Art and Design Commons^™

Development Of A Prototype Shirt For Post Double Mastectomy Women Without Breast Reconstruction, Hannah Lane

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Breast cancer is a common cancer among women in the United States, with thousands of fatalities and hundreds of thousands of diagnoses every year. A common course of treatment for breast cancer is the surgical removal of all or some of the breast tissue; this is known as mastectomy. Mastectomy is invasive in nature and results in noticeable physical changes to the body and psychological effects in regard to self-image. However, it is becoming more common for breast cancer survivors to embrace their now flat chests following mastectomy, instead of opting for reconstructive surgery. This has become a lifestyle choice …

An Evaluation Of Sustainability In Consumption: The Behaviors Behind Purchase, Care, And Disposal Of Apparel, Ana La Rosa

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

Fashion trend cycles have become increasingly fast-paced and unsustainable due to competition and consumer demand in the apparel sector. Despite having sustainable apparel choices available, consumers seem reluctant to adopt sustainable changes in their consumption habits due in part to the market allure of rapid turnover of goods, better known as ‘Fast Fashion’. Paired with aggressive marketing campaigns that encourage increased consumption beyond need, the apparel industry keeps expanding at alarming rates around the world. Although it has been identified that consumers increasingly care about the unethical behaviors in the industry that negatively impact the environment, this feeling does not …

Aesthetics Of Anxiety, Sade' S. Culliver

Honors College Theses

My research gives an in-depth explanation of what anxiety is, and a general idea of what it is like to deal with the condition. This research includes an illustrated clothing line consisting of fifteen looks that visually summarize the information about anxiety. Each element of these looks was based on research about anxiety, design techniques, and color theory. Of the fifteen looks, one was physically constructed and 2 were prepped for construction. The purpose of this research is to help people without the condition get a better general understanding of it, as well as help people with the condition feel …

Getting Located: Queer Semiotics In Dress, Callen Zimmerman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The body, a long contested site of identity construction, has been used by historically by queers to convey desire, build affinity and transgress norms. Looking at the fashioned queer body, this capstone takes the form of a proposal for an art exhibition at the Leslie Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art. Seeking to engage with objects, performance and film which approximate, provide proxy for or depart from the body as a site, it explores the social and political quagmire of getting dressed. Comprised of contemporary art that looks at the rupture of legible bodily semiotics, this show wonders what …

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, And Paradox In Subaltern Labor Photography, Mahnure Janis

Theses and Dissertations

Imaging Exploitation, Complexity, and Paradox in Subaltern Labor Photography is an expanded cinema performance examining 'cheap' labor in the fast fashion industry through a self-reflexive diasporic lens. The images and narration explores the garment factories in Bangladesh and contains ‘a photographer’s cognitive meta-data’, including ethical dilemmas while taking the images.

Through The Looking Glass: Marie Antoinette, The Mafia And The Buddha, Craig G. Foisy

Theses and Dissertations

Through the Looking Glass: Marie Antoinette, the Mafia & the Buddhais a short documentary film that recounts six chapters from the autobiography of Marie Antoinette. No, not that last Queen of France who got her head chopped off. This Marie Antoinette lives in Woodstock, NY (“but I do like cake!” says Marie from inside her shop). And yes, Marie Antoinette is her real name. She is 78 years old and she sells what she calls “wearable art” out of a ramshackle and overstuffed boutique in town. Marie is facing the possible closure of her shop: her 100-year-old …

Costume Design For Qui Nguyen’S She Kills Monsters, Tanner Neal Mcalpin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis details the process of creating costume designs and implementing them in the production of She Kills Monsters which was produced at the University of Arkansas Black Box Theatre in the Fall of 2018. Throughout this thesis I will explain how the costumes went from initial research and conversations with the director to the final products on the stage. The account of this includes an analysis of the script, collages of photos used for inspiration, portrait gallery, research, rough sketches, renderings with fabric swatches, production photos, and my evaluation of the process as a whole.

Costume Design For "Life Is A Dream" By Pedro Calderon De La Barca, Kelsey Looney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis explains the process used to create and implement the costume design for the production of Life is a Dream produced at the University of Arkansas in the spring of 2018. In this thesis I will detail the process of moving from research, to renderings, to finished costumes. This design process includes a script analysis, inspiration collages, portrait gallery, sketches, renderings, production photographs, and an assessment of the success of the process overall.

Project Luminous: An E-Textiles Workshop Study To Increase Science Technology Engineering Mathematics/Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics Interest In Middle School Girls, India Semone Callahan

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research study, young middle schoolers engaged in a stimulating workshop that seamlessly merged fashion with technology and electrical engineering. Students learned how to use simple hand sewing skills to create wearable-tech items using conductive thread, sewable LED lights, and sewable battery packs. The objective of the study was to increase young women’s interest in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics/Science Technology Engineering Art Mathematics (STEM/STEAM).

Forty-eight middle school girls spent a day learning about the basics of e-textiles and building working products using their new knowledge. The day is split into three lessons. In lesson one students build a simple …

Designing A Human-Centric Rigid Body Armor For Female Police Officers: The Implications Of Fit On Performance And Gender Inclusivity, Sarah West

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The lack of availability of female plates for police officers is an issue that has not been analyzed. Female anthropometry is uniformly different from male anthropometry. Currently available hard plates are flat. These plates may decrease coverage while increasing feelings of poor fit, discomfort, and poor mobility for both male and female officers. The plates designed for males offer the possibility of female officers experiencing feelings of gender exclusion. This research project explored the current perceptions of male and female police officers in Arkansas across the dimensions of fit, comfort, and mobility in the context of hard plate body armor. …

Getting Dressed And Being Dressed: A Constructed Autobiography Of Identity, Jana Jarosz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This written and visual capstone project examines how feminist theories surrounding the construction of a gendered subject are related and situational to the narrative of a lived body experience within a layered context of clothing. It opens up a discussion concerning the negotiated space between an individually-empowered, subject-in-process and the boundaries of social expectations outlining gender and cultural identities. The thesis introduces the concept of using an automediality framework to connect the material culture of clothing to still and motion imagery with text as a way to encapsulate and illustrate the fluid nature of becoming. It concludes by suggesting that …

Exhibition Catalog On Rediscovering The Fashion Of Hanboks And Kimonos: The Tale Of Kisaengs And Geishas, Sylvia Chung

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project examines traditional costumes of Korean hanboks and Japanese kimonos and explores the wardrobes of kisaengs and geishas. It also highlights the contemporary design of hanboks and kimonos by rediscovering their fashion impact in today's global era.

Dance Of Exile: The Sakharoffs’ Visual Performances In Montevideo (1935–1948), Pablo Munoz Ponzo

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis explores the life-work chronology of the dancers and choreographers Clotilde von Derp (whose surname then was Sakharoff) and Alexander Sakharoff, who were exiled in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Buenos Aires, Argentina, between 1941 and 1948. During their stay in the Rio de la Plata region, the Sakharoffs stirred up the art scene by performing extremely detailed dances with great attention to costume design. This thesis begins with a review of the reception of the dancers’ performances by the artistic and cultural circles in Montevideo, arguing that the Sakharoffs’ “queer” trajectory resonated with the Uruguayan artistic community, influencing the creation …

Millennials' Acceptance Of Voice Activated Shopping, Katelyn Nicole Sorensen

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

The rise of voice technologies has changed the way individuals complete tasks and interact with their devices. Retail companies are now offering voice features to shop for products, but there is a gap in literature about consumers’ acceptance of using voice technology to make purchases. Previous studies have compared the different brands of voice technologies, investigated privacy issues, or explained the acceptance of voice technology. Millennials’ acceptance and shopping through voice technologies have not been researched before. Kääriä (2017) calls for future studies to focus on voice technologies, since the technology is constantly improving, and new forms are entering the …

(Un)Bound : Disrupting Notions., Reid Broadstreet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

(un) bound: disrupting notions is a selection of art work that explores gender identity through the act of interpellation and the semiotics of clothing. The project aims to clearly define how concepts of “gender” and “sex” function in our language and, in turn, how the binary terms of these concepts (man/woman; male/female) enforce our genders rather than express them. Clothing is a particularly productive form for this investigation because clothing is often the way we express our gender, and yet it is also often produced for us along strict, socially-prescribed gender lines. Typically, conversations around gender are very black …

The Home As An Object: Material Culture In The Age Of Ikea, Maxwell Harling Fertik

Senior Theses and Projects

The curiosity of everyday objects looms large in every human’s life. And naturally, these objects are almost as diverse in character as the person who bought them. This variation can be in style, period, shape, origin but also in the arrangement it is given in relation to other objects or persons in a space. On one level, the objects we surround ourselves with are meaningless, purely functional, utilitarian and banal. Especially on a budget, one may not consider aesthetic or design issues at all and purely buy a toaster because they want toast. Why would one buy a SMEG+Dolce and …

Sins Against Our Soles: The Morality And Hygiene Of Nineteenth-Century Women's Shoes, Nicole Rudolph

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

Our understanding of the Victorian woman has long centered around the idea of the “Angel in the House,” made famous by Coventry Patmore’s 1854 poem. This mythical ideal to which a middle-class woman should endeavor can be found in endless numbers of nineteenth-century texts and has become an oft-referenced concept in modern historiography. Representations of the attributes of the ideal woman circulated widely in society, pictured in etiquette books, medical journals, and especially advertisements. They were an ever-present reminder to women of the social norms governing their roles and life trajectories. As consumers, women were responsible for the presentation of …

Constraint And Control, Patricia Ayres

Theses and Dissertations

I have long considered themes of the body. Drawing on my knowledge as a fashion designer, I bring materials and hardware from the fashion industry into my artwork transforming and rendering them non-functional. My sculptures relate to stories of isolation, separation, and confinement. The following pages will analyze how the United States penal system controls, constrains and restricts the body through physical and psychological wounds. Furthermore, they will examine how the Catholic Church controls people’s minds and behavior through a ritualistic belief system.

Dress Up, Ye'ela B. Wilschanski

Theses and Dissertations

Dress Up (Performance, 40 minutes) is a dress that functions as a floor, blanket, tablecloth, book and walls. It tells a visual story about domestic care giving rituals, referencing different times and places.

Qipao And Female Fashion In Republican China And Shanghai (1912-1937): The Discovery And Expression Of Individuality, Qingxuan Han

Senior Projects Fall 2019

This project is an attempt to understand the Chinese dress qipao in Republican China, with a primary concentration in Shanghai, and its associations with body politics, urbanscape, modernity, personal and national identity, and sociocultural practices. In particular, I argue that qipao, amongst other fashions of Republican China, had been one of the earliest examples of the modern expression of individuality through fashion in China; I strive to discover how this practice was enabled by its contemporary social environment as well as technological advancements.

The What If Collection, Aisha J. Daniels

Theses and Dissertations

The What If Collection is a visual narrative that confronts white supremacy, the social, economic, and political ideology used to subjugate black civilization via colonial rule and enslavement in history and via structural racism today. Many white people have been socialized into a racial illiteracy that fosters white supremacy. This racial illiteracy fails to realize and understand the destructive effects of Western dominance on the rest of the world, particularly on past and present Africa and her diaspora. In response, utilizing discursive design, the collection constructs a counter-story that depicts a shift in the power structure in which the white …

My Clothing Is Me: Embracing Adhd In Traditional Qatari Apparel, Rabab Abdulla

Theses and Dissertations

Children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) are often secluded from society, as the condition is perceived to be a defect. These children constantly fidget, move, lose track of time, and forget to complete tasks, leading them to struggle within existing social environments. Additionally, in Qatar there is a need to educate society about ADHD. This research explores wearable solutions that alter behaviors through physical interactions and sensory engagements. In response to the challenges faced by ADHD, Qatari traditional attire has been customized to support children with time management, and communication between child, parent, and society. Additionally, these wearables …

Costume Design For Shakespeare's "Macbeth", Melissa Rooney

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The following thesis explains the process used to create the costume design for the production of Macbeth produced at the University of Arkansas Global Campus Theatre in the Spring of 2019. Throughout this thesis, I will explain the process by which the costumes went from initial research ideas to sketches and colored renderings and finally to fully realized three dimensional costumes. The design process included in this thesis includes an analysis of the play, inspirational collage, portrait gallery, research, renderings, production images, and an evaluation of the overall process.