Abstract
This paper outlines a wardrobe study conducted within a larger research investigation that aims to examine the daily clothing choices and preferences of older female consumers in China to inform clothing design for this demographic. Based on inclusive design principles, the paper discusses the method and results of a wardrobe study designed to gather evidence of clothing preferences from 27 Chinese women aged between 55–70 years old. Four favourite casual outfits were selected by each participant from their own wardrobe. These were then photographed on the body and flat, with garment details recorded. The visual data from the wardrobe study was collated into a textual format enabling quantitative content analysis to be applied to find areas of commonality and divergence in participants’ choices regarding clothing design features, fabrics, fastenings and fit. The results of the study provide information that could assist in developing design guidelines for fashion designers and companies manufacturing clothing for ageing female Chinese consumers.
M. Zhang—The fieldwork for this article was undertaken as part of a doctoral research study funded by the University of Manchester/China Scholarship Council Joint Scholarship.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Gaskill, L.R.: Toward a model of retail product development: a case study analysis. Clothing Text. Res. J. 10(4), 17–24 (1992)
Glock, R.E., Kunz, G.I.: Apparel Manufacturing: Sewn Product Analysis. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River (2005)
Regan, C.L.: A concurrent engineering framework for apparel manufacture (1997)
Stone, E.: The Dynamics of Fashion, vol. 1. Fairchild Books, New York (1999)
Wickett, J.L., Gaskill, L.R., Damhorst, M.L.: Apparel retail product development: model testing and expansion. Clothing Text. Res. J. 17(1), 21–35 (1999)
Workman, J.E., Caldwell, L.F., Kallal, M.J.: Development of a test to measure spatial abilities associated with apparel design and product development. Clothing Text. Res. J. 17(3), 128–133 (1999)
Thomas, J.B., Peters, C.L.O.: Silver seniors: exploring the self-concept, lifestyles, and apparel consumption of women over age 65. Int. J. Retail Distrib. Manage. 37(12), 1018–1040 (2009)
Lurie, A.: The Language of Clothing. Bloomsbury Publishing, London (1992)
Newell, A.F., et al.: User-sensitive inclusive design. Univ. Access Inf. Soc. 10(3), 235–243 (2011)
Clarkson, P.J., Coleman, R.: History of Inclusive Design in the UK. Appl. Ergon. 46, 235–247 (2015)
Keates, S., Clarkson, J.: Countering Design Exclusion. Springer, London (2003)
Steinfeld, E., Maisel, J.: Universal Design: Creating Inclusive Environments. Wiley, Hoboken (2012)
Declaration, T.E.S. http://dfaeurope.eu/what-is-dfa/
Liu, G.: Design Methodology. Higher Education Press, Beijing (2011)
Margolis, E., Pauwels, L.: The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods. Sage, London (2011)
Sengers, P., et al.: Reflective design. In: Proceedings of the 4th Decennial Conference on Critical Computing between: Sense and Sensibility. ACM (2005)
Guillemin, M., Drew, S.: Questions of process in participant-generated visual methodologies. Vis. Stud. 25(2), 175–188 (2010)
Gauntlett, D., Holzwarth, P.: Creative and visual methods for exploring identities. Vis. Stud. 21(01), 82–91 (2006)
Wilson, E.: Adorned in Dreams: Fashion and Modernity. IB Tauris, London (2003)
Klepp, I.G., Bjerck, M.: A methodological approach to the materiality of clothing: wardrobe studies. Int. J. Soc. Res. Methodol. 17(4), 373–386 (2014)
McCann, J., Bryson, D.: Textile-led Design for the Active Ageing Population. Elsevier, Cambridge (2014)
Slater, A.: Wearing in memory: materiality and oral histories of dress. Crit. Stud. Fashion Beauty 5(1), 125–139 (2014)
Rahman, O., Chang, W.-T.: Understanding Taiwanese female baby boomers through their perceptions of clothing and appearance. Fashion Pract. 8, 1–25 (2016)
Cwerner, S.B.: Clothes at rest: elements for a sociology of the wardrobe. Fashion Theory 5(1), 79–92 (2001)
Laitala, K., Boks, C., Klepp, I.G.: Making clothing last: a design approach for reducing the environmental impacts. Int. J. Des. 9(2), 93–107 (2015)
Gronow, J., Warde, A.: Ordinary Consumption, vol. 2. Psychology Press, Hove (2001)
Woodward, S.: Why Women Wear What They Wear. Berg, London (2007)
Rose, G.: Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. Sage, London (2012)
Seivewright, S.: Basics Fashion Design 01: Research and Design, vol. 1. A&C Black, London (2012)
Lee, C.L.: In the Mood for Cheongsam. Editions Didier Millet, Singapore (2012)
Borcherding, P., Bubonia, J.: Attitudes to apparel amongst the baby boomer generation. In: Textile-led Design for the Active Ageing Population, p. 25 (2014)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Zhang, M., Andrew, S., Gill, S. (2018). Exploring Fashion Choice Criteria for Older Chinese Female Consumers: A Wardrobe Study Approach. In: Di Bucchianico, G., Kercher, P. (eds) Advances in Design for Inclusion. AHFE 2017. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 587. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60597-5_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60597-5_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-60596-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-60597-5
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)