A Study on the Meaning of the Breast Exposure in Women's Fashion Design

패션 디자인에 나타난 가슴 노출의 의미 연구

Our interest in human body is more and more increasing. Not only academic and art communities but also other social communities show a keen interest in the human body. Especially, the breast of women's body parts may be comparable to men's penis because it is protruded. The breast which sexually distinguishes women from men becomes an important topic in the fashion design community. Therefore, such designs which emphasize the breast are being introduced in a natural way. This paper aims at examining the reason and symbolism for the exposure of breast and analyzing the fashion design that breast is exposed. This study will help us grasp the meaning which the design has. The exposure's scope of breast in the design includes the partial exposure, total exposure and the concealment of breast. But these all have their effects in each scope. For this paper, some general things were investigated. They are as follows: the phases of breast exposure in the fashion design, the exposure of breast expressed in the works of fine art, and the alteration of breast-exposing phenomenon shown in apparels. Then, each type of breast-exposing design shown in the women's fashion was analyzed from the middle of 1980s' when the phenomenon of breast exposure occurred to the year 2004. These could be divided into 4 types. They include a suggestive type, an exaggerative type, an open type and a reproductive type. As the result of analysis of 4 types, such meanings of design as an emphasis of femininity, an expression of liberty, a symbol of maternity and a commercialization of sex could be analogized.