Abstract

This study aims to show how tradition and modernity has interacted to produce the aesthetic consciousness of body and dress in contemporary Korea. For this purpose, documentary studies were proceeded. And photos of the modern Korean dress from 1980 to 1997 were analyzed. The results are as follows: First, the body form was studied in terms of exposure and concealment of the physical body parts and the perception of body was classified into two categories, the abstract and the realistic. And the dress form was studied in silhouette and the perception of dress was assorted as body priority and clothes priority. Second, the aesthetic values of body were categorized to divinity, humanity and sexuality. And the aesthetic values of dress were defined in relation to the aesthetic values of body as ascetic beauty, pure beauty, natural beauty and erotic beauty. Third, while the traditional Korean costume (Hanbok) pursues the aesthetic values of divinity and humanity of human body and ascetic beauty, pure beauty and natural beauty on the aesthetic values of humanity of human body and the pure beauty and natural beauty of dress. The contemporary Korean fashion expresses the aesthetic values of divinity, humanity and sexuality of human body and the aesthetic values of ascetic beauty, pure beauty, natural beauty and erotic beauty of dress. In conclusion, the emphasis of sexuality of body and erotic beauty of dress in the modern Korean dress can be interpreted as the change of the aesthetic consciousness of body and dress in contemporary Korean by the influence of the western modernity.

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