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Museum Collections vs. Fashion Magazines: Aesthetic Rules
Author(s) -
Lowe Elizabeth D.
Publication year - 1991
Publication title -
home economics research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.372
H-Index - 31
eISSN - 1552-3934
pISSN - 0046-7774
DOI - 10.1177/1077727x9101900305
Subject(s) - clothing , art , metric (unit) , visual arts , waist , fashion design , computer science , computer graphics (images) , history , engineering , archaeology , medicine , operations management , obesity
Methodology was developed to measure six persistent features (décolletage width, décolletage length, waist width, waist length, skirt width and skirt length)of evening dresses, 1920–1980, from two university costume collections. Gar ments fit onto dress forms were photographed. Metric measurements were made directly on the photographs. Aesthetic rules derived from Greek ideals found in apparel design texts were tested by considering proportionate relationships be tween pairs of dress dimensions. Differences between university collections ex isted but were overshadowed by similarities in proportionate relationships. Data from both collections were combined and compared to findings utilizing maga zine data from the same time period. Regardless of data source, designers follow similar aesthetic rules, but not necessarily those found in apparel design texts.