Modernization and the Ready-to-Wear Transformation of Korean Fashion

 Advertisement of the ready-to-wear clothing in Donga Ilbo, 1920 ; cropped. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Professor Yoonhee Kim, Department of Clothing and Textiles, Hannam University

Tuesday, April 21, 2015
11:00 AM - 1:00 PM

10383 Bunche Hall
UCLA

The Korea-Japan Treaty of 1986 and the succeeding full-scale opening of the Joseon Korea resulted in many changes in the Joseon society. King Gojong pursued a reformation in the institutional costume and personally adopted the western hair style and western ceremonial dress, introducing a rapid change in the clothing. Formal and private dresses of the officers as well as the costume of the general public adopted the western-style costume and an increasing number of court officials, government employees and the upper class of the society put on the western-style clothing. Some were resistant to the adoption of the western costume, hair style, and the Gregorian calendar as a nationalistic protest, but others were more receptive to the open-door policy. The military costume and the official dresses were the first area in which the western-style clothing was adopted and soon the majority of the general public began to accept the western costume. The introduction of the western costume was inevitably followed by the popularization of the ready-to-wear western costume as a part of the worldwide trend at the time. This transformation occurred in a more abbreviated fashion in Korea during the Japanese colonial occupation, the liberation and the division of the Korea, the Korean War, and the modernization of Korea. This colloquium will discuss the specific aspects of the modernization process of the Korean fashion in relation to the universal characteristics of the worldwide change in the fashion since the late nineteenth century.

This lecture will be in Korean.

 Photo: Advertisement of the ready-to-wear clothing in Donga Ilbo, 1920; cropped. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Cost : Free and open to the public