Clothing, fashion and control
- Submitting institution
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Birmingham City University
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 32Z_OP_C1002
- Type
- C - Chapter in book
- DOI
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- Book title
- Fashion and its multicultural facets
- Publisher
- Inter-disciplinary Press
- ISBN
- 978-1-84888-309-3
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month of publication
- -
- Year of publication
- 2014
- URL
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https://fashiondesignbooks.com.ng/product/fashion-and-its-multi-cultural-facets/
- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
-
- Research group(s)
-
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- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This article presents findings of a research project which explores the relationship women have with their bodies and how it impacts on their attitudes to clothes and fashion. The results contribute to understanding the intimate relationship that exists between body awareness and consciousness of clothing.
The body, as a significant aspect of the self, can be the focus of self-control, or more accurately, control of the self. Clothes sit next to the body and are closely related to body awareness, such that the two become intertwined, and attitudes and beliefs associated with the body/self-extend to feelings about clothes. This was apparent in the research participants’ attitudes to various aspects of control. While the issue of control has previously been recognised in extreme behaviours, such as eating disorders, here its influence was in evidence across a range of women.
Research involved in-depth interviews and audio-recordings that were transcribed and coded following standard protocols. Clothing diaries, kept by some of the participants over the course of eight weeks, were likewise analysed. Unlike the more structured and narrowly focused approach typically adopted in psychology, these diaries were unstructured, allowing women to reflect on their clothing decisions, thus providing a wide-range of insights into women’s beliefs and attitudes over a period of time.
These analyses identified control as a major factor in women’s perception of themselves, their bodies and their attitude towards clothes, which were often discussed in terms of what could not be worn. Such control, it is shown, impacts on their sense of identity and autonomy. In highlighting this aspect of the body-clothing relationship, the research not only provides an entirely fresh perspective on clothing’s relationship to self-awareness, but it also contributes to understanding the power clothing has to influence behaviour.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -