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Artifacts are a primary source of information for fashion history students participating in object-based learning through careful observation, analysis and interpretation. Object-based learning is an advantage that allows students to connect the course material with the physical artifact in-person. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, classes at a Midwestern university moved midterm to an online format. Artifacts previously viewed in person were posted digitally, thus this was the first semester that artifact analysis included both in-person and online. Students evaluated their learning experience in artifact analysis in-person and online with the goal to understand their perspective on advantages and disadvantages. In-person, students could examine details such as textile weave and hand or machine stitching. Online, multiple views of a garment on a mannequin were available to better understand the shape and silhouette of the garment. In the future, we will incorporate both venues, taking advantage of the best student learning experiences from each.

This research explored teenagers’ use of handcraft apparel in the United States and South Korea. Teenagers were selected for a cross national comparison of youth and their emotional attachment to handcraft apparel in terms of: use of handcraft items compared with purchased products; the relationship between the craft user and creator; and the influence of emotional attachment to handcrafts on the friendship and self-esteem of youths. Responses of US and Korean high school and middle school students acknowledged the value of handcrafts. Handcraft items offer a measure of sustainability not offered by clothing destined for the fast-fashion cycle. Items handcrafted by friends and family have considerable value as objects of everyone design as well as emotional value. In this study, we also conclude that the value of handcraft apparel and crafts in everyday creativity may have a positive influence on peer relationships and self-esteem among youth in the two countries. Comparing the two youth groups in this study, we found that US teenagers have a greater tendency to use handcrafted items compared with their Korean counterparts that may be attributed to the wider popularity of handcrafting in US society. US participants reported a significantly longer period of actual use of handcraft items. Although handcraft items are increasingly overlooked in favor of mass-produced fashion products, handcraft apparel can be expected to endure as an alternative product with recognized sustainability, given the perceived importance of handmade craft and apparel made by loved ones.

Individuals who identify with punk subculture negotiate between aesthetic expression of their subcultural identity and the role they believe they are expected to play at work. Men and women, aged 26 - 45 years, in a wide range of professions were interviewed and asked questions related to their workplace dress. They were asked to bring to the interview a display of how they dress to express both their punk and workplace identities. Interviewees reported a balancing act of blending in and standing out, taking into consideration viewer interpretations and subsequent outcomes. Efforts to wear “appropriate” dress included accommodations such as modifying one's punk appearance by conceding to dress codes and using perceived non-confrontational aesthetic choices with punk cues subtly coded to appear conventional. Dress features were selectively revealing or concealing punk symbols as interviewees strive to push the boundaries of workplace appropriateness for satisfying aesthetic self-expression.

A fundamental and contemporary issue in higher education is how to encourage global awareness, professional development, and accountability within constraints of curriculum and scarce resources. This is an evaluation of student experiences with a 1½-year cross-cultural partnership that included a team project, public presentations, publications, and 2-week travel exchanges. Data were collected from the participant’s project outcomes, from interviews pre- and posttravel, and survey questions at the end of the experience and 1 year later. The public face to the project allowed for partners to learn of the professional standards of the other culture while representing their own. Partner synergies were evidence of a personal, professional, and cultural awareness that provided a pathway to encourage cross-cultural learning among students in similar fields. Such cross-cultural experiences will help to ensure professional survival in the 21st century.

Clothing and textiles research is examined within a futuring framework to discuss potential avenues for development of thought within the field. A philosophical perspective linking ontology, epistemology, and methodology is posited as important to exploring assumptions that guide the research process. The material culture studies perspective, the feminist social science perspective, and the critical science perspective are discussed as three potential ways of approaching the subject matter in need of mainstreaming as we look to the future of knowledge production within clothing and textiles. Based on this discussion, ideas and implications for scenario-building in the traditional futures sense are presented.

Many methods have been developed to measure the body in an effort to capture its dimensions for clothing. Measuring the human body has been important in developing garments tofit the body, and systems have reflected technology, needs of the consumer, andfocus of the apparel industry. The U. S. apparel industry has developed many techniques to measure the body, including custom-fitted to the individual, mass-sized and produced, and now, mass-customized. This paper reviews and evaluates historic and current methods of capturing body measurements, which are presented as linear methods, multiple probe methods, and body form methods, that use one or more of the following elements: point, length, surface, shape, and volume.

A well-defined product development process assists the organization to determine its future direction, plan for rapid changes, create new product line profits, and plan for technology adoption and implementation (Thomas, 1993). The goal of this research was to propose an optimal product development process for knitwear companies by examining the process used by a major U.S. sweater company and comparing its process to established processes. Yin’s (1984) single case study and Patton’s (1990) qualitative research approaches were adapted for data collection. Various methods of collecting data were employed, including interviewing key personnel, making direct observations, and examining written documents. Preliminary suggestions for improving the product development process included extending market research to include end users, using pre-costing early in the process, integrating quality assurance, and using computer-aided-design and product development management software.

The purpose was to demonstrate a process to characterize a segment of a university collection from an object base using an existing aesthetic framework. A collection consisting of 160 evening dresses from the 1930s were analyzed for their repetitive and defining features and their dispersion throughout the decade. Dresses were selected as examples of the defining features and analyzed using the concept of structuring within DeLong’s (1998) framework of visual analysis. This process demonstrated how aesthetics could be applied to raise awareness of artifacts within the collection. The result was a characterization of this 1930s collection in terms of defining features that included structuring and the visual result of an integration of layout, surface, and light and shadow.

This cross-cultural study illustrates how products selected for their basic similarities are distinguished in use by cultural context. Jeans, a product manufactured in both South Korea and the United States, were selected as the research stimuli. Subjects were regular wearers of jeans, 32 of whom were from the United States and 34 from Korea. All were females between the ages of 18 and 24, and students at one of two large metropolitan universities in their respective countries. Participants responded to four brands of jeans similar in appearance: two were U.S. brands (Levi’s and Gap) and two were Korean brands (GV2 and Bang Bang). Subjects’ perceptions of the products were explored for similarities and differences in criteria for wear and purchase of jeans. Country of manufacture mattered less than country of origin, appearance and other factors related to use in a cultural context. For both groups, color, fit, tactile qualities and price also were important criteria in wearing and purchasing jeans. Though respondents used similar criteria in this cross-cultural comparison, differences in weighting of those criteria yielded significantly different results.

Aesthetic expression of dress was examined by interviewing 15 midwestern university students. The objective was to understand the style development process and the motivations for clothing selection. The responses of participants selecting clothing from a variety of purchasing locations were analyzed. The purchasing sources examined were vintage or used clothing stores, a variety of sources used by cross-shoppers, and mainstream or mass market locations. In-depth interviews were analyzed for content. Aesthetic themes or categories emerged that helped to define differences: event dressing, imaging gender, variety clothes versus signature clothes, apparel meanings, process of ensemble, and customization of clothing purchases. These categories were analyzed and compared with those identified in the literature and with postmodern characteristics outlined by Evans and Thornton (1989). Understanding individual motivations in aesthetic expression and sourcing locations will aid in the study of fashion change.

This research examined the content and outcome of an educational intervention program designed to foster sun protective awareness and behaviors among young adolescents. Awareness of sun protection qualities, as well as preferences and stated intention to wear protective clothing, were measured based on young adolescents' responses to selected hat styles both before and after the educational interventions. The educational intervention was well received by this age group (ages 10-12), and a comparison of matched pre- and post-tests (397 girls and boys) indicated an increase in knowledge of sun protective factors in clothing. However, familiarity and past experience with hat styles helped to determine both preference and intent to wear. This finding points to the need to incorporate adolescents' preferences in design and modifications of hats for protection, and to take further measures to encourage protective behaviors in young adolescents' clothing selection. Implementing a standardized sun protection rating system for hats and other types of clothing like those used with sunscreen lotion would begin to familiarize people of all ages with the dangers of sun exposure and the benefits of wearing sun protective clothing.

The focus of this research was to determine what similarities or differences in meaning develop when one product, blue jeans, developed in one culture, is used in another. Students' perceptions of blue jeans in the United States and Korea were the focus of this research. A questionnaire translated into the language of the respective country consisted of open-ended, short-answer questions and bipolar word pairs to measure the meaning attributed to jeans within both cultures. A total of 783 students in Korea and the U.S. between the ages of 18 and 24 who wore jeans at least three times a month were participants. Aspects of communication theory provided a theoretical framework for the discussion of responses and cross-cultural interpretations of meaning. U.S. and Korean respondents indicated that jeans are worn for comfort and versatility. For U.S. respondents, jeans symbolize American culture as a whole, whereas for Korean respondents, jeans symbolize a more specific role: participation in youth/student culture within contemporary Korean society. Differences in meanings attached to jeans in Korea as compared to the U.S. indicate a need for considering cultural context when developing and promoting U.S. products for use in other cultures.

This paper illustrates how critical thinking techniques could be used in teaching aesthetics. Exploring unfamiliar territory and moving freely between reflective and active thought processes are components important to both aesthetics and critical thinking. In keeping with the objectives of critical thinking, a classroom exercise titled "Getting Outside of Your Own Skin" was designed to help students acknowledge and address assumptions and biases they may hold about older consumers and the aging process. Students were encouraged to move beyond personal experiences to broaden their thinking about individuals unlike themselves. By working through the project, students were given the opportunity to examine their perceptions and attitudes toward the aging process and to consider their effect on this growing market.

Current apparel production methods grounded in a tradition of master-apprentice training and intuition are being challenged by the introduction of Artificial Intelligence. Much of the expert knowledge needed to develop computer systems for the apparel industry is related to visual decisions made to create a garment. In this study, a sensory evaluation methodology was used to determine if visual perceptual differences existed between results of pattern grading methods using traditional and proportional techniques. An expert panel of eleven members evaluated visual effect of images graded across an entire size range. Three sets of images representing apparel on the body were selected to emphasize (1) horizontal proportion, (2) vertical proportion, and (3) proportion of details. Responses of panel members indicated neither traditional nor proportional grading maintained the visual effect referenced in the sample size across the entire size range. The goal of pattern grading needs to be redefined to account for the desired visual effect in a variety of size and body variations.

Physical appearance cues (Thurston, Lennon, & Clayton, 1990) and nonverbal gestures (Baron, 1986) are important in the evaluation of job applicants. As a result, career guidance for job applicants often includes techniques such as mock interviewing, supplying wr i t t en guidelines of appropriate styles of clothing, providing actual garments for the economically disadvantaged, and offering comprehensive appearance enhancement programs. Such efforts have built confidence and created physical appearance leading to successful job placement. Participation in such programs, however, may be influenced by a client's psychological characteristics. A program, no matter how well it is designed, will be ineffective if clients do not attend. Using women clients of a career counseling agency, we examined whether psychological characteristics of public self-consciousness (PSC) and self-monitoring (SM) were related to the client's decision to participate in an Effective Presentation program.

In this paper, we interpret the meaning of contemporary quiltmaking by characterizing how the collective activities of quilt guild members have structured women's understanding of quilt tradition. Ethnography offers a methodological orientation by which meaning can be interpreted by analyzing the sociocultural context of the guild and considering the quilters' perspective. We analyze a particular example of "feminine culture," Minnesota Quilters, Inc. The guild community is important to individual expression, and members' activities provide evidence about a socialization process by which individuals draw upon a collective knowledge of quilt tradition to express themselves. Women's statements about their quilts refer to the significance of quiltmaking in the expression of personal experience. Three components of the discourse suggest that quiltmaking facilitates a woman's increasing integration within the quilting community and appropriation of traditional values: identification as guild member, characterization as quilter, and affirmation of female identity.

New developments using artificial intelligence and the computer can effect changes in the production of apparel and ultimate consumer satisfaction with apparel products. Much data specification is needed before apparel can be manufactured that quickly and efficiently takes into account the individual body of the consumer. Trial and error fitting methods will no longer be economically feasible with such customized production. Garment fit and ease preferences are explored in this research to determine feasibility of an individually fitted, computer generated pant. A customized pant was made for each of 38 female subjects using a computer-aided-design program that took into account the following factors: body size, configuration, alignment, proportions, and preferred ease amounts of the wearer. A level of prediction for ease was achieved with these pants and 27 of 28 of the final subjects rated their pant as satisfactory or very satisfactory following a seven hour wear test.

Understanding change and its motivations in historic dress is complex because of fragmented information and the incomplete and possibly biased saving of objects of the past. In this study a media source contemporary to the period 1890-1927 was systematically analyzed for the extent and duration of Japanese and Chinese characteristics evident in forms of dress. Cultural authentication, including change in characterization and in unique forms of dress, was examined through verbal and visual references. Occurrences found within the 37 years covered by the study were quantified for analysis of patterns, and the Japanese and Chinese influences each formed a separate cycle. Dominant in the earlier periods were selection and characterization levels, often for occasions of intimate dressing. In the later periods more evidence of public presentation of self occurred with incorporation and transformation levels of cultural authentication. We found the most extensive assimilation in 1914 for the Japanese and in 1922 for the Chinese characteristics.

Apparel as the product of standard sizing is reflected in female evaluation of self and body, i.e., body cathexis. This study focused upon body cathexis and the perceptions offit of clothing of 107 female consumers. Responses were measured on three scales: (1) satisfaction with fit of apparel at upper, lower, and total body; (2) satisfaction with fit at specific body sites; and (3) a body cathexis scale developed by Rosen and Ross. Analysis of data indicated satisfaction with overall fit at lower body was less satisfying than at upper body and total body. Satisfaction with fit at specific sites below the waist (hip and thigh) was also generally less satisfying than at sites above the waist (neck and arm). Fashion at the time, close fit at lower body, reflected in blue jeans and slim skirts, no doubt influenced more stringent evaluation of fit at lower body. The body cathexis scores were slightly lower for lower body and lower body sites. Correlation for lower body fit satisfaction and lower body cathexis was statistically significant, confirming a relationship between the respondents' satisfaction with fit and feelings towards personal body.

The relation of two descriptive properties of clothing, “complexity” and “fashionability,” with evaluative preference responses of “like” and “would-like-to-own” was explored for two selected groups of untrained females who differed in age. The students agreed more than the older women on the judged “fashionability” of 10 photographs of clothing and also were influenced more by “fashionability” in their responses of “like” and “would-like-to-own.” For both groups “complexity” was judged consistently but was not highly related to preferences.

Responses of 30 female observers (college students) to 10 contemporary skirted suits were made on repeated exposures. Word pairs were selected to represent evaluative and informational aspects of the stimuli. Response patterns changed more for evaluative word pairs, e.g., Like-Dislike, than for informational word pairs, e.g., Simple-Complex.

The purpose of this study was to develop a multivariate method for structuring a sizing system for women's apparel. The I 977 suvey of U.S. Army women was the data base. The sample was limited to 1217 subjects who were White or Black and 17-3 5 years old. The methodology underlying PS 42-70, the current U.S. sizing standard, was studied relative to recent changes in body form classification, apparel production, and merchandising which support development of multivariate methodology. Examination of PS 42-70 as a classification system for the sample showed inadequate proportioning of overall body dimensions, particularlyshoulder breadth and body segment lengths. The experimental method used components 1 and 2 to summarize body form variation as the relationship between body thickness and length. A Principal Component Sizing System (PCSS) was constructed by partitioning the distribution of principal components 1 by 2 into 26 sizes. A per subject comparison of "goodness of fit" of PS 42-70 and PCSS showed PCSS consistently closer to subjecfs' overall body proportions than PS 42-70. The multivariate relationship between body thickness and length is fundamental to body form and size variation. Our results indicate that PCSS better represents that relationship for the sample studied.

Two groups of females ( n = 35, n = 36) completed a semantic differential instrument in response to 10 slides of fashionable dress. The response sessions were separated by 12 wk. to determine the effect of change in fashion on group response to identical stimuli. Responses were analyzed for similarity in use of word pairs via principal component analysis. The first component explained the largest proportion of variance and was interpreted as evaluative while subsequent components were informational. Profiles of word-pairs identified through a multivariate analysis of variance indicated a consistent difference between responses of groups which was keyed to word-pairs reflecting recent changes in fashion.

Analysis of apparel was considered from the viewpoint of how consumers conceptualized experiences with the product. The objective was to determine where commonalities occurred in how 100 female subjects described a warm or cool appearance. Subjects responded to two pairs of openended questions and a nine-point scale of 41 word pairs. A paired t-test was used to compare differences in response to the word pairs for a warm and cool context. Differences significant at .001 occurred for 36 of the 41 word pairs and at 01 for 2 word pairs. Subjects also differentiated between a warm or cool appearance by using a limited number of common categories in open responses and well-defined, parallel response patterns.

Clothing as a cue in perception of personality was examined in a pilot study using 25 sweaters of varying design features. 60 female volunteers selected the sweaters thought to be worn by five personality types. Actual garments were used, presenting physical features absent in studies employing pictorial stimuli. These features were statistically significant as cues in perception of five personality types.

Similarities in the criteria for collective response patterns were examined, based upon the way respondents categorized ensembles of apparel. Ensembles of daywear, a basic category offemale dress, were selected to vary in a number of dimensions. The purpose was to determine how 52 female respondents, similar in age and occupation, would group apparel in four categorization tasks. Responses were examined to determine which dimensions were used within the daywear category at the subordinate level. Dominant criteria used by respondents in forming categories at this level were the character of the silhouette and internal shape, thepart-to-whole relation, and associated meanings. Responses indicated that the categorizing task was based more upon the form dimensions than on individual preferences.