• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.3
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• pp.462-473
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• 2008

In recent years, Korea's apparel exports to the USA have faced a great threat, as the trade environment around the world has changed continually. The purpose of this study is to analyze the competitive position of Korean apparel exports to the USA, and to enhance export competitiveness by applying to offshore sourcing. The trade data of the Office of Textiles and Apparel(OTEXA) in the U.S. Department of Commerce were selected for inquiry about export competitiveness of apparel products made in Korea. In addition, we targeted members of the Korea Apparel Industry Association among the 500 exporters of clothing items in "The Import and Export Textile Product 2003." A total 70 sheets were analyzed. The results of this study were as follows: 1) Korean apparel exports to USA have decreased by 20-35 percent per year since 2005 under the Free Trade Area, showing that Korean apparel industries have not adapted to the new trade environment. Although Korean apparel exports to USA have indicated a trade surplus from now on, Korean apparel industries should find new ways to overcome this situation, diminishing exports and increasing imports. 2) Korean apparel companies selected more offshore sourcing than domestic sourcing. Also, as Korean apparel companies manufactured apparel products offshore, foreign subcontracting outranked manufacturing in their own foreign plants. When they chose foreign countries to source, they turned mainly to China and Vietnam. Also, they considered the target country's manufacturing price, labor stability, apparel products, quality, lead time, and so on. In order to increase apparel exports, Korean apparel industries should focus more on developing competitively new apparel products, improving the ability of sourcing management, and establishing on-the-spot agencies.

• International Journal of Human Ecology
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2006

The ability to customize garments for fit in the apparel industry is directly tied to the availability of comprehensive and accurate sets of anthropometrical data for each consumer. The data for apparel sizing systems is available from three major standard/ research organizations: ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials), ISO (International Standard Organization), and NCHS (National Center for Health Statistics). However, these standards ignore various head shapes and are outdated for the development future head products. This creates a data gap an ever changing multi-cultural society such as the United Sates. Although major government and industry safety organizations recognize the importance of safety for head products, few studies were found to support their reasoning. The purpose of this study is to provide accurate head dimension data for developing safety head products by analyzing various head shapes in the United Sates which includes various ethnic backgrounds. This study was carried out on 105 males in the United States. Factor analysis, cluster analysis, Moreover, Duncan analysis were all used for analyzing various head shapes.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.104-120
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• 2004

Animation character market in Korea has been dominated by licensed characters (e.g., Walt Disney′s) of which market share is 80%. While market share for Korean characters such as "Mashimaro" and "Little Dinosaur Dooly" is increasing, the application of such characters to fashion products is still limited. For the development of the Korean character market, application of original animation characters should be applied to various fashion products. The main purpose of this study was to design toddler apparel line using "Little Dinosaur Dooly," one of the most popular domestic animation characters. The design focus is the green color of Dooly because the color is the distinctive concept of the brand. Results of the study indicated that developing toddler apparel line with a Korean animation character was a meaningful attempt, as imported licensed characters were dominant in domestic fashion market. The key differentiating factor was the use of green color. In addition, use of various supporting characters, namely Dooly′s friends, demonstrated potential line extension forming animation character groups similar to Warner Brothers′"Looney Tunes."

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.1 no.1
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• pp.26-33
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• 1999

Nowadays the Apparel CAD is required in the clothing industries. So many domestic Apparel education institutions are interested in the Apparel CAD education. By investigating the present Apparel CAD education situations in college, the writer shows some data that are helpful to solve the problems in these parts. The purpose of this study is to give some helps in teaching the Apparel CAD in college. The results of this study are as followings, as the use of CAD systems is growing in the clothing industries, many colleges are concerned with the Apparel CAD. As a result, many colleges equip the Apparel CAD systems and the Apparel CAD is taught as special lectures, the part of other courses or regular course in many colleges. Apparel CAD should be taught as a regular course in colleges. And it should be taught systematically with Design CAD and Pattern CAD. But it is taught limitedly as special lectures, the part of other courses and post graduate studies. So it is impossible to educate the students professionally. As many colleges the CAD equipments are not opened to the students, the student's use of CAD systems are limited, so educational environment needs to improve to use CAD systems freely.

• Journal of the Korea Fashion and Costume Design Association
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• v.15 no.1
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• pp.123-138
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• 2013

This paper studied the apparel product attributes that women in the new elderly generation require in formal wears and in casual wears. The purpose of this study was to provide the design guideline when considering the changing and diverse buying patterns of the new elderly female consumers as opposed to the traditional elderly generation. We employed a qualitative study methodology of one-on-one in-depth interview with open coding. Between August 10 and October 3 of 2012, we interviewed sixteen female consumers of age 60 or above residing in the metropolitan area who considered themselves as young-minded. Our findings were as follows: The consumer-required attributes that the new elderly women wanted to present have five dimensions of symbolism, aesthetic, fitness, usefulness, and maintenance. The main focus of the apparel product attributes that the new elderly women wanted was the dimension of symbolism in formal wears and the dimensions of usefulness and maintenance in casual wears. The new elderly females were the emerging group of consumers of diversified clothing products who emphasized overall balance and wore appropriately for occasions. Apparel products for the new elderly females should incorporate the design attributes that they want as well as the overall balance among individual wears.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.9 no.6
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• pp.160-174
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• 2005

Despite the decrease in the number of children due to low birth rate, the domestic children's apparel market has been achieving steady growth as family income is rising thanks to more opportunities for working women, parents spend more on their children, and they prefer brand products that make their children look special. In addition, the market is suffering from hard competition as large enterprises have joined the race. The present study purposed to survey the children's apparel market in Korea, which is in a transitional period, and to contribute to the development of the market with Korean brands. For this purpose, we analyzed the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century based on the current state of the domestic children's apparel market and, based on the findings, forecasted the future trend of children's apparel brands, suggested improvements for expected problems, proposed standards for coping with changes such as diversification, high quality and differentiation in the children's apparel market, and provided consumers with information on how to purchase products. According to the result of analyzing the characteristics of children's apparel brands in the 21st century, brands are categorized largely into four types - life cultural brands, functional product brands, character brands and brands advancing to China. Life cultural brands equipped with all necessities for children are expanding, and with the deepening social problems of environmental pollution and the reduction of the child population, functional products made of environment-friendly materials are spreading widely, targeting infants and children. Furthermore, for extending age targets and diversifying products, children's apparel is using characters. The use of characters is expected to have a considerable effect on the growth of brands because children are more subjective as consumers than before and they are more easily persuaded with characters. Domestic children's apparel brands advancing to China have a high expectation of success in overcoming the limitation of the local market that has reached its peak and growing into global brands. Korean apparel makers are struggling to overcome the depressed domestic market, to recover consumers' consumption, to cope with market opening, to pursue high value of sensibility and to expand the seniors' market, etc. In this situation, future trends of children's apparel brands will be the expansion of family brands, brand totalization, quality price, niche market (pre-teen market), etc. In response to these trends, we made the following suggestions for improvement. 1. Children's apparel brands are evolving into family brands as well as into total brands through voluming. Today, however, apparel makers are advancing to the children's apparel market with the concept of adults' apparel and, as a result, children's apparel is merely adults' apparel of reduced size, having problems in design, color and materials. Thus, apparel makers must develop design considering the wide range of size and the characteristics of children's apparel, strengthen sourcing abilities to create revenues, and make thorough survey of customers to find common denominators between adults' apparel and children's apparel considering that characteristic that the target class is different from the buyer class. Furthermore, they must make active investments in human resources, develop outstanding products through advanced planning and design, and support marketing techniques and management systems to stores. 2. As the declining birth rate will continue to have a negative effect on the market, it may be difficult to expand the market size but there is still a margin for growth through high-sensibility and high-quality products. The competitiveness of brands is determined by their market shares. Accordingly, concepts should be specialized according to lifestyle, customers' diverse needs should be satisfied, and cross-coordination should be achieved within a brand. 3. Considering Korean parents who do not spare investment in their children despite shrinking consumption, functional products must be high value-added goods that can enhance efficiency. However, in the current situation of the infants' apparel industry where a textile manufacturer supply its products to multiple brands, it is difficult to develop unique products only based on materials. Thus, it is considered urgent to appeal to consumers not by relying on materials only but by finding methods of applying their own characters to children's dress.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.55-70
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• 2016

The existing research on sustainability in the apparel industry provides no clear consensus on the definition of sustainability for the apparel brands and how sustainability of apparel brands as it is perceived by consumers can be measured. To fill this gap in research, the present study proposes and tests a confirmatory model of sustainability for apparel brands based on the three pillars of sustainability (i.e., economic, environmental, social sustainability) theorized in the Triple Bottom Line model. A survey of 754 U.S. consumers provided data for empirical testing. The results support the three-dimensional factor structure of sustainability for apparel brands and reveal that a second-order sustainability exerts a significant impact on both brand image and brand trust. The findings provide theoretical implications for researchers and practical managerial suggestions for marketers.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.31 no.9_10
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• pp.1333-1341
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• 2007

The purposes of the present study were to investigate the impact of a apparel brand and an ingredient brand on evaluation(perceived quality, favorable attitude, purchase intention) of apparel products, and to examine the differences in evaluations toward apparel products allied with ingredient brands between groups divided by product knowledge and leisure involvement. The subjects were 235 men and women aged 20 to 40. Two-by-two factorial design were employed. A series of ANOVA were used to determine if significant differences existed in evaluations of apparel products. There was a significant interaction effect of an apparel brand and an ingredient brand on evaluations of apparel products. Empirical results showed that ingredient brands would improve the consumers' perceived quality, favorable attitude and purchase intention toward apparel products. In addition, the results indicated that the respondents that had high leisure involvement and high product knowledge were more likely to evaluate apparel products based on the ingredient brand of the products. However, the respondents that had low leisure involvement and product knowledge were more likely to evaluate apparel products based on the host brand of the products.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.280-291
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• 2004

Apparel goods are classified by many criteria for ease of merchandising implementation. Fashion and basic goods are also an oucome oi classification. Previous studies pnvide some criteria by which apparel products can be classified into fushion and basic goods. Among those ciiteria, seasonality, fashionability, clothing types, complexity in pnduction, simplicity of style, pioducuon volume, degree of style change by season, could be listed. This study, first explored how apparel merchandisers and designers define fashion and basic goods in relation with those criteria. Definitions of fashion and basic goods were explored in terms of design elements (i.e., style, color, material), production volume, sales ratio, proportion in product assortment, and contribution to profit. The study adopted a qualitative approach by use of eighteen infepth interviews with menhandisers and designers. Six were from women＇s wear brand, Seven from men＇s wear brand, and 5 from casual wear brand. All the interviewees agreed that they are using the classification of basic vs. fashion goods. However, they are using diverse terms to indicate the basic and fashion goods. The interviewees defined each group based on its contribution to total sales or profit complexity in design, production volume, and style change by season. Basic goods had a higher level of production quantity, contribute more to profit simpler design, and less style change by season than fashion goods.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.1
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• pp.81-96
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• 2013

We interviewed and surveyed parents of 3 to 6-year-old boys in order to determine designs for indoor apparel that appealed to toddlers. In addition, on the basis of the behavioral characteristics of such boys, improvements in the development of indoor apparels were suggested. Parents preferred indoor apparels because it could be worn as underwear when the kid is outdoors and as outerwear when indoors. These apparels were popular with toddlers. Therefore, indoor apparel that gives the impression of outerwear while performing the function of underwear was designed. Underwear fabric was used, but outerwear apparel design was partially adopted. In order to improve the activity, fabric that could be stretched in any direction was used for the sleeves and pant legs, while organic fabric with soft texture was used for the trunk part of the apparel. Dark-colored material was used for the chest and elbow parts of the clothes in order to prevent contamination in these parts. In particular, a bib was used to prevent contamination in the chest part. Given that toddlers engage in many activities, the fabric needed to be durable, so this led to thick materials being used for the knee part. As certain parents complained about the short length for tops, we increased the length of the tops by 5cm. In the survey items that investigated overall wearability, ease, and suitability for toddlers' activities, the test apparel obtained a higher score than existing apparel did. This indicates that the overall suitability of the newly designed apparel was improved.