Chinese culture has dramatically influenced Western womens fashionable dress over many centuries. Researchers have studied Chinese dress and its influence on Western womens dress in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth century. However, no research has systematically examined Chinese dress influences on Western womens dress from the time
that China reopened its door to the West in the 1970s and into the twenty-first century.
The purpose of this study is to trace Chinese influence in Western womens dress from 1960 to 2009 in American Vogue magazine. The specific aims of this study are to identify and record the influence of the Hanfu, Qipao, and Mao suit along with other Chinese dress characteristics, including accessories, hair styles, and makeup, on Western womens dress as depicted in the magazine over fifty years. The ways in which elements and patterns of Chinese dress were adopted into modern Western womens fashion was examined along with concurrent social changes and globalization by tracing a single popular fashion magazine, American Vogue.
Content analysis was applied to answer the research questions. A total of 704 issues of American Vogue were examined and the frequencies of Chinese attributes present in both visual representations and written references in every issue were recorded. The visual counts were accompanied by examination of verbal text, such as articles, editorials, and figure captions that referred to China.
The results indicate that Chinese influence in visual representations was seen throughout the entire research period in greater numbers than written references. The two decades with the highest numbers of occurances in both written references and visual representations were the 1970s and 1990s. Garment features had higher frequencies than fabric, accessories, and other features. As a garment type, Qipao had the greatest influence on Western womens dress. Collars appeared as the most influenced construction element depicted in Vogue. Political events, culture, globalization, and fashion trends all played important roles in the frequency of Chinese influences seen on Western womens fashionable dress in American Vogue.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-08242011-210636 |
| Date | 26 August 2011 |
| Creators | Zeng, Yao |
| Contributors | Kuttruff, Jenna Tedrick, Negulescu, Ioan I., McRoberts, Lisa Barona, Washington-Brown, Andrea L., Mitchell, Roland W. |
| Publisher | LSU |
| Source Sets | Louisiana State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-08242011-210636/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached herein a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below and in appropriate University policies, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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