Jane Farrell-Beck

Pants Alteration By Graphic Somatometry Techniques

The goal of this research was to develop a method of pants pattern alteration that incorporates body measurements, graphing techniques, and body angle measurements. This experimental method was tested against a traditional method that uses only body measurements. Profile and back view somatographs (gridded silhouette photographs) were taken of 36 female vol unteers. Five models were chosen for analysis to represent five figure variations: round hip, pear-shaped hip, average hip, weight in front, and weight in back. Two muslins were constructed for each variation: one cut from a pattern altered by the experimental method and the other from a pattern altered by traditional method. Two rating scales were developed to analyze fit. An evaluative scale measured the quality of fit, and a diagnostic scale specified the direction of the fitting problem. The experimental method was preferred for front waist placement, front waist dart size, back crotch curve, and horizontal grain. For all other criteria, the fit produced by the two methods was rated as equal.

Fashion in Context: Apparel Styles Worn by Young Women in the United States and South Korea in the 1970s

The purposes of our study were to examine and compare the styles adopted by young women in the United States and South Korea in the 1970s and to interpret the reasons for the similarities and differences within the historical and cultural context. Fifteen women from each culture who were college students in the 1970s were interviewed. Respondents from both cultures reported that relatively casual and comfortable styles were prevalent, reflecting womens changing roles. U.S. apparel styles, however, were more casual and comfortable, whereas Korean styles remained relatively feminine and formal. In the United States, individualism and masculinity were dominant cultural values that influenced styles and behaviors concerning dress. Koreans held onto collectivism and femininity, yet underwent the process of melding traditional and newly adopted values due to Western influences. This study furthers understanding of U.S. and Korean social changes through dress during the 1970s and the dynamic interplay of fashion1 and value changes.

Diversity of Daytime Clothing Styles as a Reflection of Women’s Social Role Ambivalence from 1873 through 1912

The symbolic interaction theory of fashion proposed by Kaiser, Nagasawa, and Hutton (1995) suggests that, in the instance of transitional societal contexts, an increase in cultural ambivalence is reflected by an increase in the heterogeneity of appearance-modifying commodities that are offered in a capitalistic marketplace. This paper describes research that tested this relationship in the context of women’s daytime clothing styles of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At this time, society’s views on women’s roles became increasingly ambivalent as women challenged the confines of Victorian domesticity. A visual analysis instrument was used to code women’s daytime ensembles as represented in 252 fashion illustrations from Harper’s Bazar and The Delineator. Spearman rank correlation coefficient was used to test for heterogeneity or diversity trends in the time series data. Results supported the proposed positive relationship between ambivalence and heterogeneity in dress; specifically, fabrics in general and several bodice features showed increasing stylistic diversity as ambivalence about women’s roles increased. In addition, data suggested that diversity was linked to ensemble layering and that shifting areas of diversity may have coincided with shifts in visual emphasis from the skirt to the bodice over the 40-year period.

Comparing Fit of Basic Bodices and Skirts Altered by Traditional and Experimental Techniques

The goal of this research was to compare the fit of two sets of attached basic bodices and skirts. One set was altered by a traditional method that used body lengths and circumferences and the other set by an experimental method that added to the length and circumference measurements information about body angles. These angle measurements were obtained from computer-drawn plots of the body profiles and were used to alter dart size and length and slope of the shoulder seam. Three judges evaluated the sets of muslins on a 47-item rating scale developed by the researchers. Statistical analysis of the results was by analysis of variance and examination of the means for each item. Of the 16 significant treatment main effects, 10 favored the traditional method and 6 favored the experimental method. Models with deep body contours, represented by angles, more often received satisfactory fit by the traditional method; models with shallow body angles benefited from the use of the experimental method, according to the 2 0 significant subject by treatment interactions.

Development of an Instrument for a Visual Analysis of Dress from Pictorial Evidence

We describe the development of an instrument for visually analyzing women’s daytime clothing styles as depicted in two women’s fashion magazines, The Delineator and Harper’s Bazar, from 1873 through 1912. The instrument was designed for a study examining relative changes in diversity among women’s clothing styles over time. Measures used in previous visual analysis research are reviewed and ways in which these measures were adapted to the new instrument are explained. Instrument validity and methods used in the evaluation of reliability are discussed and findings are reported. Recommendations for further evaluation and uses of the instrument are included.

Use of Patented Sewing Devices in a Sample of Manufactured Garments Dated ca. 1860-1900

Apparel manufacturing in the 19th-century United States has received attention from few researchers (Kahn, 1989; Kidwell & Christman, 1974). To understand better the technical capacities of early clothing factories, I examined 210 selected patents for sewing machines, attachments, and stitches dated between 1849 and 1899. The claimed capabilities of these innovations were compared to techniques perceptible on 149 garments manufactured before 1901. Application of innovative devices seemed to be related to new uses for fabrics, such as knits for underwear; demand for large volumes of clothing, such as military uniforms; and the desire to expedite sewing handmade-looking details. Fluctuating fashions, consumer expectations, and the small size of many ready-to-wear firms may have delayed adoption of some innovations.

Sewing Techniques in Women's Outerwear, 1800-1869:

The goal of this research was to determine whether sewing techniques changed with changing styles of womens outerwear; with different fabrics in a single style; with changing technology; and with varying recommendations in how-to-sew literature. Researchers examined 100 garments from 23 museums in 5 states; 8 distinct styles, spanning 1800 to 1869. A few sewing techniques were unique to individual styles of outerwear (dresses and wraps); many techniques were shared by two or three adjacent styles of outerwear. Recommendations of sewing techniques were followed frequently, ignored occasionally. Sewing technology, especially the sewing machine, was slow to be adopted in making womens outerwear; even dresses of the 1860s were often partly hand sewn. Fabrics made very little difference in sewing techniques chosen within a single style of womens dress or wrap.

Hypermedia: Instructional Innovation in Historic Costume

Using key principles of perceptual theory, the researchers examined new instructional methods for presenting visual images of historic costume (in three 5-year increments) to students for analysis and categorization. In addition, principles of cognitive theory provided the basis for examining the effectiveness of the stimuli for each learner. Visual images consisted of different compositions: fashion plates with five figures, single figures, or segments (close-up images of upper, middle, or lower part). The historic costume lesson was developed using hypermedia technology which combines computers and videodiscs allowing for the integration of text, visual images, and audible information. Seventy-nine undergraduate students completed a Learning Style Profile and an achievement test after using the lesson. During the lesson students chose visual images (56%) more often than written descriptions (30%) or audio messages (14%) for acquiring information about historic costume. The visual composition selected most often was the single figure, followed in order by 5-figure fashion plates, and last, segments. The type of media selected correlated strongly with a students analytical skills. Strong analytical learners used text significantly more frequently than students with average or weak analytical skills (p = .0029). The t-test revealed that for all students the mean scores for the ending achievement test increased significantly (p = .01) over the scores for the preliminary test. In addition, high analytical skills had a significant interaction (F(2,76) = 5.21, p = .008) with high achievement scores. This study lends support to the recommendation that various compositions of visual images are an effective strategy for assimilating information about historic costume. Visual images are highly important but not to the exclusion of text and audio.

Zoot Suit: The Enigmatic Career of an Extreme Style

warns against reading messages into mute objects, a very pertinent consideration for scholars of dress. Dr. Peiss’s approach is to investigate what the zoot suit meant to those who wore it. To answer this question, and aided by a researcher in Los Angeles, she has probed a huge array of primary sources to learn about the various reasons why wearers chose the zoot suit, also known as “the drape.” In addition to memoirs and (auto)biographies, Peiss has surveyed at least fifteen newspapers from around the United States: mainstream press, minority newspapers, and the trade press. Because the zoot suit spread far beyond US shores, she brings into the discussion translated articles from newspapers from Eastern Europe. References to zoot suits in sheet music enliven her discussion. A few familiar images of zoot-suiters and many unfamiliar examples from the United States and elsewhere illustrate the origins, elements, and transformations of the zoot suit, as well as its deployment in wartime and later propaganda. First and foremost, the “reet pleats and drape shape” was an aesthetic choice, appealing mostly to young men: Mexican Americans called “pachucos”, African-Americans, Filipinos, JapaneseAmericans, and some Caucasians. “Drapes” were first made in Harlem tailor shops, but spread to cities and towns around the United States. The style gave freedom of movement in swing-era dances such as the jitterbug, and they accentuated the movements of the dance. Zoots’ antecedents included pre-Civil War Bowery Boys’ attire, turn-of-the-twentiethcentury mainstream menswear, and 1930s Kathy Peiss, holder of a named chair in History at the University of Pennsylvania, has produced an eminently readable, scholarly, and imaginative monograph on the zoot suit. This dramatically styled ensemble, consisting of a long jacket and pegged pants—wide at the knee and tight at the ankle—often made of bright material, provoked amusement, scorn, horror, and anger from those who observed it in its heyday, from the late 1930s through the mid-1950s. Contemporary and later scholars seized on it to illustrate their favorite theories of social dynamics, with special emphasis on rebellion against an “oppressive” mainstream culture. Important early analysis of the zoot suit in Detroit was done by Fritz Redl, a specialist in adolescent development. He observed the lack of formal organization in zoot groups and cautioned against labeling “every zoot suit wearer a delinquent.” Canadian-born semanticist S. I Hayakawa, who served on the faculty of the Illinois Institute of Technology, interpreted the zoot suit as a cultural and psychological phenomenon. These authors worked in the 1940s and 1950s, but the upsurge of Chicano/ Chicana pride in the 1980s and beyond inspired such scholars as Luis Alvarez, author of The Power of Zoot: Youth Culture and Resistance during World War II (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008). Peiss, however, takes the scholarship in a new direction. She seeks to “put the political in its place—not outside culture but occupying less of the cultural domain than contemporary scholarship bestows.”1 She 79 Book Reviews

What Colored the Transition from Madder to Alizarine

Madder, an ancient natural dyestuff used in 19th-century textile printworks, demonstrated great persistence in the marketplace before it was gradually replaced by alizarine, a coal-tar synthetic discovered in 1868. Alizarines cheaper price has been cited as the reason for the change. Available American company records from 1870-1890 were examined for consumption of these red dyes and the prices paid for them. Comparisons reveal that price alone does not explain the transition. Other factors including easier use, greater variety of color, advanced awareness of chemistry, and increased economic pressures may have played a part also.