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As the American eldercare industry prepares to attract and receive consumers from the “baby boomer” generation, facility designers and administrators are increasingly concerned with catering to the lifestyles and taste preferences of aging adults perceived to be more “active,” affluent, and accustomed to “choice” than previous generations. This article considers these trends in terms of their material, aesthetic, and discursive impacts on the socio-material construction of space in residential eldercare facilities. The study draws on discourse and visual analysis of winning entries in published design competitions sponsored by the architecture, interior design, and eldercare industries. Through this analysis, eldercare spaces emerge as sites of consumption where designers privilege both “household/home-like” and “commercial/hospitality” aesthetics and atmospheres. In recent years, placemaking strategies to create home-like environments increasingly overlap with social spaces inspired by the hospitality industry. Our discussion demonstrates how these strategies materialize in structures and interiors increasingly open to the non-resident public and integrated into their surrounding communities. As such, we argue that the negotiation of degrees and kinds of “publicness” and “privateness” in spaces of care reflect shifting views of the roles and characteristics of acts of consumption and consumers in these facilities and in the broader healthcare industry.

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.

We sought to explore how Latina adolescent immigrants experience immigration across adolescence as they seek to know and express their authentic selves through dress and appearance. Our work was informed by theories of acculturation, identity, and authenticity. Participants included 12 immigrant women who identified as Latina and who immigrated before age 16. Open-ended interviews focused on participants’ memories of their immigration experiences during adolescence. Data were analyzed using constant comparison processes. Findings revealed that, for participants, the typical challenges of adolescence were complicated by immigration that included constructing an authentic identity at the intersection of two cultures. Immigration produced a disjointed dance towards authenticity with many uneven steps, sharp turns, and the occasional reversal. Dress was a key means for the expression of the authentic self; a self that communicated to the culture of settlement who they were and how their culture of origin was part of their authentic self.

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...

The work explored how adolescent Latina immigrants to the US navigate their culture of origin and their culture of settlement through the lens of Tulloch's (2010) concept of "style-fashion-dress". Participants included 12 immigrant women, ages 20-23 (mean age=21.25 years), who identified as Latina and immigrated to the US before age 15. Data collection focused on participants' memories of their immigration experiences during adolescence. This retrospective approach captured change over time in the acculturation process. Analyses revealed that, as they sought to negotiate diverse cultures and forge a sense of "who they were becoming" through the acculturation process, participants confronted varied dilemmas of identity, frequently underpinned by an overarching goal of "knowing" or "locating" the authentic self and expressing that self through style-fashion-dress. Two key identity dilemmas were observed: (a) Identity Confusion" Who Am I? and (b) Straddling Two Cultures: Feeling Caught and Conflicted.

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.