Denim Jeans Research Articles

Buying Green? Field Experimental Tests of Consumer Support for Environmentalism

Surveys indicate that a majority of consumers would prefer to buy products made in environmentally sustainable ways, rather than alternatives, and would even be willing to pay a premium for such products. Many firms are now using environmental certifications and product labeling to market goods and services, but there is no clear evidence that environmentalism has a strong impact on actual purchasing decisions by consumers. We provide new evidence on consumer behavior from two large-scale field experiments conducted with Gap Inc. in 419 retail stores and 155 outlet stores. We find that labels with information about a program to reduce water pollution in facilities laundering denim jeans as part of the manufacturing process had a substantial positive effect on sales among female shoppers in retail stores, increasing sales by 8%. Among male shoppers and in outlet stores, however, the labels had no discernable impact on sales.

Magyar Denim: Metamorphoses in the Clothing Factory

In this article, based on contemporary press coverage analysis and my interviews with retired industry workers and leaders, I outline the initial phase of the production of denim jeans in Hungary in the late 1970s. This process involved a range of attempts to set conditions for mass manufacturing of denim jeans, which often collided with everyday realities in the non-market-driven economic circumstances prevailing in the Eastern Bloc. Whether it was the production of a heavy cotton twill of standard quality, or the dyeing that makes the worn jeans look as they should, or a marketing practice that could make Eastern-made jeans appealing to consumers—these goals often turned out to be difficult for Hungarian manufacturers. In my analysis of three companies’ attempts to produce jeans I outline some problems in establishing a production practice with technological and management standards set by Western-branded jeans—all well known by Hungarian customers—in the regulatory and technological environment of a socialist planned economy. These attempts to produce jeans—some of which were, in fact, quite successful—in retrospect served a variety of objectives for those involved, whether they were the technocratic reform agendas of socialist industry chiefs or a meaningful life for shop-floor workers.

The migration of fragments of glass from the pockets to the surfaces of clothing

During the last decade or so there has been some discussion in the forensic community in the United Kingdom concerning whether it is necessary to search the pockets for glass particles in garments attributed to suspects arrested for glass breaking crimes. The removal of this practice would help expedite the searching and recovery process since examining only the surfaces of clothing would reduce the cost of recovering glass evidence. However, it is believed by many scientists that some glass fragments originally acquired in pockets can migrate to the surfaces of clothing prior to examination by the forensic scientist. As glass fragments have been encountered in the pockets of garments during examinations of casework items in the LGC Laboratories, the implications of this change in practice needs to be assessed. Hence, the aim of this study was to investigate this possibility that fragments of glass migrate from a pocket of a garment to its surfaces during police and laboratory handling after a person is suspected of breaking glass during an offence. If this occurs to a significant extent then it could affect the evaluation of the glass evidence when using a Bayesian approach. Sixty fragments of glass were seeded into a pocket of a fleece jacket and a pair of denim jeans. Three experiments were performed; one examined a searching, recovery and blanking procedure, another examined the pre-laboratory 'handling' process of an item in an evidence bag, and the third experiment looked at the removal of an object from a pocket laden with glass and subsequent removal and packaging of the garment. Up to two (3.3%) fragments were recovered from the surfaces of the fleece jacket and the denim jeans via the searching, recovery and blanking procedure. Similar numbers were also recovered from the insides of the evidence bags. Up to four (6.7%) fragments were recovered from the surface of the fleece jacket and up to five (8.3%) fragments were recovered from the surface of the denim jeans after pre-laboratory 'handling'. Again similar numbers were recovered from the insides of the evidence bags. Comparable numbers to those from searching/recovery experiments were observed when garments were removed after taking an object from a pocket. In addition, up to two (3.3%) fragments were recovered from the object (a mobile phone). The findings show that some migration can occur particularly in the second experiment and therefore modification of the evaluation strategy may be required.

Evaluative Criteria of Denim Jeans: A Cross-national Study of Functional and Aesthetic Aspects

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this study is to explore and investigate the functional and aesthetic attributes of denim jeans and the perceptions and behaviours generated within the youth market. In order to understand the varied considerations a consumer makes in her purchasing decisions, and within a cross-national context, the countries of China and Canada were selected for the current study. The sample consisted of 247 Chinese women and 380 Canadian women. The results indicate that Chinese respondents were more concerned with the functional characteristics of denim jeans, whereas their Canadian counterparts focused heavily on their aesthetic appeal. It is also evident that social conformity played a significant role in the consumption of denim jeans among the Chinese, while self-expression/personal enhancement was more important to the Canadian consumers. The findings of this study provide insight and implications for fashion practitioners on future product design and development, and further research on this topic is recommended.

Comparison of Chinese and Indian consumers' evaluative criteria when selecting denim jeans

PurposeUS apparel firms have been relatively slow exploring Chinese and Indian apparel markets, despite the countries' tremendous growth potentials. To help US apparel firms successfully enter these promising markets, this study aims to compare evaluative attributes that Chinese and Indian consumers utilize when purchasing denim jeans.Design/methodology/approachData were collected in Shanghai, China and Bangalore, India.FindingsThe results of the study confirmed that Chinese and Indian consumers ranked attributes differently. Chinese consumers placed the highest importance on price, followed by fitting, brand country of origin, quality, and design, whereas Indian consumers placed importance on fitting, brand country of origin, design, price, and quality, in descending order.Research limitations/implicationsCaution needs to be exercised in generalizing the findings since the data for this study were collected from one city in each country. The study tested the idea that the importance of attributes would be different between Chinese and Indian consumers as their cultures and retail development stages differ. This idea was supported in conjoint analysis.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that a regional approach, assuming that all Asian markets are the same, is inappropriate. Thus, US apparel firms need to pay careful attention to differences in each Asian market.Originality/valueChina and India have been compared frequently in various ways: growth potential, market size, and population. Surprisingly, however, no study has attempted to compare Chinese and Indian consumers' evaluative criteria for apparel products. This is the first empirical study to show the differences between Chinese and Indian consumers in evaluating apparel products.

“I was Aggressive for the Streets, Pretty for the Pictures”

It is a late June afternoon and I am standing outside of a caf6 on Fillmore Street in San Francisco. I am holding flyers for Kiara', a young woman I met a few hours earlier. Kiara is 22 years old with a light brown com plexion and long, wavy hair that suggests a multiracial heritage. Her style of dress is 1980s-retro. She wears a purple lace glove with the finger cut off on her right hand, a short-sleeved jacket over a yellow and green Brazil fdtbol jersey, and tight denim jeans that ride low, causing her belly to peek out sometimes between her jeans and her jersey. Two large star-shaped earrings dangle from her ears and a small white flower is tucked into her hair. She was born and raised in the Fillmore, a once-vibrant Black neigh borhood that is now quickly gentrifying after decades of blight and neglect. I have conducted field research here since 2005 and just finished interviewing Kiara inside the caf6. Kiara's grandmother, like many older Black Fillmore residents, migrated from the South. She owned the house in which she raised Kiara after Kiara's mother was killed by her father, who, Kiara tells me, was a big-time drug dealer in the neighborhood before he was sent to prison. Kiara remembers how her father's tough rep utation influenced how others interacted with her in the neighborhood; even though she was a child she garnered a level of respect. She learned early on how to manage her interactions with others differently in differ ent situations: [as a child] I had the street element, and I was aggressive for the streets, pretty for the pictures. Kiara is helping to collect signatures for an antiredevelopment cam paign in Hunter's Point-Bayview, a larger and even more distressed Black neighborhood in San Francisco. Kiara offers to give me a tour of the

Function and fashion

publications concentrate on denim jeans or dungarees, their origin, and image, while omitting overalls from the discussion. And in some cases, though part or all of the subject of a publica- tion focuses on work clothing, overalls receive only brief comments or no mention at all. 2 Two volumes give the same erroneous date-1905-for the introduction of bib overalls.3 This paper explores the chang- ing details of bib overall design from the mid-nineteenth through the late twentieth centuries. Marketing and sale of overalls are profiled from 1930 through the late 1940s, relating promo- tion of overalls to prevailing practices in advertising and retailing and to the social, political, and economic changes in the American labor force during the Depression, World War II, and the postwar period. We also illustrate the intermittent use of overalls as both fashion statement and functional gar- ment from the end of the war to the end of the twentieth century. Exploration of these topics included examination of extant gar- ments in costume collections, dated photos, mail-order catalogs, patents, home sewing patterns, historic printed materials, published advertisements, and articles on retailing.4 Much infor- mation about overall manufacture has been lost to history. Even such promi- nent manufacturers as Lee (Merriam,

Dude Looks Like A Lady: Straight Camp and the Homo-social World of Hard Rock.

Madison Square Garden. 1973. Robert Plant, the 25 year old singer and frontman of Led Zeppelin, undoubtedly the world's biggest rock band, takes to the stage in front of another sell out crowd. He is dressed in his trademark outfit of blue denim jeans and snakeskin boots. His torso is conspicuously left uncovered beneath a blue shirt several sizes too small. His muscular biceps are hugged by its gathered sleeves, presumably worn with the intention of creating a sense of oriental opulence but actually suggesting nothing more exotic than a woman's blouse. As he flicks aside his lustrous mane of blond curls he delivers the opening lines of Black Dog in his trademark high-pitched wail; "Hey, hey, mama. Said the way you move. Gonna make you sweat. Gonna make you groove."As this short description shows, Plant exhibits the androgynous appeal of the classic rock god in all his glory. That this androgyny came to function as a social marker of absolute masculinity, however, suggests a far more complex interplay of identities within the hard rock genre than the more obviously playful ambiguities explored by gender pioneers like David Bowie or Prince. That Robert Plant continues to be all man, while simultaneously looking and sounding like a woman, suggests that the straight camp of the rock god provides a more complex function than the questioning of gender roles. To discover what this function is, and its central role in the hard rock genre's categorization as a virtual bastion of unreconstructed masculinity, we must begin by sketching a brief history of its musical roots.

Decolorization of Denim Fabrics with Cold Plasmas in the Presence of Magnetic Fields

AbstractSummary: Denim jeans have consistently been fashionable around the world. This fabric inspired strong opinions from historians, teenagers, and movie stars, and has acquired different styles throughout the years. Most jeans today are stonewashed; this technique first become popular in 1970. Now, in addition to pumice stones, enzymes are used on the cotton fabrics to create the stonewashed look. Nowadays, plasma treatment is a cost‐effective and environment‐friendly process which is able to modify the properties of the fabric surface in order to achieve this effect. Plasma surface treatment changes the properties of the fabric up to a limited depth (several molecular layers), leaving the bulk properties of even the most delicate materials unchanged. In this study, we have investigated the effect of low‐temperature Argon plasmas on the decolorizing of denim surfaces. The denim fabrics were placed on a copper cathode and were exposed to the plasmas for different periods of time, varying from 2.5 to 15 min. The homogeneity of the plasma was secured by means of a magnetic field. The results, which were very good decolorized, varnished surfaces of the fabrics will be discussed.Photographs of denim samples before (top) and after (bottom) a treatment with a low‐temperature Ar plasma.magnified imagePhotographs of denim samples before (top) and after (bottom) a treatment with a low‐temperature Ar plasma.

Chinese perceptions of western‐branded denim jeans: a Shanghai case study

Purpose – To provide marketing and managerial insights to western companies selling denim jeans in China, specifically in Shanghai. Understanding consumers' perceptions of Western‐branded jeans in a cultural‐specific marketplace is the primary focus. Design/methodology/approach – Combined methods included observation of shoppers wearing jeans in two malls in Shanghai and an anonymous survey. A total of 219 surveys were analyzed and consumer‐perceived jeans attributes or related concepts were tabulated. Findings – About one third of the observed shoppers were wearing jeans, which signified a relatively high popularity of jeans as casual wear in Shanghai. The design and fashion of jeans were deemed highly critical but were superseded by comfort and fit. Shanghai consumers distinguished brand origins only between the West and the East instead of by specific countries. Dissatisfaction with price and fit were identified. Research limitations/implications – Questions were designed to screen out respondents who had not purchased and had no desire to purchase western denim jeans brands. Limiting the sample in this way offered some control for behavioral patterns, but conclusions are limited. Practical implications – Content analysis of an open‐ended question about consumers' perceptions of western‐branded jeans helped discern attributes of jeans that consumers deemed most important. Marketers of western jeans can develop effective marketing strategies in tune with consumer preferences. Originality/value – This paper researched consumers' perceptions of western denim jeans, a type of world dress, in a booming but foreign market in western eyes. The open‐ended question solicited consumers' free responses, which in turn helped pin‐point attributes of jeans that Chinese consumers value the most.

Covert dual-band wearable button antenna

A novel dual-band antenna for wearable WLAN computing applications is introduced. This antenna comprises three discs and a coaxial post. Its appearance is of a standard metal button of the type used in denim jeans. The antenna is easily disguised and less sensitive to clothing than printed patches, which use the textile fabric as a substrate or superstrate. The antenna requires no external matching circuitry and operates at 2400 and 5200 MHz. The radiation patterns are omnidirectional around the central post of the antenna.

A Garment in the Dock; or, How the FBI Illuminated the Prehistory of A Pair of Denim Jeans (Winner of the Journal of Material Culture Alfred Gell essay competition 2004)

This article looks at research carried out at the FBI Laboratory’s Special Photographic Unit in the identification of denim trousers from bank surveillance film. This research, which was published in 1998, showed that despite the ubiquity of jeans, each pair has individual identifying characteristics caused by the manufacturing process and by wear, and that these might be used as evidence in the identification of criminal suspects. What the FBI research also inadvertently illuminated was an otherwise hidden relationship between garment, maker and wearer, in an effective - if accidental - reversal of commodity fetishism.

Surrender

I love to watch you fish with your feet firmly planted in soft sand and your long legs spread solidly above them. Your pole tilts away from your body and rises into a sky that is like denim jeans that have been washed too often. Ocean waves spend themselves at your feet and tap your strong profile quietly as they absorb you into their rhythm. I admire your familiar but sacred union with nature. Mountain cliffs reach down to the wet sand and embrace your presence because you are that place. You become a quiet stretch of beach that others rarely find their way to. You're the wet sand, the ocean, the wind, the scent, a wave rolling toward dark, wet boulders lining the shore. Your solitary surrender to nature always has soothed and nourished my admiring eyes, but one day it wasn't enough just to be a vicarious observer.

Does price reflect emotional, structural or performance quality?

Three denim jeans products from the same manufacturer with differentiated pricing and labels (antiqued, sandblasted, and stonewashed) were used to determine the relationship between price and quality. Both qualitative and quantitative procedures were used to analyse the garments. All three jeans were made of twill weave with 3 × 1 repeat. Both structural and performance characteristics were compared using standardized tests. Analysis of variance was used to compare the selected structural and performance characteristics among the three jeans products. Tukey’s HSD tests were used for post hoc multiple comparisons for three jeans. The findings revealed that despite the fact that all three jeans products were from the same store, and that the fabrics used the same weave, degree and direction of twist, the jeans differed significantly for several structural and performance characteristics. Several possibilities for future research were explored.

Perceptual Requirements of Hong Kong Consumers on Children's Denim Wear

This study was carried out to determine the major criteria that parents would consider when they buy denim jeans for their children. How would they differ from what the children wanted? Are parents satisfied with what is available in the market? What do they look for in denim jeans material? Focus groups and questionnaire surveys have been carried out to answer all these questions. The samples have included people of different gender, age, occupation, education, and income level. Data were statistically analyzed to determine the significance of the findings. Comfort and fabric quality were found to be the most important criteria in the selection of children's denim garments. Both parents and children desire the products to be absorbent, comfortable, ‘easy-care’, and soft. Moisture comfort (related to fabric dryness) and pressure comfort (smoothness and stretchiness) are perceived to be the most important factors for denim wear in both summer and winter. The results of this study may provide information to some children's denim wear manufacturers and retailers about their potential customers and end-users.

Common threads: a parade of American clothing

From the breathtaking body decorations of native Americans to the oppressive austerity of their Puritan contemporaries' clothing, from the propriety of Victorian garb to free-and-easy Flapper elegance and the body-beautiful 1980s, this book looks at subjects such as the impact of Levi's riveted denim jeans, the drives for dress reform and the role of clothing in establishing and maintaining distinctions of class, race, age and gender.

Abandoned

Abandoned I've been planning For your going, Packing your things, Putting up pears. I have seen the look on your face, Heard the wind in your sighs. I read the signs. I know them well. Looking at my face All smiles and sunny, Would you guess I've been left before. -Sharon Brown McConnell /<\ Q c7 Attic A woman dressed in denim jeans large sweat shirt her hair tied back with an orange ribbon pulls the cord climbs the steep steps into the attic there she sorts through stacks of newspapers lampshades Christmas decorations cracked dolls old hats with plumes fingering the eyelet edge of a Crazy Quilt until she becomes a slanted shadow in dust a solitary wanderer breathing stale air in this space where old things are packed away and forgotten to be remembered. -Betty McKnight 52 ...

Meralgia Paresthetica and Tight Trousers

To the Editor.— Pressure on any sensory nerve can cause pain and paresthesia in its area of distribution. The carpal tunnel syndrome is the most common, but nerves other than the median can be involved. The lateral femoral cutaneous nerve can be compressed particularly as it passes under Poupart's ligament, leading to pain and paresthesia in the lateral aspect of the thigh. 1 I have seen this problem in a number of truck drivers, most of whom were obese and wore tight-fitting denim jeans. It was apparent during consultations that the tight inguinal crease of their jeans was exerting considerable pressure, possibly aggravating a compressed lateral femoral cutaneous nerve. A number of truck drivers who consented to wearing loose-fitting trousers, albeit less fashionable, had notable improvement of their symptoms. The long hours behind the wheel, with the hips flexed (particularly the right as it controls the accelerator pedal) in conjunction