• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.36 no.1
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• pp.99-111
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• 2012

This paper investigates the formative features and the historical meaning of the Korean dress collection held in the Horniman Museum in London. The Museum holds eighteen items of Korean dresses donated by Mrs. C. de J. Luxmore in 1948 and by Mrs. Bowra in 1953. Male dresses consist of white silk outer robe (durumagi), a pale violet silk waistcoat (jokki), a jade green silk jacket (jeogori), pale yellow silk trousers (baji), a pair of ankle bands (daenim), a cotton waistband (dae), a silk purse (jumeoni), a rattan under-vest (deungbaeja), a pair of rattan wristlets (deungtosi), a top hat (gat) and a skullcap (tanggeon). Female dresses comprise a jade green silk jacket (jeogori), an ivory silk skirt (chima), a light blue silk petticoat (sokchima), two kinds of white cotton trousers (sokbaji and soksokgot), a pair of silk wristlets (tosi) and a pair of padded socks (beoseon). A Korean dress collection of the Horniman Museum shows a set of ordinary dress items worn by a married couple in the 1930s and the 1940s. Of these items, a silk petticoat (sokchima) and a rattan under-vest (deungbaeja) can be highly evaluated as object resources in the history of Korean dress. The petticoat is a rare and valuable example that represents an early type of modern petticoat that has replaced a traditional petticoat (dansokgot). The rattan under-vest has square neckline and two tiny sleeves similar to a Western cap sleeve. This kind of under-vest is a transitional form shown between under-vest similar to the Korean waistcoat (baeja) and one similar to the Western waistcoat (jokki).