Kitsch Features Expressed in Contemporary Fashion Accessories

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop various designs through renewing and changing perception of accessories by examining various and arbitrary Kitsch. For the method of this study, literature review was mainly used for research of formative characteristics in Kitsch fashion. 798 pieces of work from fashion magazines and website with a focus on Milan, Paris, London and New York collections, in the decade of 2000-2010 were collected. The results of this study are as follows. First, the characteristic of exaggeration is classified into two types: the visual exaggeration, which is characterized by psychological expression through excessive images and (2) the collecting exaggeration, which is not simple but a want of large quantities. Second, the characteristic of satire is classified into two types: (1) the imitation-satire, which satirizes messages to societies with creative humor by using easily consumed materials and (2) the resistance-satire, which is destructive and offensive against isolation and desolation of a capitalistic society. Third, the characteristic of amusement is classified into two types: (1) the playful-amusement, which raises a laugh slyly by using clever materials and (2) the childish-amusement, which involves childish imagination and humor-sense because of desire to be a child. Fourth, the characteristic of nostalgia is classified into two types: (1) the romantic character expressing a departure from modern society, which is desolate because of the urbanization process, and (2) the intermediate character recreating an esthetic category by interacting with different and relative elements. Fifth, the characteristic of inappropriateness is expressed through a deliberate mistake, and it denies existing senses of beauty by overturning common sense and creating new senses of beauty, expressions in distortion and modification of stereotype.