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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.

Professional women engage with individual and social issues of ageing, appearance and identity throughout their lives. The challenges professional women have faced since the 1970s have changed as to how they view themselves in new and varied contemporary careers and their perceptions of how others view them. Eleven career women in the Twin Cities, MN, were interviewed about how they managed their appearances throughout their careers. Responses were organized into groups built around the women’s early career narratives ‐ 20s‐30s, mid-career narratives ‐ 40s‐60s, late and post-career narratives ‐ 70s‐90s. We found that these women consciously thought about the meaning and impact of work and their work wardrobe as they passed through each career stage, especially in terms of impression and identity management. We learned through the stories they told how the art, practice and meaning around dressing for work changed over time ‐ with both continuity and change in their expressed outcomes.

An item of headwear, the pussy hat, made news in 2017 when women gathered through social media and local events to create the iconic hat. The hat became a part of the Women’s March that took place in January in Washington DC as well as in cities such as St. Paul, Minnesota. This research involves participant observation of the hat-making process and the hat wearing during marches in Washington DC and Minnesota. Findings revealed the effectiveness of the pussy hat in calling attention to the events that took place prior to and during the marches in January 2017. However, examination of the pussy hat included many variations in form, i.e. colour, texture and shape and the meaning represented some but not all voices of the march.

The aim of this study is to learn what is needed to improve the user’s experience of the purchase and wearing of used clothing from the secondhand marketplace. In South Korea user experiences relat...

This research investigated the experiences of women, average age of 72 years with active lifestyles and living in one locale in the USA. Experiences of these 54 women with desired appearances and d...

Understanding the aesthetic response to classic design has become a prominent part of the consumption process. Classic design has been equated with understanding its artistic forms through the user because aesthetic response to classic design is influenced by personal desires that are informed by, and part of, collective cultural knowledge. It is, therefore, essential to understand the aesthetic response to classic design as an expression of culturally transmitted meanings based on user data. Following a survey identifying examples of classic design, participants volunteered for in-depth interviews and to bring in and discuss self-identified classic designs from their personal wardrobes. Findings indicated that though participants described a similar cultural concept of classic, they simultaneously identified a range of concrete examples that best fit their own unique needs and experiences.

The concept of a ‘sharing economy’ and practice of ‘collaborative consumption’ suggest making use of market intelligence to foster a more collaborative and sustainable society. The clothing behaviour of retired men can be explained by social and economic changes that expose them to new cultural influences. Our goal was to evaluate the probability of success of a clothing sharing service in a collaborative economy. Hence, we examined the possibility of sharing idle clothing through a sustainable clothing service. A survey of South Korean retirees born before 1964 revealed that male retirees wore their clothes for 4.8 years on average before they would dispose them off. Only 14 per cent of idle clothing has been shared; however, a majority of retirees surveyed showed an affirmative attitude to the concept of sharing their clothing through a service. This could become a sustainable practice.

This case study examines how practicing a capsule wardrobe can influence one’s creativity and how this daily activity can contribute to sustainability at the level of the individual users. The focus is on little-c creativity, which highlights everyday creativity practiced through everyday activities, such as dressing. Various capsule wardrobe projects that focus on voluntary simplicity are emerging in the U.S. This study begins with the premise that capsule wardrobes can provide individuals with an opportunity to enhance their creativity by experiencing a limited wardrobe. In addition, such a limited wardrobe could help contribute to a circular fashion economy by reducing the overconsumption of clothing. Seven female volunteers participated in the eight-week capsule wardrobe project. The multiple data collection methods included an online survey, creativity tests, in-depth interviews, and daily journals. In eight weeks, the participants learned about wardrobe strategies and developed innovative dressing habits through creating and managing their capsule wardrobes. The findings show that intrinsic motives, including satisfaction and enjoyment, play important roles in enhancing creativity. Moreover, this project helped the participants to recognize what to purchase, how to wear and care, and how to discard clothes, which can result in a reduction in thoughtless overspending on clothing.

In Western society sex appeal has become greatly valued and young women actively and publically expose their sexualities in a variety of ways. Those women who embrace and participate in the hyper-sexualized cultural trend are called self-sexualizers. Despite the growing number of empirical studies related to self-sexualization, there is lack of consensus around a definition of self-sexualization among researchers. The concept of self-sexualization needs to be clarified and explained. The primary purpose of this examination is to address the self-sexualizing phenomenon and to define self-sexualization by building upon previous researchers’ approaches. In this research, self-sexualization is defined as the voluntary imposition of sexualization to the self. We adapted the four aspects of sexualization presented in a task force report issued by the American Psychological Association in 2007 to propose the four conditions of self-sexualization. (1) The first condition of self-sexualization is favoring sexual self-objectification. (2) The second condition is relating sexual desirability to self-esteem. (3) The third condition is equating physical attractiveness with being sexy. (4) The last condition is contextualizing sexual boundaries. Description of each condition and related concepts are discussed.

In South Korea, the growth of senior men's wear, "A-Jae (meaning 'uncle') fashion, has newly appeared in men's clothing, and the emergence of "A-Jae fashion" as an innovative trend may produce a reinterpretation of the country's fashion distribution system. "A-Jae fashion" offers a new market with sustainable implications and allows younger generations to learn from and follow this trend. This senior fashion is a valuable phenomenon to pursue as it has implications for the origins of fashion and determination of who becomes an innovator concerning gender and age. Fashion in South Korea may no longer be perceived as special and inaccessible. Rather, the focus is on the question of whether individuals can pursue innovation by wearing their own unique style, regardless of age or gender. This new fashion stream means that fashion is no longer the exclusive possession of a few fashion experts, nor something pursued only by young people.

Fashion curation is an integral form of public scholarship within our field and yet has historically been overlooked as such. Unlike creative design scholarship, we have not collectively developed nor agreed upon methods for peer review. As a result, curatorial work is often not considered in tenure-review processes, despite fashion exhibitions meeting the core principles of disseminating scholarship beyond the academy. A recent article in the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, “Fashion Exhibitions as Scholarship,” challenged members of our field to implement peer review of fashion curation as a way to encourage and elevate this important form of scholarship (Green, et al., 2019). In this experimental salon session, we built upon Green et al.’s (2019) work by using the innovative salon session format as a juried venue for presenting fashion exhibitions rooted in rigor and research. Five fashion exhibitions were presented and discussed during the session.

This study used the framework of esthetic response to analyze student perceptions of outerwear coats as one apparel product considered for its potential for extended wear. Through a pilot, six coat...

This issue marks 10 years of Fashion Practice: The Journal of Design, Creative Process and the Fashion Industry. Over these 10 years, scholars and practitioners have reflected on fashion practice w...

Alice Payne writes about the systems change needed to meet the challenge of sustainability in her newly published book, Designing Fashion’s Future, Present Practice and Tactics for Sustainable Chan...

A continuous collaborative design process is explored within an educational–industry partnership involving critique, redesign and refinement, in which unsold products were upcycled and reconsidered for their appropriateness to brand esthetics and consumer use. Such collaborative partnerships help to prevent the wasteful disposal of unsold products. Students who experience the collaborative and iterative process early in their education may learn to accommodate a more sustainable set of constraints within their designs. The focus of study was a process that outlined the basic steps to involve students in a meaningful partnership for product redevelopment.

Upcycling used clothing could transform textile waste into raw materials for new fashion items. Our research goals were to add a longitudinal element to previous research which engaged female focus group participants in a collaborative upcycling project, to further understand motivations for upcycling used clothing, and to identify common characteristics of those who choose to upcycle. Upcycling behavior of 30 women (mean age 44, 87% Caucasian) was explored through questionnaires, in-depth interviews, and visual analysis. The study also aimed to determine the conditions under which upcycling used clothes might be most successful and to further study potential for a service or business. The findings will have practical implications for those interested in fostering sustainable best practices in clothing and for entrepreneurs to weigh the pros and cons of starting a new upcycling business.

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.

The increased need to consider sustainability in the field of apparel is gaining awareness among designers, producers, marketers, and consumers who are currently considering their next moves in the arena of apparel products, design, and innovation. The paradox of fast fashion and the pursuit of modernity, alongside the need to care for the earth’s resources in a sustainable manner that includes social, economic, and environmental impacts, is a difficult dilemma. Many researchers have been looking at the problem from different perspectives; the focus here is on how we educate our students as soon-to-become design professionals. Up-cycling is one good strategy to protect ecosystems, because the goal of up-cycling is to prevent wasting potentially useful materials by making use of existing ones. In the process of up-cycling garments for sustainability the article considers what impact this has on the apparel design process and how students learn and must learn differently based upon this need. Partic...

The focus of this paper is how design students think about sustainable practices and design solutions. A survey distributed to American and Korean design students asked how important sustainability was to them as a user and as a professional in training. How the two groups of students understand sustainability in apparel was considered through their identification of sustainable strategies and practicing of sustainable behaviours. In analysis regarding practices throughout the clothing lifespan, the most significant sustainable factor for American students was ‘purchase’ and for Korean students it was ‘use’. This comparison provides valuable insights regarding how cultural factors shape and influence perspectives on sustainability and how this information pertains to design education.

The phenomenon of flow, as described by Csikszentmihalyi, is considered a positive experience that should be encouraged, but the experience has not been studied in an apparel design process. The participants of the study included 12 students who were taking a senior-level apparel studio class to design their own line of 4–6 ensembles. Each participant was interviewed twice, once during the apparel design process and once following the completed project. Students reported that they were able to experience flow in the process and were often more creative and productive in the flow state. Factors that encouraged or discouraged students’ flow experience varied depending on the type of activities in the process. Since the flow state greatly enhanced students’ satisfaction and created positive responses, the study provides insight for educators in the apparel design field.

The Korean Fashion Industry has influenced the reputation of South Korea by establishing powerful partners in industrial design, movies, film design, lifestyle design, and the entertainment industr...

As media technology is developing, methods to present fashion products and communicate with audiences are also evolving. Designers and fashion brands are always on the lookout for more effective methods to deliver what designers intend through new products. The purpose of this research is to analyze different ways in which people perceive, cognize, and memorize the digital media of fashion show videos and fashion films in the communication process. Considering the difference in communication methods, this study is based on Shannon's communication model, Foulger's ecological model of the communication process, and Kopec's information management theory. In this research, Chanel's 2010 Cruise collection and fashion film, RememberNow, were used as content stimuli. The results indicate that there are significant differences between fashion shows and fashion films in terms of perception (p< .005), cognition (p< .005), and memorization (p< .005). This research will provide prospective methods for fashion designers and fashion firms to effectively deliver the latest fashion information to their audiences.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the shawls worn by certain women on the Great Plains of North America identified them as being Germans from Russia (GFR). Having settled in Russia for a century before relocating to the grassy plains of North and South America, attracted by the promise of land ownership and freedom from oppression, these Germans created a distinctive community. Their shawls served as shibboleth, a custom or usage that distinguishes one group of people from others. Over a century later, in the USA and Canada, these shawls are still found among GFR families who recall the customs and values of people of this ethnic community, and thus provide a medium through which to learn about the GFR.

(2013). Eyewear, Fashion, Design, and Health. Fashion Practice: Vol. 5, Fashion, Health and Wellbeing, pp. 117-127.

This special session focused on identifying priorities and structure of an alliance. The content below summarizes the 2017 special session, which centered on gathering information from session participants.

The purpose of this study was to understand motivations for participating in the Women's March. We used symbolic interaction theory, specifically, the essay "Appearance and the Self" as a guideline to analyze the data (Stone, 1962). We also interpreted the meaning of the pussy hats as symbols through the form, viewer, and context aesthetic analysis framework (DeLong, 1998). The study used an inductive approach with observations and audio recorded interviews of the event attendants 18 and older. Authors collected data in Washington, D.C., and in St. Paul. The goals of the ethnographic process were to observe dress as a tool of nonverbal communication and to understand referent meanings of the pussy hat. Pussy hats provided salient visual communication representing women's empowerment and support. The making of the hats became a form of activism, which mobilized supporters of the movement.

This research takes a bottoms-up approach to sustainable practices of designers within one industry in a specific locale. In researching sustainability in the apparel industry, one must consider the fashion system in which apparel designers operate. This research examines apparel designers in Minnesota and their perspectives about best practices that will encourage sustainability. Designers from a variety of small to large size businesses are interviewed and the results are analyzed to identify present and future contributions with regards to sustainability in apparel design. Processes that take into account the local context of sustainability enable a shared understanding with potential for mutually acceptable approaches to address the issues.

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.