Search

This paper revisits the philosophical trajectory and practices in fashion education. It examines to what extent participatory action research (PAR) can contribute to the advancement of vocational education by emancipating practice-based skills and knowledge co-created by students, faculty members, and market practitioners. While the fashion market is dynamically reshaping today's fashion pedagogy by imparting new skills and abilities to students, this investigation aims to highlight the limitations of the Bauhaus tradition as a top-down approach aimed at continually producing work-ready graduates for junior positions. Drawing upon the findings yielded by our experimental project fashionthnography.com, the analyses presented in this paper elucidate to what extent PAR can meet the intended goal of equipping the students with a higher level of working capabilities and creativity, as well as greater cultural appreciation. This study contributes to the expansion of vocational education and training, as its findings indicate that we need to embrace practice-based knowledge co-creation for long-term success in both industry and academia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the relationship between aesthetic experiences and design creativity in a wool felting design workshop. For this purpose, a design ethnographic approach was adopted to investigate how a group of fashion design students' internalised and narrated their aesthetic experiences and emotions related to their physical and social surroundings during their design creation journey. The findings yielded indicate that design creativity and innovativeness are shaped by individuals' bodily experiences with the textile materials and the design environment. This study contributes to the understanding of the relationship between aesthetic experiences and creativity, and offers important insights into the structure and content of fashion design practices and design education aimed at promoting innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aesthetics is omnipresent in all aspects of our life, and an aesthetic perspective of design concerns the living emotions, feelings, and shared passions among consumers and designers. We empirically investigate how the meanings that consumers infer from earphone designs reveal their personal notion of the ‘aesthetic’ in everyday life and how this notion affects the aesthetic judgement of consumers and their preferences for product designs. This study provides product designers with the implications of comprehensive knowledge behind the design in the form of a story to engage consumers into learning, understanding, and associating their consumption experience with both private and social meanings that constitute the aestheticization of everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study is twofold: (1) to cluster the respondents into three consumer groups – fashion innovator, fashion follower and laggard and (2) to extract association rules from the data set in order to understand consumers’ preferences. A data-mining method was employed to analyse considerable amount of data collected from four cities as well as to understand the complexity of the diffusion process of multiple apparel products. According to the results of the present study, style was not an important factor for the fashion leaders to purchase socks in Toronto, Hangzhou and Johor Bahru. In terms of t-shirts and evening dresses/suits, 53% and 51% of fashion laggards in China had shown their strong preferences for fit and comfort, respectively. Additionally, 60% of the fashion leaders in Canada had shown a strong preference for fit and style of t-shirts. Although this study is exploratory in nature, we believe that data mining has great potential for investigating fashion diffusion of innovativeness, and more replication of this type of research will be worthwhile and meaningful. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study examines the emerging cosplay subculture in Hong Kong. A quasi-ethnographic approach including participation, observation., photography, and in-depth interviews was employed to understand the underlying motives and experiences of those engaged in cosplay activities. Authenticity, affective attachment, the extended self, and the negotiation of boundaries are also discussed in this article. From this study, it is evident that cosplay can give participants pleasurable experiences, meaningful memories, self-gratification, and personal fulfillment. Through this participatory activity, cosplayers can momentarily escape from reality and enter into their imaginative world. It is a form of role/identity-transformation from an "ordinary person" to a "super hero," from a "game player" to a "performer," and from "adulthood" to "childhood." [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study is to explore and investigate Chinese male consumers' perceptions and behaviours towards low involvement and privately consumed product - pyjamas. According to our literature review, little research has been devoted to this particular topic. In this study, multiple product cues were used to measure and uncover what constitute consumers' evaluation and purchase decisions. The questionnaire survey for this study was conducted in a second-tier city by using the convenience sampling method. In total, 256 useable questionnaires were collected and analysed. This study shows evidence that a majority of the Chinese male respondents did not wear pyjamas for sleeping. The intrinsic cues of sleepwear were ranked relatively higher than extrinsic cues, and the comfort cue was the most important criterion for product evaluation. Further research on this topic focusing on different products, samples and cities are recommended. The findings of this study provide insight and implications for fashion practitioners to develop their product and business in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]