• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.687-699
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• 2011

Folk costumes in East Asia are characteristic in their colors of the five-element colors based on natural colors or achromatic colors (such as white or black) that imply the beauty of nature or the beauty of naivety. The Asian look adopts forms of Asian costumes into western costumes in terms of structure, silhouette, ornament, pattern, and color; in particular, color had very limited attributes. This study is a comparative study on colors, shown in East Asian folk costumes and the Asian look. It discovered the differences of color in East Asian folk costumes and the Asian look to discuss the backgrounds of difference. For research, it simultaneously conducted literary reviews and empirical research based on the Asian look. Asian colors that appeared in some costumes of the Asian look were influenced by East Asian costumes, while the primary color of playfulness or color for low chroma or black exuding a contemporary nuance (common in the western fashion) were prevalent. This revealed that the costume that had the attribute of playfulness in terms of structure, ornament, or patterns is adopted in western fashion through the fusion of eastern forms and pastiche. Colors of the Asian look are different from those of East Asia with superficial imitation, in which all the East Asian spirits and symbolism are lost. While folk costumes of East Asia hold symbolism derived from Asian spirits, the Asian look disintegrates the ideology of East Asian costumes and replaces it with a Postmodern playfulness.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.61 no.8
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• pp.114-126
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• 2011

Many varieties in folk costumes have inspired fashion designs for a long time. Each country, with a unique style of its own reflects their own traditions, beliefs, customs and morals into their traditional costumes. The traditional methods of creating different ways of drapery methods by using only a rectangular piece of cloth have been passed down from generation to generation and it is still used today. This way of styling has been developed mainly in the Middle East, Asia and Africa and the modifiable ways of creating drapery wearing methods are as follows. The first modifiable styling method is changing the purpose of wearing costumes according to the needs and the wants of the person who wears it. The second method is exposing the knots on the surface of the garments and by doing this, there was no visible difference on the aesthetic formation and it did not alternate for a long time. This means that simple knot shapes have been used to tie edges of rectangular fabrics. The third method is a wrapping type of modifiable styling method, which has been used most commonly in folk costumes because there are lots of ways to wrap a rectangular cloth around the body. The fourth way is the fixed type of modifiable styling method and this method can only be noticed only in the Moroccan Izar using fibulas and belts to alter the shape of the Izar. The fifth method is the composite type of modifiable styling method. This method starts by cutting out cylindrical shapes of fabrics and then wraps or twists it to fit the body. The most significant character of modifiable styling methods in folk costumes is to use rectangular cloths, which varies only in ratio of length, width and sizes. Therefore, this study suggests that rectangular cloths can create enormous amounts of fashion styling which can be easily adapted and created in everyday fashion life.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.58 no.2
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• pp.93-106
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• 2008

Asia Folk Costumes are certainly different from the Western Costumes. This distinction is based upon the effect of environment, technology, and social structure, and especially, which was generated by religion, ideology, and philosophy. The ideas of fundamental ground of this eastern features are religions such as Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. The religion of the East has determined the form of traditional costumes, affecting the costume up to now. This study aims at the investigation of the effect of religion on the formation of East Asia Traditional Costumes around Korea, China, and Japan and its figurative beauty. Study was carried out by chiefly referring to literatures. Eastern Aesthetics was formed by accepting aesthetic concepts, acquired from the idea of Three Religions. Especially, the ideas of non-duality(不二), emptiness(空), five aggregates(五蘊), mind control(心法), derived by Buddhism, and nature theory(自然論) and creationism(創造論) of Taoism, and abstinence theory(節制論) and decorum(禮法) and the principles of Yin and Yang(陰陽) of confucianism have had great effect on the aesthetics of costume. The figurative features of costume, affected by three religions are described by the factors; First, non structural feature, second, the beauty of abstinence and chastity of ample silhouette, third, the feature of natural color and achromatic color, fourth, the figurative feature of costume by the principles of Yin and Yang, and fifth, bright ornaments. The aesthetic values of the East Asia Costume are 'A Beauty of Vacancy', 'A Beauty of Concealment', 'A Beauty of Nature', and 'A Beauty of Symbolism'. As philosophy, culture, and ethnics itself, the religions of Asia have had effect on the overall culture, which is inclusive of social structure, as well as art and aesthetics, and have decided the style of costume.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.1 no.3
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• pp.246-251
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• 1999

Headdress which adorns the head has been used not only as a type of dress but also as a vehicle to express the human's mentality and a tool to convey ideas. This study first examines the type of headdress observed in the world folk costumes and investigates their geographical distribution and aims to examine how the types of headdress are inter-related to the peoples' natural environments, way of life and cultural background such as religion and aesthetic, ethical standards. Headdress used as important elements of many peoples' folk costumes can be categorized into scarf-type, hat-type and adornment-type. Veil-type, the one of scarf-types, was developed in Southwestern Asia and Arabic Africa influenced by natural and religious factors. This type is more simplified in Turkey and Eastern Europe and only covers head and neck in the former and only head in the latter while also being called 'headkerchief-type'. Hat-type is observed in many different parts of the world. Adornment-type has been used to symbolized one's noble social status and authority in societies dominated by shamanistic cultural background; it was also used in Far East out of the motivation to fulfil one's aesthetic desire. Headdress though it was originally made from the idential purpose of wearing, has developed into the various types affected by each people's natural environments, emotion and ways of life.