Development of a cultural design framework for fashion and textiles: the application of Korean folk painting, Minhwa

Now more than ever studies are focusing on cultural elements, and there is also an increase in cultural identities being developed in the fashion industry. These changes have led to the promotion of cultural identities and an emphasis on cultural values. In the existing studies, however, a solid theoretical framework linking design and culture were not enough investigated. There is also a limited foundation of knowledge to guide the practice. This study aims to develop an effective cultural design framework for fashion textile and explore the use of cultural elements in contemporary design. The real-world problems relating to the incorporation of Korean cultural elements, including Minhwa, into fashion and textile design were clarified in accordance with expert views. Based on the investigation of existing fashion and textile design processes, the critical criteria and conceptual model for developing an enabling cultural design framework were established to reduce identified challenges. Through focus group interviews, considerations and suggestions to improve the cultural design framework were collected from participant evaluations. In addition, the tendency of various expressions to deliver impressions of contemporary cultural pattern design was drawn through a survey. Then, a new conceptual framework for cultural design in fashion and textile designs was proposed, which was iteratively refined through experiment, interview and survey, and its effectiveness was evaluated through a series of experimental interviews. Key indications emerged which suggest that the new cultural design framework could possibly mitigate the three cultural design challenges by providing (1) a way of avoiding superficial and unsophisticated design, (2) a way of expressing symbolic meaning visually and (3) a way of incorporating cultural elements into contemporary design. Additional findings were also discussed along with the opportunities and suggestions related to applying cultural elements in contemporary design. Thus, this study has a value to reduce the gap between theory and practice.