Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Connection Between Gen Z And Online Fast Fashion Media; Aiming To Create A Sustainable Future In Fashion., Rachel Peters

School of Art Undergraduate Honors Theses

It is impossible to think about culture in the past two decades without referencing social media. My generation, commonly known as Gen Z (born between 1997-2010), has been on the forefront of social media development. One of the first generations to grow up with some form of unfiltered online social experience, Gen Z has been hard wired to consume media. While using social media alongside my peers, I have observed a problem that has resulted from this: mass consumption. A mass consumption of food, beauty products, home decor, and clothing in particular. On social media we see hundreds of videos …

Ricucire Il Tessuto Della Società: L’Intersezione Di Moda Femminile E Femminismo, Caroline Grace Bisese

Honors Theses

La moda è tutt'altro che una conseguenza frivola e accidentale dell'abbigliamento disponibile e del luogo in cui si va a fare shopping. L’abbigliamento è una forma di retorica corporea che evoca un ampio dialogo non verbale. Una narrazione che va ben oltre il materiale e lo stile, sebbene entrambi questi dettagli sono fondamentali, la moda al livello più elementare è essenziale per capire chi sono le persone, perché sono come sono e in cosa credono. Queste sono alcune dei capisaldi per capire una persona in relazione alla cultura e una cultura in conseguenza delle persone che la compongono. È una …

Disability Advocacy In Fashion Design, Erin Higinbotham, Susan Macdermott Otd, Otr/L

Spring 2023 Virtual OTD Capstone Symposium

Originally marketed towards older adults followed by children, adaptive fashion greatly impacts the everyday independence of all disabled people. Utilizing the Person-Environment-Occupation model and understanding the relationship between the disabled community, clothing, and occupational participation and again with the fashion company, the designer, and their fulfillment of a need or gap in accessibility lead to the purpose of this capstone of identifying occupational therapy’s role in designing ready-to-wear adaptive clothing through understanding and bridging the gaps in fashion education for designers. To address this, advocacy in education and educational materials were created to fill this gap and promote accessibility and …

Study Of Fashion And Politics, Jacqueline Arena

Library Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this research is to analyze the way fashion has been used as a vessel for

political statements; specifically through studying the work of artists Jean Paul Gaultier, Alexander Mcqueen and Vivienne Westwood. Gaultier and Mcqueen showcased shocking collections that caught the public eye by testing gender boundaries and reflecting historical events. Westwood’s work was a protest, and she was an activist. The sources included highlight the success of these unique designers. Furthermore, the research evaluates how political statements by fashion designers have become harmful because today newer designers are vying for the success of trailblazers such as …

Exploring The Influence Of Globalization And Self-Expression In Shaping The Vietnamese Lgbtq+ Community In Urban Vietnam, Minh-Thy Tyler

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The LGBTQ+ community is estimated to make up around 9% to 11% of Vietnam’s total population. Over the past few decades, Vietnam has undergone significant changes, marked by its increasing interconnectedness with the global community. These changes have also brought about a shift in perceptions and advocacy toward the LGBTQ+ community. Also bringing along a change in attitude towards the LGBTQ+ community in Vietnam is self-expression and fashion. Through drag or wearing gender-nonconforming attire, queer individuals are able to challenge the restrictive gender binary prevalent in Vietnamese society. Self-expression and fashion are also critical in helping queer individuals form and …

The Fashioning Of Individual And Group Identities In The Thrifttok Community, Kathryn Andronowitz

Holster Scholar Projects

In the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown, a noticeable surge of videos focused on thrifted clothing appeared on the social media platform TikTok, coinciding with an increase in offline thrift store traffic. Individual contributors to these trends comprise a networked community of popular creators and lifestyle followers of these thrifting videos on TikTok, or “ThriftTok,” based on the commonly-used hashtag of the same name. The ThriftTok community is not monolithic. Its productions encompass a spectrum of videos ranging from flea market explorations and goth-style thrifted fashion, to reselling tips and “thrift with me” videos. Its participants range from indie band …

From Fashion, To Violence, To A Forgotten Era: The Zoot Suit And Mexican-American Youth Culture In 1940’S America, Adelaide Iris Ord Treadwell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Social Studies of Bard College

From Fashion, To Violence, To A Forgotten Era: The Zoot Suit And Mexican-American Youth Culture In 1940’S America, Adelaide Iris Ord Treadwell

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to the Division of Social Studies of Bard College.

Los Bordados De La Indumentaria Indígena Andina Tradicional De Canchis, Nathalie Santisteban-D.

Tejiendo imágenes. Homenaje a Victòria Solanilla Demestre

Este estudio trata sobre las influencias artísticas, prehispánica y colonial, que han tenido y tienen los bordadores en la creación de los diseños bordados que adornan el vestido tradicional indígena contemporáneo de los pueblos de San Pablo, de Tinta y de Marangani de la provincia de Canchis (Cuzco, Perú). El bordado con máquina (maquinasqa) apareció, posiblemente, en la primera mitad del siglo xx. Creación que es atribuida al costurero indígena sampablino Julián Choquevilca que revolucionó el vestido y el vestir femenino de estos pueblos, cambiando la historia del vestido en esta provincia. Choquevilca junto a los bordadores contemporáneos, hicieron de …

Journal Research, Catherine Harper Ph.D

Arts and Design

TEXTILE: Cloth and Culture joined the canon of international research journals dedicated to Fashion, Dress and Textile Studies in 2003, the founder editors being Janis Jefferies and Pennina Barnett, both at that time part of the Textiles and Visual Culture departments at Goldsmiths’ College University of London.

In their opening statement for Issue 1, Janis and Pennina acknowledged that the term ‘textile’ was open to debate and argument across disciplines, borders and cultures, and they set out – not to define, refine or opine that term – but to enable a range of global voices that would challenge, innovate, distinguish …

Nyfw Can't Handle Texture On The Runway, Yvette M. Brown, Treashure Lewis

Capstones

During NYFW, a model went viral after exposing the fact that the stylist did not understand how to style her hair. This is very common in the fashion world, where there are no proper hairstylists to care for natural curls and coils.

https://brownlewiscapstone.wordpress.com/

The Bronx Solidifies Itself In The Fashion World With Borough-Based Nonprofit, Nicholas R. Hernandez, Demetria Osei-Tutu

Capstones

Bronx-born nonprofit organizer, Flora Montes, founded Bronx Fashion NYC in 2014. The organization aims to establish Bronx-centric fashion-event opportunities and better representation in an industry where access is often unattainable for people of color or of limited means—or who happen to come from the Bronx, a borough often perceived by some as un-chic despite boasting a culturally thriving history of innovation in both fashion and music.

With Bronx Fashion NYC, Montes is working on putting Bronx models and local designers on the map with multiple fashion shows and paving the way for the future with the addition of a start-up …

Vivienne Westwood And The Socio-Political Nature Of Punk, Ashley Rosato

Honors College Theses

Punk fashion, which helped define the punk movement in the 1970s, has been ever changing as it adapts to modern times. Before it was the watered-down, mainstream mass-produced aesthetic that it is today, punk style was full of counterculture meaning and signs that communicated counter-hegemonic ideologies to the public. Vivienne Westwood, one of the contributors to early punk culture and the mother of British punk style, designed clothing that was central to the ethos of the early punk movement. Through a semiotic analysis of five of Westwood’s designs from the 1970s, this study aims to demonstrate how Westwood’s early punk …

Superficial: An Exploration Of Decoration, Fashion, Taste, Camp, And Trends, Jillian Ohl

MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture

Since the rise of consumer culture in the late 19th century, Americans have had a complicated relationship with decorative objects, the idea of taste, and the cycle of trends within our classist society. This essay examines some of the decorative objects in my childhood home such as patterned wallpaper and an antique chair as well as a contemporary brand name mascara. While these objects do not have major functional properties, their decoration and superficiality bring me joy. To better understand my appreciation of decoration and aesthetics, I assess how an object or fashion is considered in good or bad taste. …

Skins+Fabrications: Addressing Fashion And Clothing Waste, Renee Palmer

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Articles of clothing; they are the second organ, the Second Skin. Their functions are to protect the body from the harsh external elements and create a sense of design with Fashion—the same as exterior facades on a building. However, where architecture and Fashion differ is sustainability.

The Global fashion industry contributes 10% of greenhouse emissions. From that 10%, about 13 million tonnes of clothing waste ends up in landfills or burned. Most of the waste comes from the Fast Fashion Industry, which sees cheap labor from underdeveloped countries to maximize profits. These companies will spend a good portion of their …

Unlaced:The Dress Reform Movement Of The Late Nineteenth And Early Twentieth Century, Andrea Marie Severson Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Unlaced: The Dress Reform Movement of the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries examines the history of the dress reform movement in the United States with particular regard to its emphasis on corsets and pants as well as its social connections to other movements of the time. The late 1800s and early 1900s gave rise to many formalized movements, particularly during the Progressive Era. The dress reform movement took place in the United States roughly between 1840 and 1920 and sought to change women's clothing to make it healthier, less cumbersome, and more practical. On the surface, dress reform appears …

(Re)Fashioning Gender: Dress As Embodied Feminist Critique In Modernist Women’S Writing, Lauren Elizabeth Sperandio Phelps

English Dissertations

In this dissertation I examine early twentieth century women writers’ use of fashion as a mode of critiquing gender, race, and class oppression. Through close reading of the novels of Nella Larsen, Edith Wharton, Anzia Yezierska, Radclyffe Hall, and Virginia Woolf, I explore how fashion in these works functions to emphasize elements of identity formation and conditioning. I argue that by taking up fashion as a tool for critique women writers were able to simultaneously challenge oppressive social structures as well as appraisals of women as unfit for serious analysis or literature. If fashion is considered trivial, then using it …

The Death Of Print Magazines In Fashion: The Fight To Stay Relevant During The Digital Era And A Look At The Future Of Fashion Print Magazines, Mary Shannon Donnelly

Honors College Theses

We have found ourselves in a digital era. For the past ten years, the public’s Internet usage per day has skyrocketed across all age groups, which in turn, has had an effect on the print industry (e.g. books, magazines, newspapers). As technology has progressed, many have turned to online magazines and journals to receive their fashion news. Given this rapid advance in digital technology, in my honors thesis, I plan to focus on the effect of digital media on print, specifically in the context of fashion magazines. Specifically, I will explore the history of the fashion magazine, its efforts to …

Fashsim Lab: Learning About Cotton From Field To Virtual Fashion, Kelly Cobb, Angela Beckett

Frameless

The global pandemic is clearly illuminating the value and even necessity of online education and remote learning for students around the world (IIIE, 2020.) Virtual modules engage students, substituting valuable learning experiences that are not possible to recreate due to constraints on time and/or materials, or physical meeting ability, demonstrated by the pivot due to COVID. In the virtual lab, students are able to work together, applying course concepts to new situations and contexts, as well as develop data analysis skills. Common in the sciences, this novel concept embeds state-of-the art learning into the textile and apparel curriculum. In the …

The Intersection Of Fashion And Politics: A Semiotic Analysis Of Vogue Magazine Covers Surrounding Election Seasons, Megan M. Vincent

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the political messages framed within the cover of Vogue magazines by reviewing the published issues that surround election season. By focusing on the intersection of politics and fashion through the visual representation provided by a prestigious, globally known fashion magazine, the research will observe the potential increase and growth of political involvement within influence of the fashion industry. This study will begin with the October, November, and December covers from the 2016 and 2020 presidential election. These will be accompanied by the January, February, and March covers of the following years. Guided by semiotic analysis and visual …

The Making Of Everyday Hollywood: 1930s Film Influence On Everyday Women’S Fashion In Nebraska, Anna Naomi Kuhlman

Department of Textiles, Merchandising, and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This research examines the influence of film fashions on middle-class, Nebraskan women’s dress during the Great Depression (1932-1940). The Great Depression challenged the middle class: while standards of living remained high, the economic means to achieve those standards diminished. Despite the crisis, women strove to keep up with current fashion trends. While previous literature has examined how Hollywood directly affected trends and styles of the 1930s in major American metropolitan contexts, the manifestation of trends in the dress of middle to lower socio-economic classes in Middle America remains under-examined. Against the backdrop of Depression-era hardships specific to Nebraska’s agricultural economy, …

Fashion Changes: How Advertisers In East Asia Used The Image Of The Modern Girl To Promote Cosumerism, Madelyn Foster

Senior Theses

The modern girl is one of the most visually memorable female archetypes of the 20th century. She emerged at the beginning of the century in countries across the world and represented the merging of modernity and consumerism, as well as the increasingly visible role of women in the public sphere. She can be seen in the art and media of many different nations around the world, and while her basic essence is the same across countries- a young, cosmopolitan woman who dresses in modern fashions- her specific traits and clothing choices depend heavily on the nation in which she is …

The Liberatory Potential Of Fashion, David Billie Suoth

Honors Theses and Capstones

Fashion has the potential to be liberatory and this can be seen in the ways fashion has been targeted by systems of oppression. Fashion is the use of clothes as a vessel to create a greater social meaning. According to Edward Sapir, the meaning of fashion “while it is primarily applied to dress and the exhibition of the human body is not essentially concerned with the fact of dress or ornament, but with its symbolism” (Barnard, 2007, p. 65). Fashion with the symbolism behind it is able to show the sentiments and attitudes of civilization at different points in history …

History Of Fashion Installations As Art Exhibitions And Their Impact On The Public’S Perspective On Culture And Community, Arabella Riley

MA Theses

The current study targeted the problem of the relationship among the notions of fashion, art, and culture. The study aimed to determine the potential role of fashion brands and artists in the transformation of modern culture. Additionally, the study sought to analyze the forms of collaboration between fashion and arts, and their commercial and conceptual value. As to the research methods, qualitative secondary data review using thematic analysis methodology was utilized. The research findings included the recognition of the significant role of modern fashion and arts in the transformation of the public culture. Furthermore, it was revealed that different formats …

In America: A Content Analysis Of The 2021 Met Gala, Mary Beth Clarke

Honors Theses - Providence Campus

This study examined the 2021 Met Gala and how its theme In America: A Lexicon of Fashion was applied. It answered the question of: how was this theme interpreted via the attendees’ attire? This study was conducted via content analysis of the Met Gala attendees (using digital images), supplemented with additional Internet research to provide more context. The findings show that the attendees’ outfits had many influences, including icons, personal heritage, activism, and red-carpet norms, to name a few. The implications of this study are that “America” can have varying meanings for different people, depending on their values and lived …

Transformations Of Hanbok In The Age Of Hallyu: Fashion, Cultural Hybridization, And The Construction Of Vernacular Korean Nationalism, Katharine V. Smith

Honors Undergraduate Theses

Hanbok is the traditional fashion of South Korea, and literally translates to “Korean clothing.” Once worn every day, today hanbok is reserved for special occasions and holidays; however new “modern” versions of the attire are becoming more and more popular for everyday wear. This new iteration of the traditional clothing created a new vernacular of Korean nationalism and “Koreanness” through the incorporation of modern fashion trends and traditional Korean aesthetics. Modern hanbok represents the unique relationship between nationalism, globalization, and fashion, and can be seen as an example of cultural hybridization. Looking at modern hanbok through the lens of Hallyu, …

The Drive For Disability, Aliyah Walker

Capstones

After recent inclusivity movements, the fashion industry had a reckoning that they need to do better when it comes to diversity. Size, age, and gender have started to have better representation in recent years; however, disability representation is still lagging. If the fashion industry wants to become truly inclusive, it needs to start representing disabled individuals positively and regularly both on the runway and in campaigns.

Link to Capstone Project: https://medium.com/@aliyah.walker83/the-drive-for-diversity-b29288adc482

Fashion, Identity And The Muslim-American Narrative, Shireen Soliman

Artizein: Arts and Teaching Journal

In this pivotal time, assumptions, boundaries, power structures and relationships within society are being reconsidered and reimagined. My research project, “Fashion, Identity and the Muslim- American Narrative” builds off of well-established prior models and responds to this moment. Through this multidisciplinary, multimedia design workshop series geared towards Muslim American female adolescents, we are able to leverage the powerful intersection of design, technology, community, social media and social justice. In this affirming, enlightening space, we use fashion, dress and personal narrative as the springboard and means of exploring the intrinsic connection between social and emotional issues surrounding identity development, social justice …

Addressing The Lack Of Availability In Diverse Skin Tone Options For Performance Fabric, Jessica Batey

Honors College Theses

The following research addresses the lack of availability in diverse skin tone options for performance fabric. The project will discuss the struggles people of color face when finding fabrics that accurately match their skin tone and the difficulties in sourcing the materials needed to successfully design a garment. The research gathered will be used to produce a collection of 4 looks using nude mesh fabrics that are readily available to the average consumer. The garments within the collection will be designed to match the skin color of 4 models. The collection’s theme will be based around the 4 cardinal witches …

'Fashion Settled/ Unsettled, Aferdita Statovci

UBT International Conference

Fashion is about change and about challenging the status quo which at present is uncertain. Citizens and fashion professionals are questioning the frivolous approach to fashion and exploring ways in which fashion can contribute to driving change- not only ecologically but socially and politically.

Historically, political and leading figures in society have long understood the power of fashion and they used it to convey status, values, and affiliations, just as the people have used it to protest or approve certain matters, both socially and politically.

Fashion as a sincere expression of our external identity regardless of climatic conditions / season, …