An important change started in knitwear fashion in the 1980s. Advanced designers in Japan began to provide a new interpretation on knitwear, and seamless knitwear based on computerized machinery appeared. Knitwear fashion showed differences starting the 1980s due to this change. In this regard, the study aimed to analyze knitwear fashion after the 1980s where the contemporary knitwear experienced changes to define characteristics of modern knitwear fashion and examine its inherent formative nature. Designs for 30 years from 1980s up to date have been analyzed by 10 years in order to identify the characteristics of knitwear fashion over time. In particular, formative characteristics of modern knitwear fashion have been analyzed in more depth with a focus on the period from 2001 through 2010 by narrowing the whole period. Insufficient domestic literatures and visual materials led the study to mostly use foreign books and internet sites. Insights of 7 professionals who have engaged themselves in knitwear industry over 10 years have been incorporated into this study, which will enhance the reliability of the formative analysis. As a result, the data have been organized into three tools of analysis, including exposed bodies, transformed bodies and natural bodies from the perspectives of expression and silhouette of body, and the features of flexibility, industrial artistry, innovation and sensuality have been highlighted in terms of formativeness. In this regard, it has been confirmed that the formative nature found in the knitwear fashion exists in the scope of the formative nature in the embryonic period of the knitwear fashion. It means that the formative nature of knitwear fashion contains perpetuity that transcends an age.