• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.53 no.2
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• pp.35-55
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• 2003

The purpose of the study is to get some pieces of prior information to eventually develop competitive swimming suit designs with Korean traditional images. The study has been accomplished in following steps. First, as theoretical research, the history of swimming suit design and the requirements in designing competitive swimming suits were studied. Second, as practical research, at first, the trend of the competitive swimming suit designs in the national swimming suit market was examined. And then. the questionnaire surveys of both professional and amateur swimmers about their design preferences with purchasing and fabric-related tendencies were conducted for understanding professionals' characters more exactly. This data were analyzed through cross-analysis and multi-response analysis and x 2 was used. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : First, athletes' preferential design tendency for the swimming suit designs were examined in the aspects of style, color, pattern, logo, and accessary. In style, female athletes preferred an athletic one-piece style and male ones preferred a brief style. In color. neutral, mostly black was preferred most and cold color group like dark blue and navy blue next, regardless of sex. In addition, they preferred similar color coordination. In pattern, though solid fabrics were mostly preferred in both sexes, especially Taeguk motive were considered the most appropriate pattern to show Korean image. Besides, logo was considered importantly, and swimming caps and goggles of accessaries were generally used. Second, athletes' swimming suit purchasing tendency was as a following. the number of swimming suits possessed was more than 4 pieces. the durable period was less than 3 months. and the most important point considered in purchasing was an easy fitting for men and a design with an easy fitting for women. And most of swimming athletes preferred foreign products than domestic ones, which was attributed to excellent quality, easy fitting, and good design. and so on. Third, in fabric-related tendency, food touch, easy fitting. and opaqueness were considered importantly. and durability to chlorine, elasticity, color fastness, easy draining, lightness, and so on were demanded forward.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.49-69
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• 2003

The purpose of the study is to develop the competitive swimming suit design with Korean traditional images. which excels in dimension of functionality, aesthetics, and symbolism. To accomplish this study, first. a theoretical examination about Korean image was added, on the basis of the practical research about professional swimmers' preferences as well as the theoretical research about the history of swimming suits and the qualifications of competitive swimming suits in the prior study. Next, practical designing was performed to achieve the creative designs according to Lamb & Kallal's design process. and the superiority of the newly designed swimming suits was evaluated by using Grant's alpha-beta model. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : First. in the problem apprehension stage. the need for swimming suit designs with Korean traditional images for professional swimmers was acknowledged, and three major criteria. which are functionality, aesthetics. and symbolism has been verified. Second. in the preliminary brainstorming stage, considerable amounts of data for the design concept considering the criteria above have been gathered. The athletic one-piece for women and the brief for men in style and nylon/lycra in fabric were used in the aspect of functionality. And the S Korean traditional colors in color and Tae-guk motive and others in pattern were selected to apply Korean traditional images in the aspects of aesthetics and symbolism. Finally, the 13 series of creative designs with 4 themes( l17pieces in total) have been suggested. Third, in the design improvement stage. after the preference to each design was surveyed, reformation of the designs was arranged on the basis of the results. Fourth, in the prototyping stage. the 17 actual prototypes, including 13 pieces for women and 4 pieces for men were produced. Fifth. in the evaluation stage. the evaluation procedure using Grant's alpha-beta model was performed. As a result, the newly designed swimming suits were rated above other existing ones in all three aspects of functionality, aesthetics, and symbolism.