Decolonizing South Korean fashion : Reimagining modernity and globalization

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Decolonial fashion discourse has recently gained global momentum, addressing the colonial power structures of modernity and globalization that shape unequal cultural and material hierarchies within contemporary fashion. Yet its impact on design practice and the fashion industry remains limited, and within Korean fashion (K-fashion), such discourse is still largely nascent.
Positioned as an introductory text and a catalyst for decolonial discourse in Korea, this dissertation first examines how Western fashion has sustained symbolic and systemic hegemony—particularly through modern-day colonial spectacles themed around Asian “traditional” cultures—and then demonstrates how Korea has internalized these hierarchical relations, frequently conflating Western appropriation with symbolic validation and markers of cultural progress.
Building on these critiques, this research identifies K-fashion’s pursuit of Western approval as a reversed colonial spectacle, wherein Westernized cultural products are presented to Western gatekeepers in search of symbolic consecration, which is then leveraged for economic gain within the domestic market. Through a socio-historical analysis of Korea’s cultural Westernization across its colonial and postcolonial histories, this dissertation argues that such assimilation reflects colonial alienation rather than any inherent predisposition.
Further developing these arguments, the dissertation critiques how Western-centered cultural hybridity—and the underpinning cosmopolitan narratives—ultimately reinforce the uneven material structures of globalization, while discourses of “authenticity” and “inclusivity” function to obscure these asymmetries. Accordingly, as a core argument, this dissertation emphasizes the essential role of decolonial fashion education—grounded in nation-centric cultural production—in the decolonization of K-fashion.
Methodologically, this study adopts an interdisciplinary fashion studies approach, combining dialectical critique with contextualized case studies to examine how Western hegemony operates within—and is internalized by—K-fashion. Central to this inquiry is a critical analysis of the rhetorical frames that fabricate the meanings and values of cultural products. In this vein, the study foregrounds in-depth analyses of modern/colonial narratives assigned to cultural—particularly sartorial—products and industry practices across media and academic discourse, while advancing critical reflections on the lived experience of K-fashion education through case studies of decolonial fashion courses and projects.

국문 초록 (Abstract)

탈식민 패션 담론은 현대 패션에서 지속되는 불평등한 권력 관계를 정당화하고 재생산해 온 근대성과 세계화의 식민·신식민적 구조에 대한 비판과 함께 최근 전 세계적으로 주목받고 있다. 그러나 이러한 담론의 영향력은 아직 디자인 실천과 산업 전반으로 충분히 확산되지 못하고 있으며, 한국 패션(K-fashion) 맥락에서는 여전히 초기 단계에 머물러 있다.
이러한 문제의식을 바탕으로, 본 논문은 한국에서 탈식민 패션 담론을 소개하고 촉발하는 연구로서, 서구 패션이 상징적·체계적 헤게모니를 어떻게 유지해 왔는지를 비판적으로 분석한다. 특히 한국을 포함한 아시아의 “전통” 문화를 테마로 한 전시와 패션쇼가 현대의 식민적 스펙터클로 재현되는 방식을 핵심적으로 고찰한다. 더 나아가 한국 패션과 한국 사회가 이러한 식민적 위계와 실천을 어떻게 내면화해 왔는지, 그리고 서구에 의한 한국 문화유산의 전유가 문화적 승인이나 “문화 발전”의 지표로 인식되는 현상을 조명한다.
이러한 비평을 토대로, 본 연구는 K-fashion이 “빅4” 패션위크를 중심으로 서구화된 문화 상품을 서구의 게이트키퍼(gatekeeper)에게 제시하고, 그로부터 획득한 상징 자본을 주로 국내 시장에서 경제적 이익으로 전유하는 구조를 ‘역전된 식민 스펙터클’로 개념화한다. 이를 위해 본 논문은 식민기와 후기식민기에 걸친 한국의 인식론적·문화적 서구화 과정을 사회사적으로 분석하며, K-fashion의 미적 동화가 본질적 성향이 아니라 식민적 소외(colonial alienation)의 결과임을 논증한다.
아울러 서구 중심의 문화적 혼종성과 이를 정당화하는 세계시민주의적 서사는 오늘날의 신식민적 세계화 속에서 물질적 불평등을 은폐하고 재생산하며, “진정성”과 “포용성” 담론 역시 이러한 구조적 비대칭성을 가시화하기보다는 오히려 흐리는 역할을 수행함을 지적한다. 이러한 비판적 논의를 바탕으로, 본 논문은 K-fashion의 탈식민화를 위해 민족-중심적 문화 생산에 기반한 탈식민 패션 교육과 실천이 핵심적인 개입 방식임을 강조한다.
방법론적으로 본 연구는 패션스터디(fashion studies) 기반의 학제적(interdisciplinary) 접근을 취하며, 변증법적 비판과 사례 연구를 결합하여 서구 헤게모니가 K-fashion 내부에서 어떻게 작동하고 내면화되는지를 분석한다. 특히 문화적 산물의 의미와 가치를 사회적으로 구성하고 왜곡하는 수사적 프레이밍을 비판적으로 탐구함과 동시에, 탈식민 패션 교육 및 프로젝트에 대한 사례 연구를 통해 K-fashion 교육의 실제적 경험(lived experience)을 비판적으로 성찰한다.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• Chapter 1. Introduction: Decolonial Fashion Theory and Praxis 1
• 1.1. Background, Rationale, and Purpose of the Research 1
• 1.2. Methodology, Sources, and Outline of the Research 9
• Chapter 2. Colonial Spectacles as Manifested in Fashion Exhibitions and Shows 15
• 2.1. Modernity, Coloniality, and the Diffusion of Fashion 17
• A. The Political Significations of Dress 23
• B. Hanbok and Yangbok: A Complex Site of Political Signification 25
• C. Gendered Processes of Sartorial Westernization in Korea 31
• 2.2. Fashion: A Colonial Product of Modernity 38
• A. The Coloniality of Fashion 39
• B. The Colonial Invention of “Modernity” and “Tradition” 42
• 2.3. Colonial Spectacle as Manifested in Fashion Exhibitions 45
• A. Colonial Spectacles: Western Representations of the Colonies 46
• B. Modern-Day Colonial Spectacles: Western Reinterpretations of the Non-West 48
• C. An In-Depth Critique of China: Through the Looking Glass (2015) 51
• 2.4. Colonial Spectacle as Manifested in Fashion Shows 62
• A. Chanel’s Reinterpretation of Hanbok: Cultural Homage or Patronization? 63
• B. Gucci’s Authenticity and Korea’s Internalization of Cultural Hierarchy 66
• Chapter 3. South Korean Fashion’s Quest for Western Approval 80
• 3.1. Reversed Colonial Spectacles: Subjugation to the Hegemony 81
• A. Fashion Shows as Sites of Power Struggles 82
• B. Western Consecration and Symbolic Capital: Limits and Colonial Implications 87
• 3.2. Challenging the “Learning from Western/Japanese Fashion” Rhetoric 92
• A. Promoting Western Consecration: Western Fashion as the Ultimate Aspiration 93
• B. K-Fashion’s Potential for Autonomous Global Success 99
• 3.3. Recognizing the Coloniality in K-Fashion Education and Practice 106
• A. Colonial and Neocolonial Suppression of Creative Agency 108
• B. Americanization and the Ambivalence of Colonial Cultural Production 112
• C. Toward Methodological and Creative Autonomy 119
• D. The Institutionalized Divide Between Fashion and Jeontongboksik 125
• E. Fashion Studies for the Decolonization of K-Fashion Education 130
• 3.4. Aesthetic Assimilation: Cultural to Psychological Colonization 134
• A. K-fashion’s Unrestrained Use of Caucasian Models 135
• B. A Genealogy of Sadae 138
• C. Cultural Colonization to Ontological Colonization 143
• D. The Rhetoric of Transitional Culture 147
• E. Language as a Decontextualized and Depoliticized Aesthetic 156
• Chapter 4. Exploring K-fashion’s Decolonial Potentials 164
• 4.1. The Politics of Symbolic and Systemic Assimilation 167
• A. Western Fashion’s Absorption of Resistance 168
• B. Coloniality Disguised as a Field of Struggles 174
• C. Critical Inquiries into the Coloniality of K-Fashion 178
• 4.2. Rethinking Western-centered Globalization and Cultural Hybridity 182
• A. Critique of Neocolonial Globalization and Cosmopolitan Narratives 182
• B. Reorienting Globalization in the Context of Fashion 194
• 4.3. Decolonial Efforts and Potentials: Nation-Centric Cultural Production 203
• A. Sartorial Transformation as Cultural and Political Resistance 206
• B. The Ambivalent Dynamics of Female-Led Preservation and Transformation of Hanbok 214
• C. Nation-Centric Sartorial Production for Decolonial Initiatives 218
• 4.4. On Decolonial Fashion Discourse, Praxis, and Education 227
• A. Decolonial Fashion Discourse and Praxis as Social Intervention 227
• B. Decolonial Fashion Pedagogy and Education 233
• 4.5. Reflections on Decolonial Fashion Courses 238
• A. Decolonial Fashion Thinking & Practice at Dankook University 239
• B. Aesthetic Decentralization at Sungkyunkwan University 249
• C. Observations and Suggestions 255
• Chapter 5. Conclusion: Decolonial Fashion Discourse to Practice 267
• References 283