• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.4
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• pp.61-75
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• 2015

This research aims to analyze the prep-hop fashion, which is an original look created through the convergence of the hip-hop and preppy look, and identify the design characteristics of the prep-hop fashion. The style mixes the fashion of what was traditionally a lower-class look with the upper class. The design characteristics are as follows: First, the prep-hop fashion expresses slim, casual and sophisticated look with items and silhouettes. The items are categorized into jackets, shirts and pants. The prep-hop jackets provides a casual look to its wearer unlike the jackets of preppy or conservative looks. Slim suits show different meanings and features depending on the changes in the time and culture despite the continued use of the items. Second, the colors of the prep-hop fashion include overall basic colors used in the preppy look and hip-hop fashion. The aesthetic values of the colors express pleasant color images different from the conservative and resistant images expressed in the preppy and hip-hop style before the convergence, respectively. Third, the materials and patterns are expressed in a unique way to fulfill the emotional needs that are considered vital to contemporary fashion. The materials in the prep-hop fashion extend the ranges of usage by using the materials with unexpectedness broken out of general range of usage. While the use of the patterns is one of the methods to demonstrate that the prep-hop fashion is created by the convergence between hip-hop fashion and preppy look, the meaning concludes pleasantness and casualness different from the past. Fourth, the prep-hop fashion is mainly composed of hip-hop fashion accessories, which express the authenticity of the hip-hop fashion to protect the non-mainstream characteristics. The design characteristics of the prep-hop fashion pursue the individuality of the contemporary fashion, which lacks originality due to commercialization. The development of the prep-hop fashion, as a new form that combined contrasting genres and trends, is expected to develop more publicly.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.60 no.2
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• pp.1-19
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• 2010

The purpose of this research is to examine the rise of hip-hop culture and its characteristics which have been established as a part of popular culture amid other subcultures and to examine the overall concept of hip-hop fashion which has been developing since its rise in the 1970s and particularly to examine the hip-hop after the turn of the new century when it has gone through several iterations and changes while simultaneously accommodating different trends and reflecting a highly diverse larger culture. The research methodology is a literature-based research that uses classification and analysis based on the preceding research including related books and dissertations and, considering that this research focuses on the characteristics of hip-hop from the 2000s to the present, mainstream news media such as newspapers and magazines around New York images of famous hip-hop culture & stores websites were used in this research. The most characteristic hip-hop fashions since the 2000s examined by this research comprise prep-hop, slim formal suits, skurban, hip-hop Goth, and hip-hop Tatto. First, prep-hop is a mixed match of a preppy look with latest hip-hop sentiments and hip-hop styles. Second, there are slim formal suits that reflect a change of trends that strongly show changes of hip-hop fashion consumers who have been following sports stars' fashions. Third, skurban is a hip-hop fashion combined with the look of skaters. Fourth, hip-hop Goth is what emphasizes strong Goth images such as grunge, skull, and devil in hip-hop fashions based on vintage fashion. Fifth, hip-hop Tatto style designs have appeared in diverse items such as trendy clothes and accessories that were most popular since the 2000s. Hip-hop fashion since the 2000s up to the present is beginning to be integrated with diverse other cultures and its most prominent characteristics is a change into slimmer silhouette.