• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.59 no.1
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• pp.119-135
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• 2009

The purpose of this study was to examine formative aesthetic characteristics and aesthetical value of the intraculturalism expressed in contemporary fashion and to confirm the functions of intraculturalism to establish, visualize, perform the racially indeterminate, ethnically neutral, culturally diverse or ambiguous identity. For this study, the applications of the intraculturalism shown in mass media and consumer culture, such as music, fashion advertisements and collections of high fashion designers from 2004 to 2008 have been analyzed and compared. The results were as follows: The Intraculturalism is reflected in the muticultural music such as Afropean, Jawaiian, Reggaeton and Asian Hip Hop. Intracultural music genres create the hybrid music and fashion culture through mixing, matching and blending one and another culture. Advertisement campaigns for Louis Vuitton, YSL Beauty, Gap and H&M stores have all purposely highlighted models with mixed racial heritage. It is reflected in the latest youth fashion market trend using face that are ethnically ambiguous. The increasingly multiracial, multicultural population is due to intermarriage and waves of immigration. The rising mixed race designers, Narciso Rodriguez, Hussein Chalayan, Vera Wang and DooRi Chung, not only compromise and amalgamate different cultural elements of their heritage and contemporary life but also create new look and fashion image. The characteristics of intraculturalism expressed in the 21st century fashion could categorized into de-genre, de-nationality, de-race and de-culture.