DEVELOPMENT OF HIGH VALUE-ADDED TEXTILE PRODUCTS WITHIN THE GLOBALIZATION OF THE KOREAN WAVE

Abstract

Fresh attention is being paid to lifestyle brands offering differentiated contents and value such that the 21st century is now being called the age of global lifestyle. Recently national income has been increasing and a broad lifestyle culture has been established. Thus, brands with Scandinavian (Sweden, Denmark, or Norway), culture sensitivity, and design have deeply permeated the domestic market which has led to a domestic consumers' lifestyle trend (Chung& Park, 2004; Kwon, 2013; Magnus & Chrystin, 2003). In particular, such global lifestyle brands as Marimekko (Finland), CathKidston (UK), and Muji (Japan) have secured competitiveness in the global market as textile products which reflect its country's cultural identity (Lee& Park, 2014).Meanwhile, a new word, Hanban (韓版)which refers to Korean brands or products that were created from the Korean wave (韓流), which refers to Korean dramas or songs. Korean culture has been commercialized and grafted into various industries. In particular, a strong wind of Hanban in fashion cultural products not only has spread the Korean lifestyle to the world, but has enhanced its influence on related industries as well as fashion. Although certain major Korean companies launched lifestyle brands such as Jaju, Modern House, Butter, and Pum to help realize a Korean lifestyle brand business, most products sold in Korean lifestyle brands focus on overseas imported goods,so it is difficult to find Korean images on these products(Bang, 2004; Lee & Chung, 2013).The size of the lifestyle market is growing as a high value-added industry that can lead consumers' lifestyle trends, and there is a growing interest for Korean fashion cultural products. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to attempt to develop textile designs for Korean-made high value-added products with the improvement of Korean brand values.For study methodology, the status of lifestyle brands at home and abroad was examined and textile designs were developed for lifestyle brand B. For the development of the textile designs, demand required by brand B was researched and a textile design concept was established based on fashion and interior decoration trends. Then, a textile was designed using a motive that can effectively represent the identity of brand B and the Korean image. Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and Adobe Illustrator CC programs were used for the standardized textile design motif, pattern development, and colorway.The results were as follows. First, global lifestyle brands such as Marimekko, CathKidston, and Muji sell differentiated lifestyle products from other brands by applying motifs and colors which symbolize their country's and city's cultural image on textile products and displaying their own identity and peculiarity. On the other hand, Korean lifestyle brands such as Casamia, Hanssem, Kosney, and Art Box do not plan or produce their own design, but will import and sell foreign textile fabric or textile products with high recognition, or copy imported fabric. Thus, their textile design is unsatisfactory to express their own identity and satisfy consumers' needs. Second, as to the development direction required by brand B, a Korean lifestyle brand, the focus was to first, 'design American and European products using colors and techniques which reflect Korean image trends', Second, to create a 'design with Scandinavia's peculiar simplified line and sensitive color', and finally, to make a 'flower pattern design with good sustainable market feasibility'. Based on the direction and 2015 S/S color and textile trends, three concepts were established: Global Tribe, Bunny in the Wonderland, and Beyond Nature. Global Tribe is a folk paintin g(Minhwa) representing the Korean image well, and was reinterpreted in a modern sense. Bunny in the Wonderland is a modern Scandinavian style design using a rabbit, a symbol of brand B, as the main motif. Beyond Nature used a flower motif in various expression techniques and images. A textile design was developed by extracting from a folk painting, a rabbit, and a flower motif and standardizing a motif in watercolor, pen, and graphic techniques. It was digitalized by a scanner and a pattern was made via the steps of color adjustment and repetition. Three kinds of textile designs were developed according to three concepts and four kinds of colorways were made for each design. This study attempted to develop a textile design as Korean-made high value-added textile products. It is meaningful to suggest textile design with Korean cultural images and brand identity. Further study will focus on the development of fashion cultural products and DIY products to commercialize developed textile design.