• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.12 no.3
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• pp.291-301
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• 2010

Today Korean clothing companies are experiencing difficulties in the global market due to unfavorable business conditions including poor production environments, labor shortage, rising costs, the further opening of the domestic distribution market, and increased competition among them. As a result, this has caused many of Korean clothing companies to transfer their production bases abroad in search of relatively inexpensive labor force, instead of using domestic plants. This study attempted to examine how Korean clothing companies perceive production environments and labor standards with regard to their offshore outsourcing. In such an attempt, in-depth interviews were conducted with 24 brand-name clothing firms. Those interviewed firms were the brands for the domestic or foreign market that were found to produce more than 200,000 pieces of clothing per year, and also the group of interviewees included some promotion service providers. The key findings from this study are as follows: First, a large number of the interviewed clothing companies were found to manage their foreign contract manufacturers by "visiting their factories regularly on a seasonal basis" or "stationing their personnel in factory for management purposes." Second, in relation to quality control in their foreign manufacturers, the most frequent response was to "have personnel stationed in those manufacturers." A smaller number of the clothing companies answered that they had "engaged their production management teams in quality control from time to time," or "used their inspectors to inspect products." Third, when asked about labor standards in foreign contract manufacturers, the largest number of the clothing companies responded, "we apply our own standards." The results of this study suggest that most of domestic clothing companies still use offshore sourcing just as a means of reducing their initial labor costs. However, in the continuously changing environment of the global clothing industry, clothing businesses are required to escape from the early phases of their manufacturing environments and set up more globalized standards.

• Fashion Information and Technology
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• v.13
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• pp.2-10
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• 2016

• The International Journal of Costume Culture
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.44-60
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• 2001

The purpose of this study is to present suggestions to improve the problems the domestic department stores face by analyzing and comparing the status of the development of PB which is absolutely critical for the specialized domestic department stores to survive, and to search for the future course which may lead to boosting sales and profit by developing the strategic PB products. Selected for this study were atotal of 20 PB's out of domestic as well s foreign PB's in the 4 big department stores. The data were analyzed with SAS package employed as per the by items frequency, percent, mean and standard deviation. From the above study, following viewpoints can be taken into account for the future development of PB ; First, the active will of the excutive is basically necessary for successful development of PB, by relying on long-term investment. Second, the existing mid or low-price goods should be in line with the mid or high price one's development for domestic merchandising with focus on middle or high class society. Third, the stock burden, biggest problem of PB, can be solved by discount policy at optimum prices and success rate of merchandising prediction.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.27-35
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• 2012

This study locates typical Korean fashion images in domestic and foreign fashion journals to advance Korea's international image in contemporary global fashion markets. The investigation of the frequency of articles and their types (so as to inquire into interest in Korean fashion in the global fashion markets) showed that for the appearance frequency of domestic articles studied, a good number of articles were published in the first half of 2008 and in 2009. In the case of foreign articles, the number of them increased from the second half of 2008 and the majority of articles were shown in the first half of 2010. Second, the investigation of the appearance features by article type studied in order to understand how Korean fashion played a role in the world's markets. The majority of articles were related to fashion brands that entered Chinese market in fashion brand articles in the case of domestic articles; however, many foreign articles introduced designers that participated in global fashion collections in Paris and New York. Third, as a result of analyzing typical key words by article type in order to find key words which could enhance Korea's fashion national image representing, we could confirm that 'Korean designers' can be a typical key words to represent Korean fashion. The key word most exposed in both domestic and foreign articles was 'designer Lie Sang Bong' and only his articles contained the content about influential Korean design materials.

• Fashion Information and Technology
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• v.5
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• pp.2-9
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• 2008

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.342-352
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• 2016

This study examined the fashion culture of 20-30s working women through clothing norm relationships in the workplace. A literature research was conducted along with qualitative research, in-depth interviews in order to understand the domestic working environment and fashion culture such as lifestyle and consumer culture characteristics of 20-30s working women. The results were: First, it showed that the increased number of members having various inclinations caused subcultures through an increase of women's economic activities and transition to a knowledge-information society in domestic work places that changed into a business casual that recognized employees' autonomy and diversity. Second, in the working place, clothing norms coexist as stipulated by statutes, company rules, and official documents as well as others implied by experiences of sanction against members. Workplace closing norms are classified into norms of exposure that draw attention to clothes and casual clothes. Third, it showed that factors pressuring clothing norms are classified as external pressures and by spontaneous self-censorship that cause conflict and confusion with working women's fashion according to the degree of pressure. Two kinds of pressure by others (or types of departments and members) were observed.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.257-274
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• 1999

Clothing care has been changed with the times condition of clothing to social and economic background. Nowadays, it needs reasonable and saving clothing care for home economy under the IMF structure. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to find out development and proper type of clothing care at the present to change of clothing in the newspaper from 1910 to 1998. The development of clothing care can be divided five steps as clothing care in home, spare clothing care, clothing care in the professional shop, re-used clothing care, economic clothing care. This study classified types of clothing care to typical purpose from these five steps. Results were as follows; The types of clothing care are for long wearing, reduction of clothing expenses and domestic duties, new designed clothes from unused clothes, re-use preserving environment. The practice of reasonable and economic clothing care at the present is desirable for reference clothing care in the past.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.36-47
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to provide essential information conducive to designing efficient cycling apparel for everyday wear. To this end, this study identified key situations that cyclists face while riding their bicycles as well as clothing functions that are necessary for each situation. Furthermore, this study also analyzed the current trends in cycling apparels and hybrid designs. In order to analyze the current trends of clothing functionality in domestic and foreign cycling apparel brands, the researchers of this study first reviewed existing literature on the functionality of cycling clothing. Then a focus group, which comprised of two experts in cycling fashion brands and fourteen consumers, was formed and in-depth interviews were conducted to identify the major conditions related to bicycle riding. Based on the results of the interview, the study, then, classified 700 images of cycling clothing from exhibitions and 1,541 images of cycling clothing that were launched by domestic and foreign fashion brands. The results of this study were as follows. First, there were three major conditions in bicycle riding: night riding, weather changes and riding convenience. Second, functionalities required for each riding condition were as follows: visibility for night riding, comfort, waterproofness and heat preservation properties for weather changes, and elasticity, protective properties and storage capacity for riding convenience. Finally, hybrid designs for each riding condition were different from general designs.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.708-715
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• 2016

This study researched the sizing system of dress form for apparel manufacturing in the domestic market. It aims to be used as basic data for the development of a dress form that could be used by manufacturers of senior men's clothing. Research focused on the sizes presented on the homepages of 17 dress form manufacturers in the USA, France, Japan, and Korea. Body measurement was made for senior men in their 50's over men (n=134). Six items were measured by the 'Standard body measurement of Size Korea'. The type of dress form in the domestic market can be classified into half-body type (upper body type and lower body type), torso, and whole-body type; in addition, each type is divided into upper arm, arm, crotch, and thigh. Korean dress form manufacturers produced/sold diverse kinds (size 7-9) for women; however, they used large/small sizes or product sizes for men without defining sizes. The chest size (93-105cm) has not been standardized while the rates of waist circumference, hip circumference and shoulder length (in accordance with the chest size) were all different. Global dress form brands manufactured reflecting body dimensions by the state organization USA ASTM. Japan JIS. For this reason, most domestic clothing businesses depend on imported dress forms. Especially, there were no dress forms for senior men. With the growing market for seniors, it would be necessary to produce senior dress forms for clothing production that reflect the body shapes and sizes of seniors.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.63-74
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• 2023

As "Made in Korea" has high branding power in the fashion industry, domestic clothing manufacturers also need to consider branding the country of origin. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to reconsider the need for a domestic certification system and suggest a direction by analyzing apparel origin certification systems operating overseas. The results of this study could be used for planning certification standards and operating methods suitable for regional characteristics and industrial environments when establishing a certification system for clothing produced in Korea. The case study subjects were Japan's J∞ Quality, USA's Made in New York, Italy's 100% Made in Italy, and France's Origin France Guarantee has been classified as certification criteria related to the country of origin include items related to the production process rate in the region and the production area for each production process/stream. Manufacturing technology and design are used for quality standards, safety, hygiene compliance, production facilities, and quality control and are applied to working environment standards. The certification system selects and operates standards according to each country's industrial environment, certification subject, and purpose. Therefore, when designing a domestic apparel certification system, a feasible promotion plan should be established that considers the current state of the domestic industry, which will serve as a driving force for the growth of the apparel manufacturing industry and an opportunity to increase the trust of global fashion consumers.