• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.80-90
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• 2011

The purposes of this study are clarifying the characteristics of women's hair style in the late Joseon Dynasty by inquiring into that hair style and, by extension, having a new understanding of the aesthetic consciousness of women in those times. The typical hair style of married Joseon women was Ungeonmeori and Jjokmeori, with Ungeonmeori being much more popular. Regardless of socioeconomic status, women used a big Gache as long as conditions permitted. Meanwhile, some women who led the trend or followed the national policy did Jjokmeori and wore Jokdoori. The Joseon Dynasty had a strict clothing system. However, giseangs were free from this restriction and they were free at attire. Therefore, they led the fashion trend. Both noble and common women followed the trend, imitating giseangs' attire. Women's hair style was used as a tool to express one's personality in the late Joseon Dynasty when the hierarchy was already weakened. In fact, it seems that women in those times cared more about hair style trend than clothing trend. This means that those women already had such a high quality of aesthetic consciousness that they showed their hair which is the closest to the face to advantage.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.918-927
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• 2008

The purpose of this research was to identify the dimensions of modesty and immodesty in dress and to examine the differences in female college students' perceptions, in various cultures, of modest and immodest clothes. The researchers selected South Korea and the United States for the cross-cultural comparison study because these two countries show distinctive cultural characteristics. This study was conducted through both qualitative and quantitative methods. According to the result of the preliminary study, 47 questions were developed. The 4 Likert type scales used in the questionnaire were written in both English and Korean. Pretests were performed simultaneously in both countries. 174 American and 208 Korean students completed the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using SPSS. According to the results of factor analysis, there were 4 factors identified for the modesty-immodesty concept, including 'Conservativeness', 'Body exposure', 'Social appropriateness', and 'Attracting attention from others'. Students answered that they liked to wear conservative and socially appropriate dress in both cultures and that they did not like to wear clothing which draws a great deal of attention to them. Cultural differences were also identified. Based on the results, American students dressed more conservatively than Korean students, while Korean students preferred to wear revealing dress. American students were more conservative and preferred modest clothing. Also Korean students were more open about their body exposure and had immodest clothing attitudes.