Browsing by Subject "Apparel"
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Item Consumer Motives to Guide Omnichannel Apparel Shopping in a Post-Pandemic Environment: A Qualitative Study of College Students(2023-05) Korzenowski, AnastasiaDigitalization in the retail industry is a trend that has been growing for many years, and the COVID-19 pandemic only accelerated its growth, creating a more diverse landscape for the retail industry. Omnichannel shopping is more relevant now than ever and there are still many questions facing the retail landscape as this new form of shopping is being utilized more heavily and as the aftermath of the pandemic is still being understood. This research aims to evaluate former consumer shopping motive frameworks to determine their relevancy in the new retail setting, while also attempting to better identify what guides the consumer’s choice in selecting their method of apparel shopping (in-store vs. online). To investigate this, frequent online and in-person shoppers from college students were interviewed to collect qualitative data to understand their shopping process, preferences, and motives. Results demonstrated the motives guiding both in-store and online shopping experiences include personal, ethical, risk-free, social, convenience, and low-cost sub-motives. Additionally, it was found that personal and ethical sub-motives drive in-store shopping, online shopping is attracted through convenience and low-cost sub-motives, and risk-free and social sub-motives can promote both online and in-store shopping. Using this information to implement new retail strategies assist in catering the in-person and online experiences to the wants and motives of the consumer, assisting in restoring balance to the omnichannel setting.Item Design functions in transformable garments for sustainability.(2012-07) Koo, HelenThis study was designed as a bottom-up approach to understand what kind of changeable functions people desire in transformable garments by analyzing a wardrobe database, participants' perceptions of garment varieties, and their values related to transformable garments. The wardrobe database (2009-2011) was analyzed using data quantification and descriptive analysis. Seven style-conscious professional working women, between the ages of 20 and 40 were interviewed focusing on their perceptions and values related to tops. Versatility was the most important reason for preferring specific changeable design functions. Participants had three expectations for transformable garments: functional, hedonic, and social. Functional expectations included ease of matching, ease of layering, comfort, usability, ease of care, and durability. Among functional expectations, usability, care, and durability, were requirements for frequent and long-term use of transformable garments. Participants wanted to have fun and be able to experiment with various styles in hedonic expectations. Social expectations were context aptness, and modesty. In this study, several models regarding transformable garments and criteria for evaluating transformable garment design were suggested. Among candidates for changeable design functions, the most preferred functions were transforming colors/patterns and sleeve lengths. Transformable garments have the potential to lead consumers' natural engagement with sustainable acts by satisfying their various needs and wants. In an effort to motivate consumers to care more about the sustainability of their clothing, many researchers have suggested educating consumers. However, transformable garments are expected to influence consumers to wear these pieces over longer periods of time and more frequently due to their ability to serve multiple needs. Even though consumers may lack knowledge or indicate little concern about sustainability, transformable garments have the potential to encourage them to engage in sustainable behavior without their awareness. Designers can support this behavior by encouraging consumers to naturally consider versatile, transformable fashion while still satisfying their needs and wants.Item Online or Offline? Understanding Consumers’ Experiences and Perceptions of Collaborative Fashion Consumption Channels. A Black Female Perspective.(2020-08) Bobwealth Omontese, CarmiExcessive consumption is evident in the fashion industry with fast fashion contributing to a rapid cycle of consumer acquisition and disposal of apparel products. Collaborative fashion consumption opposes conventional views of consumption, which is dominantly inclined toward purchasing new products. The aim of this study was to understand the lived experiences of collaborative fashion consumers and explore consumers’ personal experiences with second-hand shopping using online and offline channels. In addition, the study examined consumers’ perceptions of the attributes of online and offline second-hand shopping channels that either encourage or deter their decision to engage in collaborative fashion consumption. Questions developed to address the research objectives were as follows: 1) What are second-hand consumers’ experiences with shopping clothing items using online and offline channels? 2) What are second-hand consumers’ perceptions of the attributes of online and offline second-hand channels? 3) What incentives drive second-hand consumers to patronize one channel over the other? The study adopted a qualitative approach using phenomenology to collect data from black female participants who engage in collaborative fashion consumption using online and offline second-hand shopping channels. Themes that were generated from the interviews were discussed. This work contributes to the existing literature on consumer behavior and collaborative fashion consumption. Limitations and suggestions for future studies were discussed.Item Wheelwomen: Women's Dress in a Transatlantic Cycling Culture, 1868-1900(2016-05) Cohn, CaitlinThe purpose of this study is to understand the relationship between women's cycling and cycling dress from 1868-1900, by examining three periods of cycling: The velocipede (circa 1868-1869), the tricycle (circa 1880s), and the safety bicycle (1890s). My research examined intersecting discourses relating to women’s dress and bicycling. Bicycle technology was in tension with women’s dress, as the bicycle was difficult to ride without adapting women’s dress. However, the bicycle also was adapted in relation dress to in the late 1880s. The study of extant bicycling garments has been neglected in previous research. My research addressed both women’s actual clothing, including extant garments, images, and written descriptions, and the significance of women’s cycling clothing. The way I approached my research varied depending on the period I was researching, due to differing availability of sources. My research on bicycling dress is not exhaustive, nor is it possible to determine whether or not the existing examples are “typical” of the period in which they were worn. My interdisciplinary methods included the study of extant artifacts, material culture, cultural studies, and literary sources along with visual analysis of different types of images. I developed a process for how to find, keep track of, and analyze written materials. I took notes and wrote memos, roughly basing my data coding on a qualitative social science method. I integrated my analysis of extant garments with analysis and interpretation of other period sources, particularly articles and bicycling guides that women wrote during the period under analysis. Using material culture methods, I analyzed extant bicycling garments from the 1890s, following the basic steps of identification, classification, analysis, and interpretation. I utilized a variety of American and British bicycling magazines, along with popular magazines and newspapers. For visual analysis, I looked primarily at fashion illustrations and photographs from the periods in my study. Each type of cycle (velocipedes, tricycles, and safety bicycles) necessitated different clothing, which was determined both by the structure of the machine and by which types of clothing were fashionable at the time. Women riders who were successful at convincing others of their legitimacy as cyclists often did so by dressing in a manner that was sufficiently modified to make cycling physically possible, but not so modified as to appear too out of place when the rider was off the machine. Their dress and behavior was meant to show others that women who cycled were just ordinary women. Written and illustrative materials that argued in favor of cycling must be understood as creating an ideal concept of how women should dress for cycling, not as providing a comprehensive description of what all women actually rode in. My most important finding is that writers from 1868 to 1900 had similar discussions about women’s dress, with recommended styles tending to be adapted from fashionable dress. In the late 1860s, writers grappled with how women could ride a velocipede in a ladylike manner. By the 1890s, cycling was both more common and more acceptable, but writers still wondered as to how women could best dress in order to both be able to safely maneuver a bicycle while still looking feminine. Women’s dress was one of the most significant aspects of cycling, both because well-to-do women were expected to have costumes for many activities and because the physical structure of cycles necessitated adaptations. My central argument is that discussions of women’s cycling dress were meant to legitimize the idea of women as cyclists. Proponents of bicycling believed that women who dressed both practically and appropriately, that is following the precepts of fashion just enough but not so much as to appear frivolous, served as positive examples that could both help other women become cyclists and convince skeptics of cycling’s benefit to women.