gender were analyzed through their color, material, silhouette, design point, items and accessories. As a result, Geunhye Park had femininity image at the beginning and had masculinity image when she did election campaigns, which led to her current image of androgyny. Michelle Obama uses the image of femininity, masculinity and androgyny simultaneously. It was found that Hillary Clinton emphasized the image of masculinity and androgyny but she emphasizes femininity image these days.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.104-118
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• 2011

Since Sirimavo Bandarinaike became the first female prime minister in 1960, women all over the world has been trying to break the highest glass ceiling. In a place where men had been dominating throughout history, women political leaders had to find a way to look the part by wearing power suits. Feminity was out of the question until the digital era of 21st century started. The world has evolved into a place where feminity could be strength instead of weakness. Now women political leaders are showing body curves, cleavage, using vivid and pastel colors, soft fabrics, elaborate details, accessories, long and curly hair. The padded shoulders of dark coloured power suits were replaced by soft colorful flowing feminine suits. Yulia Tymoshenko of Ukraine is the best example of 21st century woman political leader using feminity in her fashion style while enacting her role. When she first started politics in 1990's, she wore dark colored power suits like all other women political leaders did with short dark hair. As time passed her suits became more feminine with light colors and elaborate details. She has changed her hair into a neat braid, based on a traditional Ukrainian hair style. She used orange color for the Orange Revolution and white for pure image. Yulia Tymoshenko's fashion style as a way of role enactment showed professionalism, feminity, integrity, and ethnicity.