A Study of Playfulness Shown in the Haute Couture Collections- Mainly Focused on Works after the Year 2000 -

Abstract

The purposes of this study are to find the values of playful design by exploring what forms of playful expressions and characteristics appear in the haute couture collections that feature high culture other than street fashion or popular fashion and to help expand the scope to include newer and more creative design ideas. Concerning theoretical background, the study reviewed the literature to understand the concept of playfulness and see what types of playfulness there are and how it is expressed. Based on the results, the study examined the features of playfulness by analyzing the works of haute couture collections which since 2000. The results can be summarized as follows: First, designers in the haute couture collections constructed their own identities by expressing their instinctive desire for playfulness through graffiti such as cartoons or scribbles and delivering direct and specific messages or ambiguous and symbolic meanings through such things. Second, the haute couture collections revealed the human body in a transformed or distorted shape through deformation of clothes or accessories presented brand-new dressing styles by breaking away from the past ways of dressing; and expressed playfulness intentionally with distorted materials. Third, is the depaysement technique. This collage technique selects all possible objects going beyond inartistic routine matters or boundaries of which we are aware and changes their positions and purposes of use to express the playfulness of harmony in disharmony. Fourth, the haute couture collections created a feeling of playfulness by featuring parodies of retro elements, a slice of popular culture, or a variety of painting styles. Finally, like using dolls or toys as accessories or making direct use of parts of clothes, combinations between attributes given by the images of those accessories themselves and creativities found in haute couture dresses are just as fun of authoritarian bias in favor of prestigiousness.

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