A Study on Costume Curation Aligned with New Museology

This study aims to establish a theoretical foundation for costume curation in museums, drawing on New Museology, and propose strategies and possibilities for transforming domestic museum costume exhibitions into showcases featuring the New Hanbok brand. As a theoretical framework, the study examines New Museology, which emphasizes people and communication with communities rather than focusing solely on artifacts. This approach aims to attract public interest and deliver successful exhibitions by engaging a broad audience. In the study, traditional costume museology, which has focused on collecting, managing, and preserving historical garments, must now be complemented by fashion museology, which collects and exhibits the works of contemporary fashion designers, drawing public attention through commercially driven special exhibitions. Accordingly, costume curation grounded in New Museology is defined as an exhibition process specialized in costume through elements such as narrative, exhibition space, exhibition technology, archives, and education/experience. The study reviews the current state of costume exhibitions in domestic museums. The results indicate that these exhibitions tend to overemphasize the public's role in narrative construction. The design of exhibition spaces lacks the multisensory and interactive narrative elements emphasized by New Museology. Exhibition technologies remain confined to conventional frameworks, showing limited innovation. Costume archives are not systematically organized, and museum education programs lack both structured content and continuity. Based on these findings, the study proposes the following recommendations for costume curation aligned with New Museology: First, the narrative composition of costume exhibitions should be restructured to incorporate diverse experiences, such as the conceptualizing of history and collecting present-day artifacts for future reflection. Second, the expansion of exhibition space in terms of time and place is needed. Third, exhibition technologies should adopt interactive features that enable multisensory experiences, simultaneous engagement, and sensory expansion, thereby broadening the interface environment. Fourth, the involvement of costume experts is essential to establish a well-organized costume archive. Fifth, efforts to enhance museum costume education programs are necessary to ensure systematic development.