• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.50-65
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• 2024

By analyzing the style of creator avatars in the world of Metaverse, which is emerging as a fourth-generation social media platform, this study aims to identify the meta-fashion tastes of Generation Z (Gen Z) creators (born in the late 2010s and early 2020s) and to analyze the extent to which current trends in the fashion market are influencing meta-fashion. The research method uses a case study to compare meta-fashion and current fashion trends. First, five Gen Z fashion creators on ZEPETO were selected to analyze the meta-fashion styles presented by this group. In the end, a total of 100 fashion styles were analyzed by combining 50 items each from the current meta-fashion and real fashion trends. The fashion styles were found to be hip-hop, easy-casual, punk, lovely feminine, and sexy, and the main fashion items were analyzed as jeans, hip-hop style pants, sneakers, tight crop tops, dresses, tattoos, chain accessories, and dyeing. Meta-fashion is the emergence of items similar in shape to those popular in the current fashion market, but are more exaggerated or show off the human body than actual fashion items.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.48 no.1
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• pp.20-36
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• 2024

Over the past three years, even amidst viral threats, a notable shift towards online interactions has been observed. This trend persists the presence of significant viral concerns. Our study centered on female office workers in their twenties and thirties in Korea, seeking to comprehend how they enhance and present their external image in the digital era. We explored the use of digital devices and fashion choices that enable them to amplify their self-expression in video conferences. Using a mix of surveys and in-depth interviews, we employed snowball sampling to recruit twelve participants. These women were given the opportunity to shape their digital persona either to uphold their current image or to adapt it for interactions where they weren't face-to-face. Their desired images fell into three distinct categories: an authoritative professional image, a clean modern image, and a natural image. Depending on the context, the participants aimed to convey these images independently or in various combinations. Our findings suggest the need to develop strategies for acknowledging and projecting individual fashion identities in non-face-to-face interactions. Such strategies would empower individuals to better align their online personas with their desired self-image, whether it's professional, modern, clean, natural, or a combination thereof.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.16-33
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• 2024

This study investigated the role of YouTube in providing fashion information and explored how fashion companies and individual YouTubers used this platform to communicate with consumers and disseminate fashion contents. This research identified two main types of YouTube information providers: fashion companies and fashion YouTubers. It focused on characteristics of YouTube fashion information (such as informativity, novelty, usefulness, authenticity, and enjoyment) and their impact on consumer needs satisfaction, information satisfaction, and information acceptance. An online survey was conducted with female consumers aged 20 to 39 years, analyzing responses to assess how YouTube fashion information affected consumer behavior and decision-making. Using SPSS for statistical analysis, results indicated that usefulness and enjoyment significantly influenced information acceptance, particularly with fashion companies showing a stronger impact from usefulness, while authenticity and enjoyment were more influential for fashion YouTubers. Moreover, mediating effects of consumer needs satisfaction and information satisfaction on the relationship between fashion information characteristics and information acceptance were examined. Findings revealed that various characteristics had different mediating effects based on whether the information provider was a fashion company or a fashion YouTuber. Notably, enjoyment and authenticity played crucial roles in mediating consumer needs satisfaction. Overall, this study provides insights into how YouTube serves as a vital channel for fashion information, influencing consumer satisfaction and behavior. It also offers practical implications for fashion marketers on how to leverage YouTube effectively to meet consumer needs and enhance information acceptance, thereby proposing strategic marketing recommendations for fashion companies and YouTubers.

• Journal of the Korea Convergence Society
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.23-30
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• 2021

Various customizing services are also being introduced in the fashion industry in line with the diversification of consumer tastes and the demand for small production of multiple varieties. However, barriers to entry are high for consumers who are not customized, and various functions are rather complicated. This study selected the three platforms that provide the most similar services to Marple, the No. 1 fashion platform sales, as comparative models and used them as a basic study for web-based fashion customization platform design through case analysis. As a research method, theoretical examinations were conducted through literature surveys, followed by web analysis based on layout, menu, color, icon, and interaction. The study found that the placement of options, the composition of menu windows, the number of point colors, and the use of icons without functions of metaphores hindered the use of customizing platforms. This work proposes a solution, and aims to contribute to increasing the usability of future customizing web by comprehensively analyzing the visual shaping elements of web platform design.

• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.119-130
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• 2021

This study investigated the effects of the chatbot's level of anthropomorphism - closeness to the human form - and its self-disclosure - delivery of emotional exchange with the chatbot through its facial expressions and chatting message on the user's intention to accept the service. A 2 (anthropomorphism: High vs. Low) × 2 (self-disclosure through facial expressions: High vs. Low) × 2 (self-disclosure through conversation: High vs. Low) between-subject factorial design was employed for this study. An online survey was conducted and a total of 234 questionnaires were used in the analysis. The results showed that consumers used chatbot service more when emotions were disclosed through facial expressions, than when it disclosed fewer facial expressions. There was statistically significant interaction effect, indicating the relationship between chatbot's self-disclosure through facial expression and the consumers' intention to use chatbot service differs depending on the extent of anthropomorphism. In the case of "robot chatbots" with low anthropomorphism levels, there was no difference in intention to use chatbot service depending on the level of self-disclosure through facial expression. When the "human-like chatbot" with high anthropomorphism levels discloses itself more through facial expressions, consumer's intention to use the chatbot service increased much more than when the human-like chatbot disclosed fewer facial expressions. The findings suggest that chatbots' self-disclosure plays an important role in the formation of consumer perception.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.27-34
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• 2021

Purpose: While previous studies mainly focus on one shopping expectancy in the context of e-commerce or m-commerce, this study examines the relationship between consumers' performance and effort expectancy and their shopping intentions in the omnichannel retail environment in which both online and offline shopping channels are utilized concurrently in a single shopping journey. Research design, data and methodology: This study measured consumers' performance expectancy, effort expectancy, attitudes, and intentions toward an omnichannel shopping service. A survey was developed using an online survey platform and distributed to U.S. consumers for a 3-week period and 470 usable responses were obtained. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis and Structural Equation Modeling were performed to test the reliability and validity of the measurement model and research model portraying the hypothesized relationships among constructs. Results: The results confirm that both performance and effort expectancy from shopping affected consumers' attitudes toward omnichannel shopping. The positive attitudes increased their omnichannel shopping intentions. Conclusions: Retailers should promote omnichannel strategies as effective shopping tools to improve consumers' shopping experiences and outcomes. This study suggests that retailers should implement omnichannel strategies that synchronize the retail channels they offer and promote the strategies as effective means to enhance customers' shopping outcomes and experiences.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.418-430
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• 2022

This study aims to analyze consumers' purchase decision-making process of buying avatar fashion items on the Metaverse platform. Drawing on the connection between the self-expression tendency of the MZ generation and that of avatars in the Metaverse, this study uses a qualitative research method to analyze how consumers express their self-image through the appearance of their avatars. Unlike previous studies on the clothing purchase decision-making process, this study shows that purchasing and consumption behavior involve the following six stages: recognizing desire, collecting information, evaluating alternatives, making purchases, evaluating the consumption, and post-purchase action-taking. In the first stage of the purchase decision-making process, consumers' desire arises with self-image expression and confirmation. In the second stage, consumers have a high tendency to shop in the best item category. In the alternative evaluation stage, consumers tend to seek items that match their highest standard while considering their personal preferences. In the fourth stage, when making actual purchases, unplanned purchase behavior often occurs along with an active practice of alternative evaluation. In the fifth stage, the evaluation of the consumption shows that consumers achieve satisfaction by applying a style to their avatars that they are unable to try in the real world. In the last stage, consumers often use their purchases to communicate their various styles with other online consumers. Therefore, we conclude that the online purchase decision-making process differs from the offline process as it is divided into six stages.

• Fashion & Textile Research Journal
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• v.24 no.5
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• pp.593-604
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• 2022

The purpose of this study is to analyze the flow of change in perception of metaverse before and after COVID-19 through big data analysis. This research method used Textom to collect all data, including metaverse for two years before COVID-19 (2018.1.1~2019.11.30) and after COVID-19 outbreak (2020.1.11~2021.12.31), and the collection channels were selected by Naver and Google. The collected data were text mining, and word frequency, TF-IDF, word cloud, network analysis, and emotional analysis were conducted. As a result of the analysis, first, hotels, weddings, and glades were commonly extracted as social issues related to metaverse before and after COVID-19, and keywords such as robots and launches were derived, so the frequency of keywords related to hotels and weddings was high. Second, the association of the pre-COVID-19 metaverse keywords was platform-oriented, content-oriented, economic-oriented, and online promotion-oriented, and post-COVID-19 clusters were event-oriented, ontact sales-oriented, stock-oriented, and new businesses. Third, positive keywords such as likes, interest, and joy before COVID-19 were high, and positive keywords such as likes, joy, and interest after COVID-19. In conclusion, through this study, it was found that metaverse has firmly established itself as a new platform business model that can be used in various fields such as tourism, travel, festivals, and education using smart technology and metaverse.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.17 no.4
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• pp.101-118
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• 2021

The prevalence of We-Media short videos has attracted emerging independent fashion designers (EIFD), a new force in the fashion industry directing their brand promotion to We-Media for amassing online followers. However, compared to famous content generators, EIFDs' creative, design-based visual appeal has not provided them with the significant edge. The former's success is admittedly supported by the platform backstage algorithm. Yet, the content is the cornerstone for building relationship between the sender and the reception. The authentic perception of the content is one of the basic appeals for which the audience chooses to follow the source. Therefore, with the EIFD short video as the research content, this study is established from the audience's perspective to understand the different dimensions of their authentic perceptions of EIFDs short video. The study was conducted mainly in the form of the Q method. The collection of 52 Q samples were realized through the Focus Group Interview and literature review on multidimensional authenticity. Thirty-six subjects participated in the sorting of the Q-sets. Finally, four dimensions of audience authenticity perceptions of EIFDs were derived: 'ingenuity', 'relevant', 'transparent', and 'experiential'. The corresponding short video content design strategies are suggested for effective communication of EIFDs and their personal brands.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.43 no.5
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• pp.725-741
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• 2019

Virtual Reality (VR) represents a key technology for future shopping platforms. This study examined the effect of vividness and interactivity, the two technological characteristics of VR, and fashion involvement, a consumer characteristic, on a consumer's intent to use VR stores under the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The study explained consumers' belief in a new technology and the process underlying the use behavior. The survey was conducted on 200 people between the ages of 20s and 30s via an online survey firm. Data are analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results showed that a greater level of perceived vividness had a positive effect on ease of use and playfulness, while perceived interactivity had a significant impact on usefulness and playfulness. The findings also indicated that consumers with a high degree of fashion involvement tend to perceive a higher level of playfulness through VR shopping. Regarding the effects of consumer beliefs, perceived ease of use had a positive influence on usefulness perception. A higher level of perceived usefulness and playfulness meant a higher consumer intention to adopt a VR shopping platform.