Fashion Taste Research Articles

Broadband Two-Element Array With Hybrid Decoupling Structures for Multimode Mobile Terminals

A two-element array with high isolation is presented for multimode mobile terminals. The antenna array is composed of two symmetrical antennas and a novel decoupling structure. The antenna element covers the LTE700/GSM900/GSM1900/UMTS/LTE2300/2500 operations. The decoupling structure is embedded between the two broadband antennas, which is a hybrid structure and composed of lumped elements (capacitors) and distributed elements (three pairs of U-shaped slots). By loading lumped capacitors at the edges of the slots, the lengths of the slots are decreased efficiently. By embedding three pairs of U-shaped slots, broadband decoupling is achieved. A prototype of the proposed antenna array was fabricated and tested. The antenna covers the lower bands (704-787 MHz and 880-960 MHz) and the upper bands (1800-2690 MHz) with the definition of 3.5:1 VSWR (5 dB return loss). The measured isolation between the two antennas is better than 11 dB, and the efficiencies at the lower bands and the upper bands are better than 30% and 40%, respectively. The proposed antenna array is easy to find applications in a thin or slim mobile phone which meets the current fashion taste.

Boundary Tastes at Work

In this article, we test three hypotheses about the gendered effect of authority positions in the workplace on tastes in the areas of food and clothing. We use the micro-interactionist model of Randall Collins to formulate new hypotheses on the development of aesthetic and practical taste patterns, as described by Pierre Bourdieu. This leads to the following hypotheses: (1) people in superordinate positions will develop more aesthetic tastes; (2) men in subordinate positions will develop more practical tastes; and (3) women in subordinate positions will develop more aesthetic tastes. Our results show that there is a significant effect of being in a superordinate position on food preferences but not on clothing preferences. Among people in subordinate positions, women score higher than men on a fashion taste in clothing, lower on practical taste in clothing, and lower on a conventional taste in food.

1950s made in Brisbane: Italian tailors and the continental suit

Abstract During the 1950s and 1960s, when the French couturiers Dior, Balenciaga, Givenchy and Chanel dominated the fashion industry, the Italian community in Brisbane, Australia, was very active in the local industry through retail, dress-making and tailoring. Australia is geographically at the margins of the developed countries and has been dependent on European trends and taste. In the 1950s, communication was based on magazines and especially newsreels and film; each ethnic group dressed as they liked and according to their custom. Moreover, ‘Made in Italy’ was not yet the prestigious concept that revolutionized ready-to-wear design from the 1970s. However, Italian tailors and demi-couturiers brought to Brisbane their trans-national sense of elegance (the Italian style) and the taste in fashion that influenced new generations in England and elsewhere in Europe from the 1950s. They brought quality and workmanship, offering excellence through the use of quality fabrics from prestigious English and Italian brands. These tailors and dress-makers also contributed towards the local industry through passing on the skills that they brought from Italy. This article is based on a project that seeks to understand the connection between fashion, history and place. The area under examination is the Valley, short for Fortitude Valley, an area adjacent to the Brisbane CBD. Fundamental to this connection between place and fashion was the presence of many Italian migrants in the area. Through archival research and oral history, the aim of this ethnographic project is to bring to the fore an untold story about the economic and aesthetic contribution of Italian migrants to Queensland. Central to the understanding of this aesthetic change is the Italian suit. This research is innovative in that it opens a new area of study in Australian fashion history, connected to the history of migrants and their identity.

Proposing Fashion: The Discourse of Glossy Magazines

This essay discusses the production and discourse of fashion magazines, or glossies, which are an integral part of the ‘fashion system’. As intermediaries between producers and consuming public, the glossies’ main purpose is to propose: to make proposals about what in particular makes the latest clothes ‘fashion’; about what the latest trends are likely to be; about the importance of the names behind them; about reasons why fashion should be important in readers’ lives; and about where the clothes themselves may be purchased. Such proposals legitimize fashion and the fashion world in cultural — and commercial — terms.The glossies make meaningful connections between things that seem to be essentially independent; they give them social lives by creating an imaginary world about them; and they provide historical and aesthetic order in a world whose products, by their very seasonality and potentially chaotic quantity, are likely to go unnoticed. Fashion magazines represent the fashions shown in the catwalk collections. In so doing, they create ‘a discourse of fashion’ whose key evaluative terms are used by different people across time and space to mark out and contest semantic territory in which local cultural preferences engage with globalizing norms of fashion taste.

남성집단의 미디어정보이용도가 외모인식과 메트로섹슈얼 성향을 통해 외모관리행동에 미치는 영향

Contemporary young men are consumption-oriented, pursue ideal male images displayed in commercials, and are highly interested in fashion, beauty, and appearance. This metrosexual tendency(which values appearance) is largely influenced by mass media. This study examines how men's media information utilization influences appearance awareness and metrosexual tendency as well as how these two variables influence cosmetics consumption and fashion product consumption behavior. The results are as follows. First, metrosexual tendency consists of four dimensions: fashion involvement, pursuit of individuality beyond sexuality, cognition of fashion taste, and preference of a high quality product. The sum of variance is 65.594%. Second, media information utilization influenced metrosexual tendency and metrosexual tendency influence cosmetic consumption, brand-sensitive consumption and commercial-sensitive consumption; however, it did not affect price-sensitive consumption. Third, media information utilization affected appearance awareness; however, appearance awareness did not affect metrosexual tendency. In conclusion, appearance management behavior for men in their 20s is clearly affected by media. This phenomenon is caused by the metrosexual desire to express identity through fashion. Men in their 20's do not take care of their looks because of the social perception of appearance (as related to showing off their competence or pursuit of social success); rather, they have a desire to express their individuality and personally enjoy grooming and maintaining their appearance. Therefore, we can expect increased beauty and fashion expenditures.

Social persuasion: targeting social identities through social influencers

Purpose – Buying behaviour can be interpreted as a signal of social identity. For example, individuals may purchase specific cars to indicate their social status and income, or they may dress in particular ways to show their taste in fashion or their membership in a social group. This paper aims to focus on the identification of market place influencers in a social identity context, in order to better market products and services to social groups. Design/methodology/approach – A structural model linking consumers ' individual capital (motivation to influence), social capital (opportunistic use of social influence), and social leadership ability (persuasive “power”) is introduced. Hypotheses on the interrelations of these factors are proposed and the model is empirically tested using causal analysis. The survey data were collected in Germany in the context of socially influenced automotive buying behavior (428 valid questionnaires). Findings – The proposed model supports significant relations between individual capital and social capital and social leadership ability. The results suggest which factors (individual and social capital) describe social influencers, helping to identify powerful social influencers in a social identity context. Different types of social influence leaders and followers are presented and characterized. Originality/value – This paper offers marketing researchers and practitioners a new integrative approach to target consumers with specific social identities via social influencers.

Study on Original Design Features of First Ladies' Evening Dresses - Comparison of Jacqueline's Styles and Later First Ladies' Styles -

Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (July 28, 1929 - May 19, 1994) was served as First Lady of the United States in the early 1960s. Her fashion styles are analyzed into the elements of designs, and the features of Jackie look are assorted. A variety of sources about women's suits for the 21st century are suggested in the research. Jackie's taste in fashion, her fashion image are searched. In addition, after Jackie, other nine fashionable First Ladies' evening dresses are compared to Jackie's dresses so as to see if there are similarities between their styles. Based on this data, the typical First Lady's look is classifiable. The purpose of this study is to furnish the industry with basic information which helps create high value fashion design. Most of Jackie's evening dresses had the straight - sheath silhouettes, and the round or bateau necklines without collars. Pale tones like white predominated in her dresses, and patternless colorful silk, silky and bright texture of cloth was used for the dresses. Elegance and classic represented her image. Design features of Jackie look are the straight silhouette, the simple line excluded adornments, and the fine quality of cloth. There has been little change in other nine First Ladies' evening dresses since Jackie. They weren't influenced by the vogue at that time, but they kept the style the way Jackie did. Jackie style is the beginning of the typical first lady look, that is.

Putting Assumed Emotion in Fashion Brand Literacy: Understanding Brand-Identity Relationship in the Interdependent Asian Context

Over the past decade, consumer researchers have been interested in understanding symbolic relationship between consumers and brands, especially on identity construction (Elliott & Wattanasuwan, 1998; Escalas & Bettman, 2005; Kirmani, 2009) and its implications on brand management (Arvidsson, 2005; Holt, 2002; 2004). Following a cultural-psychological view to study how culture shapes brand-identity relationship, Eckhardt (2000) addresses that little attention have been paid to understand consumer behavior within interdependent cultures when compare with the prolific account of western literatures that reported the consumption behavior with an independent self-construal. This paper strives to address this absence through researching how a group of Chinese youngsters internalize their cultural values with a sense of assumed emotion and developed local specific brand literacy towards fashion brands’ perception and consumption. Following Bengtsson and Firat (2006)’s concept of brand literacy, this interpretative research aims to extend our current understanding of symbolic brand consumption and brand-identity relationship in particular to the interdependent Asian context. The literature review discusses previous studies on brand symbolism in formulating brand-identity relationship and how social psychological understanding of interdependent construal of self can be applied to consumer researches. The cultural characteristics of Chinese consumers are also discussed with reference to previous indigenous consumer researches on symbolic brand consumption. As part of a greater project on fashion and brand consumption experience among young Chinese in Guangzhou, 18 Chinese volunteers aged around 20 are recruited from local universities and colleges and become the main research informants. The fieldwork is conducted in Guangzhou. In-depth interviews and participant observations are the main data collection method. Triangulation analysis technique has been adopted to review and cross-check data collected. Our findings and discussions demonstrate different dimensions of assumed emotion (Hu, 1949) among the Chinese youngsters in structuring their brand literacy. We discuss how cultural concern towards their social identities, including as students, sons/daughters, friends, and changing identities expected in the future, may significantly impact the youngsters’ fashion and brand value, perception and consumption. Through symbolic consumption, the Chinese youngsters depict a sense of culturally specific fashion and brand knowledge as demonstrated in their fashion choice, taste and consumption, in a way that is culturally appropriate in fitting themselves in a complex social network. Guided by this sense of assumed emotion, Chinese youngsters adopt the signs and meanings embedded in brand names and its associated symbols to engage in the different social situations within their cultural setting. This has resulted in a different construct of brand literacy within the interdependent cultural context. An emergent theme is also found as there is a major difference in fashion brands perceptions and choices between the urbanities (i.e. Guangzhou localities) and peripheries (i.e. outsiders) because of a cultural difference in constructing their cosmopolitan identities (Thompson & Tambyah, 1999). To conclude, this study has contributed to our understanding of brand-identity relationship in the interdependent Asian context. Consumers in the eastern cultures tend to be subjected to integrate a larger socio-cultural context than maintaining individualistic pleasures as in western cultures. A greater concern of understanding the assumed emotion and how consumers asserted their social identities with symbolic fashion and brand consumption would be a key to understand the consumption cultures with interdependent self-construal.

Mimeticism and the Basis of Value: Toward a Theory of Fashion Marketing

Abstract The objective of this paper is to propose a theory of fashion marketing which directly addresses the social processes that consumers use to associate images and meaning to articles of fashion. By doing so, the theory will address the means by which fashion originates and diffuses through society, an important issue of concern to fashion marketers. The role of taste in fashion involves taste acting as the means of influence between others and one’s fashion understanding and subsequent fashion choices. Taste, therefore, is an evaluation of what is desirable or acceptable as determined by the opinions of others. Taste has broad-reaching effects on the desires and purchases of individuals. Arguably, taste directly affects consumers’ assessments of most, if not all, fashion choices. Taste, however, does not have an individually based origin, but is based on the imitation of others. The role played by clothing in the communication/construction of identity is widely accepted today. Within this environme...

Is Australian Fashion and Dress Distinctively Australian?

The idea of “fashion” as being a characteristic of Australian culture is frequently regarded as a non sequitur. Fashion is seen as belonging to far-flung cosmopolitan sites elsewhere while Australia is a far-flung site cut off from the trappings of civilization. Equally, Australia has long been regarded as being cut off from the “finer things” of civility, fashion, and good taste. At best, an Australian sense of style is regarded as anything that is practical, informal, and casual—T-shirts, practical footwear, moleskin trousers, and wide-brim hats; as an outfit thrown together without much thought. And yet, there has been an abiding interest in fashion since European settlement in Australia, even in the early days of the convict colony. One recurring element of this fascination with fashion is what it means to speak of distinctively “Australian” fashion as opposed to derivative styles copied from elsewhere. Does it make sense to imagine such a thing? Moreover, if there is such a phenomenon as Australian fashion, when does fashion and dress practice in Australia become un-Australian? This question lies at the heart of this article.

Ilustraciones del 'Quijote ' utilizadas en muebles a finales del siglo XIX

El mostrar en el frente de un mueble escenas pertenecientes a una obra famosa constituye una costumbre ya utilizada en el siglo XVII. De los pocos ejemplares conocidos con temas quijotescos -solo cuatro- destaca el que aquí se muestra, producción flamenca posiblemente coincidente con el tercer centenario de la aparición de la obra. Se analizan los temas que aparecen, sus fuentes tomadas de las ilustraciones de diversas ediciones decimonónicas, así como el gusto por la elección de escenas amables, desarrolladas casi exclusivamente en exteriores, que evidencia el afán erudito propio de la época junto al interés por revalorizar un tipo de mueble genuinamente hispánico como es el escritorio.

The Commodification of Civic Culture in Early Nineteenth-century London

This article re-examines the forces at play in antiquarianism and their impact upon the use of antiquarian design in the remodeling and expansion of London during the Regency and early Victorian periods. It contends that the commercial aspects involved in the antiquarian movement were manifest in the adaptation of the design traditions it retrieved and particularly for the construction of the new shopping precincts in London developed by John Nash. The cultural prestige of historical motif, purveyed like much fashionable taste through new print media, was appropriated to create new spaces of commodification. This profitable regulatory appropriation of knowledge was, however, subject to the disruptions attendant upon later modern urban expansion.

Designing the Morality of Consumption: “Chamber of Horrors” at the Museum of Ornamental Art, 1852–53

Introduction In Britain, where all sumptuary laws were abolished as early as 1604 (the earliest in the world), the “taste” of everyday things became an issue of great importance by the mid-nineteenth century, enough to give birth to a national institution solely dedicated to the matter. This was the Museum of Ornamental Art, now the Victoria and Albert Museum, whose primary aim was to “improve the public’s taste.” The term “taste” was introduced to Britain from France in the eighteenth century, and was discussed mainly within intellectual, aristocratic, or professional circles. Edmund Burke argued “On Taste” in the preface to his Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1756); and the title of Thomas Chippendale’s book, Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director: Being a Large Collection of the Most Elegant and Useful Designs of Household Furniture, in the Most Fashionable Taste (1754), was clearly suggestive of its audience. In the following century, however, after Britain had experienced the industrial revolution, “taste” was placed in a much wider context. A.W. Pugin associated taste, society, and morality in his Contrasts: Or, A Parallel Between the Noble Edifices of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries and Similar Buildings of the Present Day, Shewing the Present Decay of Taste (1836). Works such as The Hand-Book of Taste: Or, How to Observe Works of Art, especially Cartoons, Pictures, and Statues (1843) by Fabius and periodicals including The Artist and Amateur’s Magazine: A Work Devoted to the Interests of the Arts of Design and the Cultivation of Taste, to which William Etty and John Ruskin contributed, intended for a nonprofessional and middle-class reader, appeared soon after. So far, the focal subjects of these how-to publications were architecture, painting, sculpture, literature, and music, which, in general, were either appreciated in public or possessed by a luxuried few. Towards the middle of the century, a different trend emerged. Taste in consumption was discussed for a nonprofessional, more general audience that would spend money on home decoration. Domestic objects became as serious a subject as any work of art, as represented by Charles Eastlake’s Hints on Household Taste in