Orientalism in Modern Men's Skirt Fashion

현대 남성 스커트에 나타난 오리엔탈리즘

Western designers have long been inspired by exotic and mysterious looks and feelings of non-western countries in their design works. The influence of Orientalism has been prevalent not only in fashion but also in overall aspects of Western cultures ad it dated back to the B.C period. Orientalism has been interpreted differently in different ages. Orientalism has been in effect since the strong emergence of Western powers beginning in the 13th century. There have been produced many studies to analyze the tradition of Western fashion under the framework of Orientalism, but most of them have focused on women's wear and the researches on men's wear have hardly been productive, particularly on men's skirts. This paper aims to analyze the restoration movement of men's skirt fashion in Western societies such as tin America and European countries from the standpoint of Orientalism and attempts to forecast its future. The paper shows how we can reveal the identity of the tradition of men's skirt in Western fashion by making a critical comparison between the pictures of western men's skirts and those found in the folk fashion tradition in non-western countries.