Abstract
This paper examined the kinds and characteristics of leather and also analyzed the expression techniques and characteristics of leather in contemporary fashion. The objective of this study lies in re-interpreting the current location of leather in contemporary fashion design, enlarging unlimited potential expression fields of leather, and at the same time, helping create new viewpoints and expression types of leather. For this purpose, this paper examined the kinds and characteristics of leather through the existing literatures, and it also carried out positive analysis of the expression techniques and characteristics of leather clothes through local and foreign fashion magazines and collection papers, such as Gap, Vogue, and Mode & Mode, focusing on the works presented in the fashion collections after 2000. Leather in contemporary fashion is expressed in different colors through dyeing. Through various expression techniques such as wrinkles, ruffle, stitch, embossing, quilting, patchwork, holing, nailing, cutting, laser cutting, fringe, weaving, printing, and collage, leather breaks the fixed ideas of itself and further, it makes the images of fashion design affluent. Leather clothes, which are made through various expression techniques, have some characteristics. First, leather clothes emphasize women's voluptuous beauty. Second, leather clothes create a decorative effect through mixture of materials and various expression techniques. Third, through the feel of materials and the emphasis of shapes, primitive beauty is expressed.
