RE-COGNITION OF KAWAII TREND IN CATCH-UP AND SPREAD STRUCTURE

This paper is the continuity of previous research on trend catch-up and spread structure for kawaii which taken fashion attire as the sample. The research aims to determine the kawaii trend transition in terms of its catch-up and spread including its adaptation and innovation to other places that concern on the background of region during the process of transition. By this study, the way of the trend transition occurs and its target result to other region can be forecasted, to be used as one of the design strategy during design development process. To obtain the study objective, 2 regions taken as the example of the trend transition which are Japan and Malaysia. Survey on kawaii image intimacy is done in each sample groups which are the stationery and car samples. For stationery survey, 30 samples and 10 respondents were selected. For car survey, 22 samples and 10 male respondents were chosen. Data collected is analyzed by MDS to determine the stationeries and cars initimacy position on kawaii image. Then, the MDS maps are grouped based on cluster analysis. A comparative study is done on each respondent’s trend groups. As the result, for stationery and car, 3 kinds of trend transition structures were determined. For overall result, there are 4 kinds of trend transition structures including the fashion area.