Clothing and Textiles Research Journal

An ethnic identity is reflected through intrinsic and extrinsic traits which also may be associated with other ethnic behaviors. This study investigated ethnic identity as it relates to traditional ethnic dress patterns, and use of ethnic reference persons and ethnic market sources as information on contemporary dress. A sample of 117 students identifying with one of seven ethnic heritages was analyzed as a pooled group with separate analyses for the Chinese and Japanese. Analyses included Spearman rho correlations and the Mann-Whitney U test. Results indicated a relationship between ethnic identity and ethnic dress usage. Individuals with higher ethnic identities used family, ethnics other than family, ethnic fashion magazines, and ethnic fashion shows as sources of information on dress; however, the relationship with ethnic identity and the use of these sources varied according to ethnic heritage.

This study examined the attitudes of retailers and college educators toward fashion retail internships to provide information useful in the development of meaningful and realistic retail internships. The attitudes were related to characteristics influencing retailer participation in internship programs, intern selection criteria used by retailers, prerequisite coursework to internships, and activities to which interns should be exposed. Groups compared in the study were (a) retailers and educators, (b) different types of stores (department, specialty, and discount), (c) chain and non-chain stores, and (d) main and branch stores. The results showed some significant differences in all the comparison groups. The major differences were related to the amount of exposure to buyer-related activities interns should receive versus manager and salesperson-related activities. Educators (compared to retailers), non-chain stores (compared to chain stores), and main (compared to branch) department stores indicated that interns should receive more exposure to buyer related activities.

Male and female managerial level employers evaluated bogus physically impaired job applicants for whom dress and credentials had been varied. The research design was a 3x2x2 factorial, with the independent variables being applicant's appropriateness of dress (high, moderate, low), applicant's credentials (high, low), and respondent's sex (male, female). The dependent variables were personal characteristics ratings, recommendations to hire the applicant, and entry-level salary assignment. Both dress and credentials had a significant effect on ratings of personal characteristics as a group. Recommendations to hire were affected by dress and by credentials. Entry-level salary was affected by dress but not by credentials.

The goal of this research was to determine whether sewing techniques changed with changing styles of women's outerwear; with different fabrics in a single style; with changing technology; and with varying recommendations in how-to-sew literature. Researchers examined 100 garments from 23 museums in 5 states; 8 distinct styles, spanning 1800 to 1869. A few sewing techniques were unique to individual styles of outerwear (dresses and wraps); many techniques were shared by two or three adjacent styles of outerwear. Recommendations of sewing techniques were followed frequently, ignored occasionally. Sewing technology, especially the sewing machine, was slow to be adopted in making women's outerwear; even dresses of the 1860s were often partly hand sewn. Fabrics made very little difference in sewing techniques chosen within a single style of women's dress or wrap.

The proposition that men dressed at least as elaborately as women in preindustrial cultures was investigated using data from the Human Relations Area Files. Content analyses of the materials listed under Trait 291 (normal garb—including ordinary dress and description of garments for men and women) and Trait 301 (ornament-including jewelry and hair ornaments) were performed. A global judgment was made for each culture regarding which sex wore the most complex or ornate clothing and ornament. A total of 161 cultures had sufficient information to form this judgment and also were coded for percentage of the subsistence economy dependent on gathering, hunting, fishing, animal husbandry and agriculture in Murdock's Ethnographic Atlas. Chi-square analyses, non-parametric correlations, comparison of means and multiple discriminant function analyses were used to analyze the data. Results indicated that the economic activities characteristic of agrarian societies (animal husbandry and agriculture) were associated with ornate females. Less advanced economic activities characteristic of folk societies were associated with ornate males and/or no sex differences in dress.

This paper provides data on perceptions of functional clothing, augmenting a theoretical framework integrating symbolicinteractionist and cognitive approaches. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by 322 physically disabled university students throughout the nation. One half of the students evaluated line drawings of only one view of each clothing style, whereas the other half rated illustrations presenting an additional view detailing the special, functional feature of the garment. The students responded more negatively to the functional clothing when the special feature was made salient. Factor analyses revealed the multidimensionality of meanings assigned to functional clothing, with evaluative, functional, and noticeability dimensions being most common. The complex, joint effects of sex, onset of disability, and wheelchair usage upon the students' responses point to the problematic nature of identifying common needs among persons with physical disabilities. Theoretical and real world implications are discussed.

The purpose of the research was to investigate the relationship of the occupations of two groups of perceivers, school counselors and law enformcement officers, and the grooming of male adolescent clients to a) the number of person cues perceived, b) the type of person cues perceived, and c) the content of the inferences made about the client. The research contributed to person perception and clothing research by expanding information on a characteristic of the perceiver by employing an open response format for data collection. Pictorial stimuli and a questionnaire were used for collection of data from 120 subjects. Data were submitted to content analysis, analysis of variance, and loglinear analysis. Counselors noted fewer cues and based their inferences on more general aspects of appearance than did law enforcement officers. Members of each occupation drew inferences appropriate to their occupation. Differences in grooming were related to varying perceptions of the client's attitude; grooming and occupation together influenced perceptions of the client's sociability and family background. The results advance understanding about the perceptual attentiveness and cognitive categories that professionals bring to perceptions of their clients and help to delineate how characteristics of the perceiver and dress of the perceived are related to person perception.