Course Description: The study of theories related to appearance, clothing, and fashion, and their influence on cultural identities, gender perceptions, and fashion product consumption. Examines contemporary dress form cultures outside and within the United States. Dress is analyzed as a communication system that indicates individuality as well as position within specific social systems of kinship, economy, religion, and policy. Technologies and types of dress of a particular society are analyzed and understood as they link to patterns of behavior such as beliefs about morality, hygiene, ritual, and beauty.

Professor: Alyssa Dana Adomaitis, Ph.D., MBA

Syllabus:

Semester Project:

The goal of this assignment is to develop an understanding of your consumption patterns throughout your life thus far. Create a book of your own that recalls 10 – 12 times in your life when dress was used as a visual marker for an event. Make certain to include who or what influenced your particular dress for that occasion. Presentation of the book, diagrams, and writing style and grammar will be graded in accordance with APA in-text citations and references.

T-Shirt Design Project:

Purchase a plain white T-shirt and design it to reflect your identity in today’s society. Then write an essay discussing how you created the T-shirt in the first paragraph, and the following paragraphs should discuss the symbolism in the T-shirt and how you identify in Society today. Be sure to include terms discussed in class.