Re-Birth Design Analysis for Developing Sustainable Fashion Products Yoon Kyung Lee · Marilyn DeLong * † Dept. of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design, Seoul National University * College of Design, University of Minnesota Received February 18, 2016; Revised March 14, 2016; Accepted March 15, 2016 Abstract Sustainability in fashion cannot ignore fashion attributes required for the design of rapidly changing and in- novative products. This study examines “Re-Birth Design” development and provides a means to apply acad- emic and industry perspectives to the investigation of Re-Birth fashion product development. This study defines “Re-Birth Design” as stock that has been designed and launched through distribution channels, subsequently returned unused, then improved and reborn into a new product for redistribution. This study analyzed specific cases. We selected 100 designs for Re-Birth from 11 brands of “K” fashion company in Korea, to be successfully sold in 2014. These cases are used in the analysis and are categorized into design types. As a result of the ana- lysis, “Re-Birth Design” had five levels: Level 1. Changes in supplementary materials such as adding or rem- oving decoration, Level 2. Changes in patterns or materials (changes within the product), Level 3. Partial chan- ges in design (leading to a new design), Level 4. Complete deconstruction and rebirth of the design, and Level 5. Complete deconstruction followed by the use of the design source for a new product that is not a garment. This study analyzed products owned by brands, as well as successful cases of Re-Birth designs that reused exi- sting resources, reduced energy consumption, and increased environmental and economic efficiency by recrea- ting new products that could be resold. Key words: Re-Birth, Sustainability, Fashion, Stock, Industry I. Introduction The world is increasingly placing substantial value on the issue of its future survival due to issues such as production affecting nature, the destruction of eco- systems due to environmental pollution, sudden chan- ges in the earth's climate, the depletion of resources, and a long-term economic downturn. We are at a po- int where the consideration of alternatives in terms of resources and ways of life are of the utmost urgency. Korea is no different from the rest of the world with regard to this global eco-friendly inclination. Follow- ing the EU's CO emissions regulations in 2007, Ko- rea implemented a carbon tax on the manufacturing industry in 2015 and created the CO emissions regu- lation bill. Korea is growing increasingly aware of the importance of sustainability in social categories (Oh, 2009). Furthermore, Koreans, who initially experien- ced a mental void concerning the blind consumption that has overtaken modern society, have made their concerns known, and the procurement of more sub- stantial resources in terms of “Good Economics” (Lee, 2015) and “ethical consumption” has begun. Amidst this global movement, it is only natural for “sustainability” to have become a megatrend through- out all industrial fields around the world. Sustainabil- ity was a major topic of discussion at the United Nat- ions General Assembly regarding social development in 2005 (UN General Assembly 60th Session, 2015). ⓒ 2016, The Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles. All rights reserved. – 566 – Corresponding author E-mail: mdelong@umn.edu This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Found- ation of Korea (NRF-2015S1A5A8017952). [ Research Paper] EISSN 2234-0793 PISSN 1225-1151 Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles Vol. 40, No. 3 (2016) p.566~573 http://dx.doi.org/10.5850/JKSCT.2016.40.3.566