• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.61 no.6
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• pp.60-73
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• 2011

Men's fashion has not much changed due to the pervasive patriarchy Because of the change of gender roll and attitude towards one's appearance and fashion, men began to express themselves with fashion in the late 90's. The purpose of this study is to categorize men's image and their fashion styles from Korean TV dramas to provide informations for predicting men's fashion trend in rapidly changing market. Through the analysis of three dramas with 30% or more of audience rating by all age groups from January to July, 2009, nine distinctive male images were selected and their styles were analyzed; silhouette, details, materials, color, accessories, and hair-style. The results are as follows: In the past holding neat and straight line silhouettes but today shows tight silhouette. In color and detail, the use of brilliant chromatic colors, use of hight saturation colors, big and brilliant pattern, ruffles, frills, beads, knitwear, mix matched new composed materials, and light materials are dominant. While short and simple shape of hair-styles were predominant in the past, now we see more varied hair length. Not only that, variety of perms and colors are showed on TV screens. Hence, the results show that a lot of radical change has happened in the men's fashion, and marketing propositions that reflects this change in men's fashion market are requested along with trendy emotional product development and coordination proposals, and finally calls for more multilateral study and market search of male consumers.

• International Journal of Costume and Fashion
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.32-40
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• 2007

American trendy casual styles can be characterized as fitted to body and rendering sexy and fashionable images and now very popular in Korea. This paper aims to identify diffusion channels of Amreican trendy casual style among Korean market and the characteristics of imitation for American trendy casual styles made by Korean casual brands. American trendy casual style was introduced and diffused mainly through 3 channels: American films and TV dramas, on-line communities, on-line shopping mall speciallized for purchasing American apparel brands. Some of American celebrities became fashion ikons and played critical roles in diffusing American trendy styles. After searching websites and fashion magazines and visiting brand stores, several Korean casual brands imitated the styles of American trendy casual brands and the scope of imitation was vast across items. Imitation was found mainly among T-shirts,jacket, jumper, pants, skirt and accessaries. Also imitation was found in almost every aspects of clothes such as shape, sihlouette, color, prints and stitching, belt, and drawstring.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.59 no.2
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• pp.128-142
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• 2009

American trendy casual style can be characterized as fitted to body and rendering sexy and fashionable images and now very popular in Korea. This paper aims to identify how American trendy casual styles have been introduced and diffused among Korean young people and also compare the similarities and differences between American and Korean styles. American trendy casual style was introduced and diffused through 4 channels: people who have living experiences in America, media exposure by American films, TV dramas and fashion magazines, on-line network using internet cafe, club and blog, use of on-line shopping mall speciallized for purchasing American apparel brands. Some of American celebrities became fashion ikons and played critical roles in diffusing American trendy styles. Photos of those American celebrities and street fashion of Korean young women were collected through internet search from Sep. 2006 to Aug. 2007. 6 styles including leggings, mini skirt, short dress, skim jeans, pants with long boots, big bag and long necklace were selected as representing American trendy casual styles. Silhouettes and overall styling were very similar in all 6 items. But Differences were found in terms of rotor, amount of details, item coordination, matching shoes and overall images.

• Review of Culture and Economy
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.21-50
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• 2017

The rise of Hallyu (Korean Wave) has generated a treasury of historiographic and cultural inquiries into the phenomenal success of South Korea's media entertainment industry. Whereas the majority of such studies focus on TV dramas and popular music, there is a medium, or rather a hybrid sub-genre within the medium category of short films, that must be reexamined and thus appreciated as the archetypal predecessor of popular Hallyu contents: music videos. The rapidly changing social, political, and economic climate in the mid- to late 1990s called for content that would grasp the attention of a younger, increasingly mobile population with diversified interests and routines that no longer guaranteed fixed-time viewership. Meanwhile, the advent of cable TV channels and high-speed internet service ensured greater temporal and infrastructural accessibility. The media entertainment industry's response to the new opportunities and challenges arising from these sudden growths in the scale, range, connectivity, and mobility of consumer demographics was synergetic cross-sector collaboration in the form of dramatized blockbuster music videos, which combined two popular and lucrative genres: trendy dramas and ballad music. In this essay, by relocating Hallyu's archetypal medium/genre, I claim that increasing upward and sideways mobility across sectors not only inspired new production but also reconfigured the very concept, form, and impact of media-driven cultural imaginary in South Korea.