• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.53 no.4
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• pp.49-69
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• 2003

The purpose of the study is to develop the competitive swimming suit design with Korean traditional images. which excels in dimension of functionality, aesthetics, and symbolism. To accomplish this study, first. a theoretical examination about Korean image was added, on the basis of the practical research about professional swimmers' preferences as well as the theoretical research about the history of swimming suits and the qualifications of competitive swimming suits in the prior study. Next, practical designing was performed to achieve the creative designs according to Lamb & Kallal's design process. and the superiority of the newly designed swimming suits was evaluated by using Grant's alpha-beta model. The results of this study can be summarized as follows : First. in the problem apprehension stage. the need for swimming suit designs with Korean traditional images for professional swimmers was acknowledged, and three major criteria. which are functionality, aesthetics. and symbolism has been verified. Second. in the preliminary brainstorming stage, considerable amounts of data for the design concept considering the criteria above have been gathered. The athletic one-piece for women and the brief for men in style and nylon/lycra in fabric were used in the aspect of functionality. And the S Korean traditional colors in color and Tae-guk motive and others in pattern were selected to apply Korean traditional images in the aspects of aesthetics and symbolism. Finally, the 13 series of creative designs with 4 themes( l17pieces in total) have been suggested. Third, in the design improvement stage. after the preference to each design was surveyed, reformation of the designs was arranged on the basis of the results. Fourth, in the prototyping stage. the 17 actual prototypes, including 13 pieces for women and 4 pieces for men were produced. Fifth. in the evaluation stage. the evaluation procedure using Grant's alpha-beta model was performed. As a result, the newly designed swimming suits were rated above other existing ones in all three aspects of functionality, aesthetics, and symbolism.