Abstract
This study is about the features of hybridization of ethnic-cultural elements in Korean fashion magazines. Its purpose was to embody more creative and newer images in fashion by promoting better mutual understanding of foreign cultures and addressing the issues of fashion design from multicultural perspectives. In doing so, the present study conducted a literature review and analyzed a total of 130 photographic images with any hybrid ethic element from two Korean fashion magazines, Vogue Korea and Harper's Bazaar Korea, issued between 2005 and 2009. The analysis revealed that there were 66 images(50.8%) with a mixture of two different cultures and 64 images(49.2%) with a mixture of three or more different cultures. As seen from the results, the two categories had a similar number of cases. In regional terms, the use of two different cultural elements included a mixture of Asian and Western cultures in 32 images(24.6%), a mixture of Western and African, Middle Eastern or Latin American cultures in 23(17.7%), and a mixture of Western and Russian or European folk cultures in 11(8.5%). In the use of three or more different cultural/national elements, the present study found a mixture of Asian, African, Middle Eastern, Latin American and Western costume items in 20 photo images(15.4%), a mixture of African, Middle Eastern and Latin American elements plus Western costume items in 19 images( 14.6%), a mixture of all regional cultures in 13 photos(10%), and a mixture of Asian ethic cultures plus Western costume items in 12 cases(9.2%). The results of this analysis indicated that the hybridization of ethnic-culture elements in Korean fashion magazines consisted of diverse clothing and accessories from various ethnic groups. The expression of these multi-cultural hybrid images that consists background images and models from different cultures well-portrayed the multi-cultural elements based on total coordination and broke the stereotypical aspects of styling.
