Sartorial Appearance Management Strategies of Creative Professional Women over Age 50 in the Fashion Industry

Abstract

Women in the United States are often subjected to unrealistic standards of ideal appearance. These ideals are even more extreme in the fashion industry. Because professional women who hold creative positions in the fashion industry are in the business of creating style and beauty, there is a high level of expectation toward them to maintain their dress and appearance at a not explicitly stated, but anticipated, and often unrealistic standard. In this study, creative positions refer to design, color and trend forecasting, product development and merchandising related jobs. Older women working in these areas are in a double bind because when one is responsible for creating consumer products for the fashion industry, the perceptions of one’s appearance become part of one’s professional expectations, reflecting one’s esthetic values and creative capital. This qualitative study explores the complexity of age, dress, experience, and consumption needs of this professional cohort in today’s visual and youth-centric culture that pervades the fashion industry. The study addresses social and cultural views on fashion as it relates to the ageing body and self-image by analyzing the relationship between women’s personal style and the industry’s expectations for their workplace appearance.

KEYWORDS:

• baby boomer
• gendered ageism
• fashion industry
• creative professional women
• appearance management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Jan M. Hathcote Social Science Support Fund.

Notes on contributors

Anne McInnis

Anne McInnis is a PhD student in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors at the University of Georgia, USA. Her research explores age, gender, and creative labor. She focuses on the socio-cultural aspects of the NYC fashion and textiles industry, the complexity of working and ageing in its youth-centric, visual culture, and the significance of intergenerational teams in the workplace. [email protected]

Katalin Medvedev

Katalin Medvedev is Professor in the Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Interiors at the University of Georgia, USA. Her articles have been published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Women’s Studies Quarterly; Fashion Practice; Dress; International Journal of Fashion Studies; Clothing Cultures; Paideusis-Journal for Interdisciplinary and Cross Cultural Studies; International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology, and Education; Fashion, Style and Popular Culture etc. as well as in numerous book chapters published by Berg, Fairchild, Pennsylvania University Press, Springer, Purdue University Press and University of Minnesota Press, among others. Her co-edited book titled Fashion, Agency and Empowerment was published by Bloomsbury in 2019. [email protected]