The Design Characteristics of Street Fashion in Seoul, Shanghai and Tokyo

Abstract

This research aims to identify the design characteristics of street fashion between selected trendsetters in Asia and thus support Korean fashion designers’ efforts to attract international customers. It explores the cultural influence of Korean Wave including on other nations’ (such as China and Japan) fashion industries. To collect sufficient data, three main fashion streets in Seoul, Shanghai, and Tokyo were selected to undertake research development. The research methodology is based on a quantitative approach with a statistics method. The data about women’s clothing was used to underpin the analysis process. The analysis was based on four main attributes: style, silhouette, pattern, and color. To provide reliable data for constructing the analysis framework, the results are presented in a series of tables with respect to frequency. The key findings are as follows: in style, Jean and Easy Casual are identified as the most popular genres in the three cities; in silhouette, H-line is identified as the highest position in the three venues. Third, achromatic color tones obtained the highest preference in the three destinations. Lastly, “no pattern” had the highest frequency in all cities. It is hoped that Korean designers can use these results to develop their designs and expand their targeting of Chinese and Japanese consumers.