Modern Fashion Influenced by Asian Ethnic Dresses

As we all know that many of the Asian countries have been heavily influenced by the western world, but this effect has also occurred to the west. With growing "cultural interchange and interaction among differing cultures, [it has] now become a part of their everyday life..." (Yu, Kim, Lee and Hong 100). As Haekyung Yu, Chanju Kim, Juhyeon Lee, and Nayoung Hong had stated in "An Analysis of Modern Fashion Designs as Influenced by Asian Ethnic Dress," "whenever symbols from a new culture, idea, or artifact are introduced, it is often dress that is most receptive to the changes..." (Yu, Kim, Lee and Hong 100), it is evident of interaction and cultural interchange when the more dominant the style of clothes is in the influenced culture. Even today we still have traces of the Asian ethnic dress influenced in western modern fashion. The hanbok, a traditional Korean ethnic dress, for example has been altered, "modified and incorporated to suit the Western lifestyle," (Yu, Kim, Lee and Hong 100).


The same exact alterations occur to many other Asian ethnic dresses such as the kimono and today they still use the kimono sleeves on sweaters and loose flowing tops for women.



The more dominant the cultural dress are in Western modern fashion, the more it shows their relationship with the Asian countries. China and Japan were the two most influential countries on Western fashion because they both have "long history of cultural exhange which would explain why they had such a strong impact on modern fashion," (Yu, Kim, Lee and Hong 107). I noticed how many of our clothes today have some sort of Asian ethnic dress influence such as the kimono sleeves, the side buttons of the cheongsam (qipao), and the high cinch around the bust area from the hanbok. Clearly we still have a reliance on Asian ethnic dresses for Western modern fashion which indicates our need for cultural exchange and global interactions.

As for the Compact Challenge, I'm now concentrating on buying grocery and cooking more at home instead of eating out since I haven't been buying any clothes or cosmetic products. It's still too early to say if I've saved any money from this project yet because I'm still purchasing books for classes and they're eating my money up since books cost so much nowadays. I was so sad when I found out that there were a lot of sales on cosmetic products and clothes going on this week.

<3 Annie Tan

Works Cited:
Yu Haekyung, Chanju Kim, Juhyeon Lee, and Nayoung Hong. "An Analysis of Modern Fashion Designs as Influenced by Asian Ethnic Dress." International Journal of Consumer Studies, 2001.

Images:
-http://english.chosun.com/site/data/img_dir/2009/03/05/2009030561003_0.jpg
-http://www.dramabeans.com/wp-content/images/misc/hanbok/SO_hanbok.jpg
-http://www.thefizz.co.uk/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/Notte-by-Marchesa.jpg
-http://www.japan-promotions.co.uk/images/kimono_lady_large.jpg
-http://www.elle.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/images/elle/fashion/trend-reports/oriental-influence/orient-express-00/2714673-1-eng-US/Orient-express-00.jpg
-https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2p69BlX6udMISk3uyXqULRfh5YofOZrwec36_NAB_CoIzRkWSaNfE6jlQDQOvgc4nYw9w4QUdRuTdR3zosvMJyL6g1FTBMVa9NTM4Rb9ht6eCHyRpz9MSsH6QGozW4L2CDQXvdURymBs/s1600/Bitten+Kimono.jpg