Abstract
The present study selected female Japanese and Korean university students (a population that is assumed to be sensitive to the subject of fashion) as subjects. We investigated (1) their awareness of and attitudes about clothing styles, and (2) their relationships to fashion and various media. In both Japan and Korea, female students were highly interested in fashion and their major motive for adopting a given fashion was "style change" (the desire to change one's style by adopting a novel fashion) or "self-expression" (the desire to express oneself and achieve self-realization). They most frequently adopted a fashion during the acceptance phase (when the fashion has spread through the market and been shown extensively by the media). Korean students were more interested in and positive to fashion than were Japanese counterparts. Fashion magazines often served as the major source of information on clothing fashions. The frequency of buying magazines and the number of magazines bought were higher in Korea than in Japan. The time spent in reading these magazines was also longer in Korea. The frequency of buying fashion magazines correlated with the degree of interest in fashion and the time when a fashion was adopted. Students who adopted a fashion earlier tended to buy fashion magazines more frequently.