Utilizing the apparel design collection to represent qualitative study findings: Understanding female Chinese/Chinese American fashion and textile designer’s appearance management experience with their creativity

Abstract

The purpose of the research was to: (a) understand female Chinese/Chinese American fashion and textile designer s’ (FCCAFTD) appearance management experiences in their creative design process; (b) determine how FCCAFTDs’ appearance management influences their creative output; (c) experiment with how to utilize the apparel design collection to present the qualitative research findings; and (d) evaluate whether the apparel design collection successfully represents the findings from the qualitative study via the quantitative online survey. A mixed-methods approach was utilized for conducting this study, including:(a) phenomenological qualitative approach, (b) apparel design collection, and (c) quantitative online survey. The qualitative data collection was achieved by conducting 15 semi-structured Zoom interviews. The apparel design collection as the creative response to the study was sequentially created and produced based on the micro-themes, subthemes, and major themes that were generated from the qualitative study. Five ensembles were created grounded in the micro-theme of oversize dress, neutral hue, and natural material and the major themes of connectivity and self-reflection.

An online digital portfolio was developed (https://bingyuewby.wixsite.com/dissertation) to illustrate the apparel design collection. A quantitative online survey with the digital portfolio link was launched and distributed through a professional association in the textile and apparel fields and undergraduates and graduates majoring in the program of Apparel, Merchandising, and Design at Iowa State University and Texas Woman’s University to evaluate whether each ensemble successfully represented the themes from the qualitative study. A proposed appearance management and FCCAFTD creativity conceptual (AM&FCC) model was developed to depict the connection between each theme. The comprehensive findings suggested that:(a) wearing comfortable clothing can assist FCCAFTD to enter the state of flow in order to enhance creativity during their creative design process, (b) wearing neutral hues of clothing is a contributing factor for FCCAFTD to gain sustained attention during their creative design process, (c)FCCAFTD use appearance management to achieve self-refection, and (d) FCCAFTD’s appearance management has direct and indirect influences on their creative output. The five ensembles in the apparel design collection were successfully represented in the micro-themes of oversize dress; neutral hue, and natural material and the major theme of connectivity and self-reflection by evaluating the described inspiration, apparel of appearance, fabric selection, color selection, and textile technique and embellishment selection.