By Monica Sklar,
November 10th, 2008 at 5:42 am
(Conferences and Calls for Papers, Uncategorized)
(outfit circa 1750-lost source)
This one could totally work for dress scholars. I just went to the doctoral defense of a friend and colleague who studies runaway slave ads from Brazil.
Call for Papers:
Destined for Men: Visual Materials for Male Audiences, 1750 – 1880
Center for Historic American Visual Culture
October 16-17, 2009
Worcester, Massachusetts
CHAViC solicits proposals for its October 2009 conference. Topics might include presentations on the following:
Men’s clubs as collectors or male patrons of the arts
Prints and photographs of working-class men or celebrities
Advertisements directed at men — grooming products, clothing, cigars, beer and other spirits, guns and ammunition, real estate, industrial machinery, accoutrements for the home such as pipes and billiard tables, yachts, stables, race horses, etc.
Depictions of female celebrities and “pin-ups”
Runaway slave advertisements
Comic valentines
Political prints and city views
Subscription records for prints
Illustrated periodicals and publications directed to a male readership
Advertisements for popular entertainments
Please send a one-page proposal and two-page résumé by December 15, 2008. Email.
Georgia B. Barnhill
Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Graphic Arts
Director, Center for Historic American Visual Culture
American Antiquarian Society
(508) 471-2173
Click here for more details.
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By Monica Sklar,
November 7th, 2008 at 5:00 am
(Uncategorized)
Brad Pitt supports firefighters with tattoos who are being penalized when their ink shows. In a life-threatening job where absolutely no one is thinking about your art, it seems ludicrous to have tattoo dress codes. Click here.
In related news the NYTimes has a piece about the increase of tattoo visibility, and the more obvious locations people are getting them these days.
Click here.
Madonna’s gun-heeled pumps caused recent controversy from people who think Chanel shoes are directly tied to violence. Yeah. Ok. Click here.
The LA Times ran a bunch of Mad Men related pieces about the rise of vintage clothes, how rockin’ Christina Hendricks is, and a great new vintage shoes book. (I should note, I managed a huge vintage store for three years in the mid 90′s, and was obsessed with vintage looks. But after that I was a little burned out on the moth-ball smell, and headed toward Neiman’s Last Call. But, admitedly, I’m swept up in Mad Men mania and am longing for some fabulous vintage duds again. Hence, my recent hair dye back to my late 90′s color of blue-black.-Monica)
2 Comments
By Monica Sklar,
November 6th, 2008 at 5:00 am
(Conferences and Calls for Papers, Uncategorized)
Wed night through Sat afternoon I’ll be at the International Textile and Apparel Association annual conference. One thing I’m doing there is presenting a paper on Thursday-so I thought I’d post our abstract, since it’ll be published in the proceedings. I think this was the final draft, but if not, it’s close enough. This paper was written with Minjeong Kang and Kim K.P. Johnson. This manuscript is currently under review with the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal. -Monica
Men at Work: Fashioning Identities
Introduction.
Contrary to the general belief about men’s lack of interest in dress, their interest in dress and fashion have been rapidly growing, and menswear sales have been swiftly increasing (Alexander, 2003; Bakewell et al., 2006; Frith & Gleeson, 2004; Lee 2004). Today, men’s dress in the workplace is more important than ever due to increased competition for jobs. More women in the workplace has created greater competition and many of these women enter the workforce with a polished appearance, which has been shown to help their role enactment at work (Bakewell et al., 2006). Thus, the purpose of this research is to investigate the role of dress in professional men’s work lives, particularly those new to the workforce.
To accomplish this research purpose, this study was guided by the following research questions:
R1. What meanings do young professional men associate with their appropriate work dress?
R2. Do young professional men use dress to construct and express their work identity?
R2A. How is the salience of work identity related to young professional men’s dress behavior?
R2B. How is the degree to which young professional men feel secure in their work identity related to dress behavior?
R3.What outcomes do young professional men expect with their work dress? R4. How do young professional men’s work identity relate to their dress consumption behavior?
Conceptual Foundation/Related Research.
Three theories or perspective were used to guide this study. First, according to identity theory, social meanings and expectations of external roles are internalized within an individual’s personal identity, which becomes a role identity (Stone, 1962; Stryker, 1980; Stryker & Burke, 2000). Therefore, for this study, work identity was defined as an individual’s internalized meanings and expectations of their role at work. In addition, the importance a person places on the role affects the salience of the role identity and subsequent behaviors. Salient identities in one’s self-definition were more likely to be activated and acted out as relevant behaviors. Second, symbolic interaction presents the idea that individuals establish, maintain, and alter their identities through social interactions in various social, physical, and biological settings and that dress has a power to announce identity through symbols and may be seen in social encounters even before other forms of communication can be initiated (Stone, 1962). Finally, symbolic self-completion theory (Wicklund & Gollwitzer, 1982) proposes that when individuals feel incomplete in their identity, they will obtain symbols associated with that identity, such as items of dress, to achieve a sense of completeness and to strengthen their association with the desired identity.
Method.
The subjects of this study were men under age 40 who work in professional occupations where a uniform is not worn. A total of thirty questions were developed to address the research questions. The questions were mainly open-ended and included a small number of multiple-choices. The survey was pilot tested by two individuals who met the qualifications. Their comments were used to revise the questionnaire for clarity and comprehensiveness. The survey was distributed via email attachment to a set of known men who met the criteria. Each participant was asked to forward the instrument to a convenience sample of other qualifying individuals. The snowball technique and email distribution were chosen to increase and diversify the sample base. Participants were offered no incentives to participate. The data was then comprehensively coded, reviewed, and analyzed to capture emerging themes. The results were then compared with the theories and previous literature. The researchers reviewed the material individually and together, comparing and contrasting their findings to determine conclusions.
Findings.
The participants were 49 men who represented a variety of professions including financial services, creative/design services, education, law, retail, and mental health. They worked in their industries for an average of 4.5 years. The ages ranged from 23 to 37, with an average of 28.44 years old. In terms of education level, the majority of respondents completed a bachelor’s degree and five respondents completed a graduate degree.
Participants tied the appropriateness of work dress to various meanings which represent the following five themes, listed in order of frequency mentioned: 1)professionalism, 2)representation of company, 3)creativity, 4)confidence, and 5)competence. Participants tended to use appropriate dress to construct and express a work identity. However, there was no clear link between the level of work identity salience and dress behavior. A respondent who found his work identity to be a prominent part of his self did not necessarily report extra effort into using dress as a symbol to communicate his work identity. Participants’ sense of security in work identity, however, did appear to have a clear link to their dress behavior. All of the respondents who reported a strong work identity but felt insecure in this identity exerted extra effort in using and purchasing status symbolic dress to construct their work identity. In contrast, participants having salient work identity and who felt secure in their identity did not use status symbolic dress although this group still showed concern about having appropriate dress for work. The majority of participants indicated they expect certain outcomes from their work dress, which represented the following four themes, listed in order of frequency mentioned: 1)upward mobility, promotions, and success, 2)giving right impressions, 3)communication of identity, and 4)avoiding problems. In addition, participants’ efforts to use dress to communicate their work identity, expecting certain outcomes appeared to be acted out in their dress consumption behaviors in the marketplace. Participants were active consumers who used various media and retail aspects to decide what to wear to work, and made their own purchases for work dress.
Discussion and Implications.
The findings have a theoretical implication for dress and identity research as support of symbolic interaction and symbolic self-completion theory. All of participants possessed certain degrees of work identity and dress was used to construct and/or express their work identity through conveying the meanings that were imposed on one’s dress. That is, dress served to make intangible meanings more concrete and to communicate one’s work identity in an observable way. This supports symbolic interaction perspective. In addition, the findings also support symbolic self-completion theory by explaining how dress as one type of symbols is used to feel the sense of completeness in work identity.
This study also provides practical implications for retailers. Retailers need to consider men as active consumers wishing to purchase the appropriate products to communicate their work identity. Retailers could merchandise men’s products through various media and retail displays suggesting how to dress for work would be effective. Furthermore, that men look for dress that conveys meanings such as professionalism, representing their company, creativity, confidence, and competence implies that retailers could promote their products symbolically to communicate these meanings.
References Cited.
Alexander, S. (2003). Stylish hard bodies: Branded masculinity in “Men’s Health” magazine. Sociological
Perspectives, 46(4), 535-554.
Bakewell, C., Mitchell, V. W., & Rothwell, M. (2006). UK generation Y male fashion consciousness. Journal
of Fashion Marketing and Management, 10(2), 169-180.
Frith, H., & Gleeson, K. (2004). Clothing and embodiment: Men managing body image and appearance.
Psychology of Men and Masculinity, 5(1), 40-48.
Lee, H. (2004). Metrosexual formative beauty expressed in men’s fashion in the 21st century. International
Journal of Costume, 4(2), 18-29.
Stone, G. P. (1962). Appearance and the Self. In A. M. Rose (Ed.), Human Behavior and the Social
Processes: An Interactionist Approach. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Stryker, S. (1980). Symbolic Interaction, a Social Structural Version. Menlo Park, CA: Benjamin Cummings.
Stryker, S., & Burke, P.J. (2000). The past, present, and future of an identity theory. Social Psychology
Quarterly, 63(4), 284-297.
Wicklund, R., & Gollwitzer, P. (1982). Symbolic Self-Completion. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
1 Comment
By Heather Vaughan,
November 5th, 2008 at 5:00 am
(Exhibitions, History of Dress, Uncategorized)
This past weekend I found myself attending a sold out symposium at the de Young Museum on the late designer Yves Saint Laurent. The rain didn’t seem to deter a soul from attending the lectures by the illustrious speakers. These included YSL’s long time partner, Pierre Bergé, Hamish Bowles (editor-at-large of American Vogue) and Florence Muller (one of the exhibitions curators), as well as, Fashion historian Farid Chenoune. An added bonus was that several of YSLs entourage was present in the front row of Koret auditorium (including Betty Catroux).
Betty is to the right of YSL
Some of the highlights for me included much of Farid Chenoune’s discussion of the imact and magic of Le Smoking (don’t tell anyone, but his presentation was my favorite), Hamish Bowles not only gave a wonderful overview of YSL’s design career, but also provided information about his own private collection of YSLs (he has about 20 pieces of YSL for Dior, and 60 pieces of YSL Couture). I also loved that Pierre Bergé was wearing an Obama pin throughout the day’s activities.
The opportunity to ask the illustrious panelists questions was not lost on this primarily non-academic crowd. One of the best was when an audience-member asked Hamish to describe a favorite piece from his own collection. His answer was an amazing sounding watteau-backed YSL for Dior from the Trapeze collection.
Farid Chenoune’s discussion of Le Smoking was informed, creative, and brought up issues I had never considered before: How Le Smoking was an evening ensemble in direct opposition to Chanel’s Little Black dress, the popular scandal of being nude under the tuxedo, and the interplay of gender roles as played out in the cut and fit of the ensemble. I could go on and on and on about this paper. Chenoune’s turns of phrase were inspiring, including: “The male/female issue is the eye of the hurricane that is fashion.”
Chenoune’s use of the fairytale metaphor was jaw dropping. He proposed that in the fashion fairy tale, the woman is a princess in the ballgown, and the man is a knight in black armour, sent to rescue her. But YSL turned that on its head, giving the armour instead to the princess, in effect, giving her the power. I could listen to this man all day. Unfortunately, the slim volume in the bookstore was well outside my price range – $80 (!!). I wasn’t able to find it anywhere online, but if anyone sees Yves Saint Laurent: Smoking Forever, please let me know – the holidays are just around the corner.
It is Le Smoking, but it is also NOT Le Smoking.
One of the biggest revaluations, however, was that the iconic photo that is always used to depict Le Smoking is not actually of one of the Tuxedo ensembles. It is merely one of YSLs pants suits for women. I learned so much on this day, its hard to fathom.
I hope to have a more detailed symposium review in an upcoming issue of the Costume Society of America’s Western Region newsletter. For information on joining the Costume Society of America, please contact me or visit: Costume Society of America. For some really wonderful photos of the exhibition (as mounted at the de young) take a quick peek at the coverage at SFLuxe by Damion Matthews. For the San Francisco Chronicle’s coverage of the press gala, read this.
As an aside, I also had the opportunity to interview the collection manager for the Museum at FIDM for upcoming posts on Worn Through. Watch this space for more information on their collection and upcoming events over the coming weeks.
Until next time,
Heather
www.fashionhistorian.net
Comments
By Heather Vaughan,
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:00 am
(Conferences and Calls for Papers, Uncategorized)
The Western region of the Costume Society of America has put out a call for papers for their first annual regional symposium. Special registration rates are available for student papers. Take advantage of this great opportunity. Forgive the length of this post, but these two calls for papers are not yet available online anywhere else (ie worn through has the exclusive).
Western Region 2009 Symposium
(2 calls for papers)
“Costume in the American West: Historic to Modern Times”
September 25-26, 2009
Sacramento, California
Deadline: Postmarked by April 4, 2009.
The Western Region Symposium offers an opportunity for members of the Costume Society of America to present research on a variety of topics related to the theme “Costume in the American West: Historic to Modern Times.” Some possible topics for papers are: modern and historical fashion designers; dressmakers and milliners; art-to wear; entertainment from Buffalo Bill and Wild West Shows to opera, dance, theater, film and television; counter cultures; costume in Western American literature; Native American and First Nations cultures; the design process; sports and leisure; manufacturing/manufacturers, gay culture, show girls and beyond!
TWO TYPES OF PRESENTATIONS ARE INVITED
- Oral Research Papers are appropriate for the presentation of new research findings and conclusions. Limited to 20 minutes for presentation. All visuals must be in Power Point format. One presentation will be reserved for a student speaker (see separate call for papers below) who will be awarded a stipend to present a paper at the symposium.
- Research-In-Progress Reports are appropriate for the presentation of ongoing research to elicit feedback from registrants for additional research sources and/or comments on methodology. Limited to 7 minutes for presentation. All visuals must be in Power Point format.
View the full call for papers here:
csa-call-for-papers
csa-call-for-student-papers
For details watch this space:
http://www.costumesocietyamerica.com/RegionV/event_workshop_sym.htm
Until next time,
Heather
www.fashionhistorian.net
Comments
By Monica Sklar,
November 3rd, 2008 at 5:00 am
(Conferences and Calls for Papers, Uncategorized)
Conference and Call for papers:
The Jewish Woman and her Body
Youngstown State University, Youngstown, Ohio
March 7-9, 2010 (really advance notice)
Call for Papers deadline: October 1, 2009 (not sure why it’s so far out??)
Submissions for individual papers should consist of a 250 word abstract, contact information, and a short bio of the speaker. Proposals for a panel should include a 100 word description of the overall panel in addition to a 250 word abstract of each paper on the panel as well as contact information and a short bio of each speaker.
Proposals should be sent electronically to:
Dr. Helene J. Sinnreich
Center for Judaic and Holocaust Studies
Youngstown State University
Email
Click here for more details.
In related news there was a pretty nifty article in CSA’s journal Dress in 2007 (I think) on women who were members of hadassah in I belive the 1950s and how fashion played into their lives and the organization. I tried to find it online for you, but was reminded that CSA has had some sort of delay publishing Dress and I could not access only issues past 2006 for some reason through any of my sources.
Anyway, the point is, If you’re interested in Jewish women’s dress, this is a recent article worth checking out if you can get a hold of it. I was actually provided this article as a springboard option for one of my essays in my written exams this past August, but instead went off memory to a personal fav article on Japaense teen girls street fashion. I guess logically so, my professors figured a Jewish dress scholar such as myself, who is a lifelong member of Hadassah, might be into that article, but alas, I preferred to write about platform shoes and youth subcultures. -Monica
Comments
By Monica Sklar,
November 2nd, 2008 at 5:00 am
(Jobs, Uncategorized)
In addition to all of the academic jobs which open at this time every year, there are quite a few decent sounding jobs open in the business and design world which include research-style components. Below are a handful.
Puma
Footwear Creative Directing Manager, Lifestyle
Boston, MA
Research, design, management….
Click here for more details.
BCBG Max Azria
Senior Designer – Handbags
Los Angeles, CA
Research trends, design, sketch….
Click here for more details.
Bloomingdales
Art Director
NYC
Innovation, trends, management, editorial…
Click here for more details.
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