레트로로맨틱 패션의 미적 특성과 시각적 평가 연구

Abstract

From the beginning of the year 2000, the advancement of technology is revealing its limitation with criticisms for uniformed thoughts and lacking in humanity. This has called for a turning point of searching for a new direction for the society. The trend of retro romanticism that values emotions and spirits with the reminiscence of the past has come to root its place in the society. Because fashion is a mode of expression not only for the society and the culture but also the inner value of human kind, the appearance of retro romanticism in modern fashion is reflective of the values of the modern people. This study attempts to inquire about the theories of retro romantic fashion as well as its aesthetic value. It also endeavors to empirically research on visual evaluation of retro romantic fashion in hopes to demonstrate and understand the uniqueness of this particular fashion trend. The purpose of this study is to grasp the aesthetic characteristics of the retro romantic fashion that are revealed in the literature. Furthermore, this study aims to categorize the dimensions of the visual evaluation of the costume details of the retro romantic fashion and to research on the costume details and the visual evaluation by evaluators’ gender, age, and major, and on their preferences. In addition, with this study as the basis, recommendations for detailed resources as well as information for further studies and design development will be provided. Literature review and quantitative research were conducted for this study. Literature review on retro romanticism encompassed resources on aesthetics, literature, architecture as well as art, including national and international fashion related literatures, fashion pictures taken mostly from Paris and Milan. These were limited to modern fashion pictures that were taken after the year 2000. Based on the pictures, 10 costume details were selected for the survey questions and data were collected. All 446 subjects who participated in this research were college students (males and females) residing in or near Seoul. Data were collected in March, 2007. The collected data were statistically analyzed using SPSS which included: factor analysis, Cronbach’s α reliability analysis, three-way ANOVA, two-way ANOVA, one-way ANOVA, Duncan’s multiple range tests, and the t-test. As a result of study, three artistic characteristics of the retro romantic fashion were presented. First, retro romantic fashion has an exaggerated formativeness. Retro romantic fashion has overcome the confinement of the present to imitate the splendor and decorative style of the past which results in exaggeration. Exaggerated costume tends to be spaciously bigger and emphasizes one particular part which offers implicated significance for the space between the body and the costume. A new visual fashion is created through this space. Second, retro romantic fashion encompasses gorgeous decorativeness. From an artistic point of view, decorations are part of impulsively formulated art. Artistic effects of such decorations are uniformly confirmed in various artistic states. Therefore, through gorgeous decorations, retro romantic fashion rejects artificiality and lack of sensitivity for new effects of aesthetics through expression of stronger artistic and spiritual desires. Third, retro romantic fashion expresses pluralistic retro. The current society has left the formalities of the modernism for a pluralistic society where openness, diversity, and uniqueness are respected. Such components of the pluralistic society are repetitively used in fashion. Time reflective retro romantic fashion is being recreated by borrowing images rather than replaying the historical contents, with the style, silhouette, and specific items that swayed in the past, being combined with modern materials, techniques, and designs. The results of visual evaluation of retro romantic fashion are as follows: First, as a result of the factor analysis of the costume detail evaluation, five factors including attractiveness, decorativeness, cuteness, retro, and femininity surfaced. Second, the gender difference in the results of the research revealed that women rated decorative, cute, retro, and feminine characteristics higher than men did. This can be explained by asserting that women reacted more sensitively to the stimulus and recognized retro romantic fashion details to be more decorative and feminine than men. However, age showed no significant differences. There were significant differences in the evaluation of all the five factors on costume details. Frills, flounces, and puffs were evaluated to have strong feminine details. Flounces, in particular, were considered to be the most attractive details. Ruffles were recognized to have strongly feminine and decorative details, while buttons were recognized to have strongly retro details. In addition, the decorations of ribbons and strings were recognized as having strongly cute details. Third, there were significant interactive effects in attractiveness and femininity depending on costume details and evaluators’ gender. Women evaluated ribbons and puff sleeves to be more attractive and feminine than men. Fourth, subjects majoring in fashion valued attractiveness and femininity of the stimulus over non-fashion majoring subjects. However, there were no significant differences in decorativeness, cuteness, retro and femininity. In addition, there were significant interactive effects in the evaluation of attractiveness and cuteness depending on details and the evaluators’ majors. Fifth, there were significant differences in the preferences of costume details depending on gender. Flounces, string decorations, and puffs were more preferred by men than women. In particular, flounces were a detail significantly preferred by men. Differences in preference depending on majors showed that non-fashion majors highly preferred fur decorations, puffs, and flounces than fashion majors did. Therefore, although non-fashion majors rated the attractiveness of puff-sleeves lower than fashion majors, their preferences can still be considered high. As can be seen, by studying artistic considerations of retro romantic fashion as well as researching visual evaluation of costume details, the uniqueness of retro romantic fashion was determined. This study will greatly contribute to the understanding of the retro romantic fashion as well as provide assistance to developing various fashion designs based on individual images.