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Intellect is happy to announce that Clothing Cultures 5.2 is now available! For more information about the issue, click here >> https://bit.ly/2SPvauH

Contents

Introduction

Authors: Jo Turney 
Page Start: 207

Predicting consumer intention to purchase clothing products made from sustainable fabrics

Authors: Jeong-Ju Yoo And Lorynn Divita And Hye-Young Kim 
Page Start: 211

The goal of this study is to investigate the differential influences of environmental concern and fashion opinion leadership on consumer intention to purchase clothing products made of sustainable fabrics. In doing so, this study examines the mediating role of environmental attitude towards clothing consumption. The data were collected from 122 US college students with an average age of 21.4. The majority of the participants were female (83.6 per cent) and Caucasian (64.5 per cent). A weighted least squares hierarchical regression analysis was used for the data analysis. The results suggested that fashion opinion leadership was a more powerful determinant than environmental concern in predicting consumer intention to purchase clothing products made of sustainable fabrics. However, environmental attitude towards clothing consumption did not serve as a significant mediator. These findings provide beneficial insight for fast fashion retailers mainly targeting fashion opinion leaders. Managerial implications are discussed to delineate how fast fashion retailers can benefit from sustainable production and retailing strategies.

Notes on wearer–worn attachments: Learning to wear

Authors: Julia Valle-Noronha And Kirsi Niinimäki And Sari Kujala 
Page Start: 225

Previous literature in person–product attachment has identified factors in long-term relationships responsible for the strengthening of bonds between users and products, stimulating longevity in use. Interested in further understanding the matter in the realm of fashion, this study investigates how relationships between individuals and the clothes they wear evolve over time. It identifies motivators behind the increase and decrease in the overall quality of wearer–worn relationships in regard to four dimensions: comfort, frequency of use, visuality and versatility. In order to achieve this aim, an adaptation of the UX curve method is used. The method was employed with a group of ten participants, wearers of specific clothing production, namely experimental fashion, in contrast with commercial fashion pieces. The study findings contribute to the literature on person–product attachment and highlight ‘learning to wear’ as an engaging experience encouraging stronger relations with clothes. In the discussion, the article proposes future endeavours to understand wearing practices aiming at more engaging designs.

Motivations for and against second-hand clothing acquisition

Authors: Kirsi Laitala And Ingun Grimstad Klepp 
Page Start: 247

One of the possibilities consumers have for more sustainable clothing acquisition is to select pre-owned products. This article explores consumers’ motivations for clothing reuse: why they choose or do not choose to acquire second-hand clothing. First, a taxonomy of motivation categories based on previous studies is presented. This demonstrates that similar properties can be used as arguments both for and against acquisition of second-hand clothing. An analysis of a representative sample of Norwegian consumers shows that both environmental and economic reasons are important for those who take part in informal clothing circulation. Uniqueness and style are more important for those who buy second-hand clothing. Those who do not take part in any of the forms of acquisition of used clothing, use vague and open justifications, as well as contextual aspects; hygiene, health and intimacy. Previous studies have mostly been based on how clothing is reused as part of a market exchange, and therefore the motives have been embedded with a rational choice understanding of consumption. Studies of the private exchange of clothing should also address additional reasons such as routinized practices and established rituals, family ties, feelings, friendship and love. The article concludes with an invitation for further research to explore several possible motivations that are more relevant for private circulation of clothes.

The size of the problem with the problem of sizing: How clothing measurement systems have misrepresented women’s bodies, from the 1920s to today

Authors: Lisa J. Hackett And Denise N. Rall 
Page Start: 263

Clothing size works as an arbiter of the body ideal. The level of complexity required of clothing measurement systems centres on the problem that clothing must fit closely to the body, whereas manufactured products, like a chair, can be designed to suit a wide range of people, clothing has, by its very nature, less ability to be flexible. Clothing size systems should be developed after undertaking anthropometric surveys of the population and using statistical analysis to construct a set of reasonable standards. Here we argue that social factors in lifestyle, demographics and consumption have radically altered women’s body size and shape. Yet, systems in Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom have measured only a tiny per cent of the female population that fall within a vanity-size shape, as reflected in the marketing of clothing by global brands and high fashion houses, resulting in the size zero debates. This review of the chequered history of women’s clothing size systems has resulted in the inconsistent sizing in the marketplace, as well as a structural unsuitability for the women’s bodies for whom the clothing was designed. Recently, the challenge to ad hoc or vanity-sizing systems appears in social media forums from women who pioneer as models wearing ‘plus sized’ or rather, ‘right sized’ fashionable garments. Social media offers a platform to represent larger women via online access, to purchase right sized fashion and to view themselves no longer as outliers, as this fresh perspective informs contemporary social images of the female body.

Theda Bara and her style: The vamp’s influence on fashion (1915–25)

Authors: Randy Bryan Bigham And Leslie Midkiff DeBauche 
Page Start: 285

In January, 1915 Theda Bara slinked onto movie screens; her femme fatale character became known as the vampire or ‘vamp’. Typecast from the start with a lethal sexuality, Bara emerged a star almost immediately, but she was also the object of parody. Our essay is based on sources previously untapped with regard to Theda Bara’s style, including Women’s Wear Daily, and the archives of designers including Lucile (Lady Duff Gordon).
Fashion designers, merchandisers and publicists exploited the fictional character and the woman who played her to convey an identity of uber-chic through clinging skirts, deep necklines, drop waists and other features that became known as ‘vamp’ or ‘Theda Bara’ styles. As top designers co-opted the vamp, they transformed her outré costumes into tasteful, though still sultry, party frocks, and as some dressed Bara herself, they conventionalized her, too.
Throughout the United States women of nearly every age group and social class incorporated the vamp into their fashion vernacular. Theda Bara became both style motif and slang. And as many women referenced and re-enacted the star in their own wardrobes, they acknowledged the gender norms the vamp ­defied, but also, functionally, nudged those ideological boundaries.

Exhibition Review

Authors: Myriam Couturier 
Page Start: 303

Christian Dior, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, 15 November 2017–18 March 2018