The sensibility of the American consumer about domestically manufactured cotton fabrics -Based on South Dakota State University Student-

우리나라 생산 면직물에 대한 미국 소비자의 감성평가 -미국 사우스다코타주 대학생을 중심으로-

The purpose of this research is to measure the sensibility and preference of American consumers for domestically-manufactured cotton fabrics through 7-points scale questionnaires and the 4-dimensions and 8-axes system. The key words included such images as masculine-feminine, new-old, casual-classic, and ambiguous-orderly. The images of cotton fabrics were classified through a cluster analysis. This research also included an investigation of relationship between sensibilities for cotton fabrics and their physical characteristics. The sensibilities of cotton fabrics were classified into 4 groups: 'feminine sensibility,' 'masculine sensibility,' 'new sensibility,' and 'casual sensibility.' This result represents that American consumers' sensibility is simpler than Koreans'. The order of preference was 'feminine sensibility', 'masculine sensibility', 'new sensibility', and 'casual sensibility.' The sensibilities of cotton fabrics were explained significantly by stiffness, weight, weft density, value, and chroma. Specifically, those were more influenced by color characteristics such as value, chroma, and hue than by physical characteristics. We should be able to tell a difference in the reaction of a trading country's consumers and domestic consumers to domestically-manufactured cotton fabrics through comparing this research with the previous work(Shin & Lee, 2002). Additionally, we will be able to establish a basic strategy for successfully advancing Korean fabrics into the American domestic textile industry. In this way we can expect to increase the competitive power of our domestic clothes brands.