The purpose of this research is to investigate the power and postcolonial meanings of lingerie for urban Indian professional women (UIPW) living in India to better understand the consumer behaviour of lingerie consumption. This critical marketing studies thesis adds to the existing studies of lingerie to argue that little is understood about the social meanings behind the growth in lingerie in India. It analyses the ways in which lingerie is instrumental to how urban Indian women sartorially negotiate colonial and national tensions of sexual identity. An interdisciplinary conceptual framework utilising Foucauldian power and an original application of Saidian orientalism are used to critique lingerie advertising practices in India and its implications for developing the discourse of cross-cultural consumer behaviour for postcolonial contexts. An interdisciplinary, interpretive, qualitative, mixed methods case study approach was undertaken in the urban Indian cities of Delhi and Bombay between the periods 2010 – 2014. The research design consisted of: a content analysis of lingerie advertising in the magazines Vogue India and Femina between the post-media-liberalisation years 2003 to 2014; visual and textual analysis of lingerie in three selective Indian films; 106 semistructured surveys conducted amongst UIPW in the urban cities of Delhi and Bombay; two focus groups in Bombay and Delhi and fifteen in-depth interviews. Data analysis included SPSS analysis and discourse analysis. Findings reveal the contradictory ways in which female sartorial identity in India is caught up in competing postcolonial forces of control and resistance demarcated along the lines of cultural, social and economic capital, therefore differing from existing western studies of lingerie. Findings show current global marketing practices still operate within western marketing frameworks, perpetuating social inequalities and are failing to be congruent with multiple and alternative feminine identities. Findings empirically reinforce the importance of postcolonial theory for original socio-cultural consumer behaviour insight and the development of global marketing strategy.

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Scoliosis of the spine is defined as a side-to-side deviation from the normal frontal axis of the body resulting in body asymmetry, and as a complex, three-dimensional and multifaceted deformity, not only affects a female adolescent’s appearance - fit, usability and appearance of clothing - but can also compromise her health and ability to function. Scoliosis affects at least 2.9% of the population in Greece, appearing particularly among children aged 8-14 years, and more frequently in girls (9 girls for 1 boy). This study traces previous initiatives and current provision for clothing people with divergent body figures, exploring issues at the intersection of human anatomy and fashion, while it takes place in Greece, starting with measuring procedures specifically adapted for body asymmetry that comply with the appropriate code of ethics. External body measurements provide non-invasive evaluation of changes in external asymmetry due to scoliosis, while analysis of the measurements related to the trunk can document the asymmetry arising from the different types and degrees of spinal curvature, providing a 3D classification of scoliotic deformities. Both right and left body halves of 75 females aged 16-22 years of age, diagnosed with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), are measured in order to register their different body shapes and to classify them in different scoliotic groups, according to the magnitude and type of their scoliosis. The asymmetric basic pattern blocks derived from the median body measurements for each scoliotic group will be more tolerant of bodies with scoliosis, providing a better garment fit than conventional symmetrical patterns. These new ‘blocks’ will have the potential to be used in mass production, after the development of sizing systems based on body asymmetry, whereby an ‘aesthetic’ and an ‘ethical’ dimension in design could be then incorporated. Applying auto-ethnography, as well as using participant observation and interviewing methods, this research will help gain a deeper understanding of the culture and the needs of the specific target group. Future challenges relate to design perspectives of fashionable clothing for females with non-standard body dimensions, with particular emphasis on scoliosis, having potential for wider application in mass customised apparel for scoliosis.