• The International Journal of Costume Culture
• /
• v.6 no.2
• /
• pp.117-125
• /
• 2003

Aesthetics of ugliness enlarged aesthetic field and brought back the repressed, estranged things. Hair style is not an exception. So I intended to examine the contemporary(1995-2002) women's hair styles on the basis of Rosenkranz' concept of ugliness. The results are as follows: First, extrinsic aspect contains formlessness and disfiguration. Among characteristics of formlessness, discord means appearing on a stage with a hair style derailed from our common sense or an incomplete hair style. Asymmetry means hair decoration or hair dressing which violates the principles of design. Disharmony means excessiveness beyond the concept of accent. Disfiguration has characteristics of vulgarity, disgust and caricature, and means cruelty, grimness or ridiculousness instead of pleasing beauty. Second, intrinsic aspect has incorrectness. As minority ethnic groups, estranged classes, children and women which in the previous field of absolute aesthetics were never considered as beauty appeared as subject matters of hair styles, the repressed things returned and a new genre was created thereby enlarging true aesthetic field. Like this, 1 cloud confirm that aesthetics of ugliness organized today's characteristic, peculiar hair styles, and enlarged aesthetic field.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.47 no.1
• /
• pp.152-170
• /
• 2023

Although ugliness had long been considered a negative form of beauty, it has become an independent aesthetic category. However, most previous art studies have focused on Rosenkranz's theory, making its application to contemporary fashion analysis challenging. Therefore, it is necessary to redefine ugliness. This study highlighted four modern ugliness categories from a modern perspective following the examination of the historical considerations of the ugliness concept, namely ugliness as a violation of taboo, ugliness as an unpleasant emotion, ugliness as a vulgar taste, and ugliness as an ethical flaw. From this perspective, SHOWstudios for fashion films were analyzed in the present study. The results of our analysis showed that ugliness in the film was related to socially sensitive subjects and stimulating images. Whereas costumes in the film were used as a tool to convey the subject and to enhance the visual effect of the image. In addition, clothing was identified as a core subject element of the video, particularly when considering ugliness as an ethical defect. This study provides further insights into contemporary fashion analysis, expanding the ugliness perspective, which had been limited to the specific perspectives of scholars.