Design Characteristics of Contemporary Male Skirt and Expansion of the Masculine Image

Abstract

Male skirt is found in traditional costumes all over the world. Due to the development of tailoring skills in the early Middle ages, men started wearing breeches and pantaloons gradually distinguishing the different characteristics of menswear and womenswear. Since then, skirt became the strong representation of the female gender, symbolizing the feminism. However, under the influences of technological development and diversification in 2000s, gender identity has been diversely expressed in modern fashion allowing male gender to embrace different sexual identities. The purpose of the study is to analyze the nature of male skirts, which have been popularized in modern men's fashion through both the expressional elements and compositional elements. This study associates design elements of male skirt, gradually appearing in the contemporary men's fashion with the sexual symbolism and reinterpreted it's significance in the flow of the modern fashion. Reinterpretation of the gender image in costumes are considered to contribute to the cultural context and extension in diversity. These research results forms a basic foundation to expand in studies of men's fashion design and gender image of costumes through cultural contexts and it's changes. It is considered that this can lay groundwork to make various attempts at passing over the archetype of the gender image besides the continuous appearance of male skirt in the field of fashion design.

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