A comparative analysis of design theories of contemporary European and Japanese fashion designers

Abstract

The purpose of this research study was to identify and compare the underlying design theory of contemporary European and Japanese fashion designers. This study focused on four major objectives: 1) to examine literature on the subject of fashion theory and design theory across a range of disciplines: 2) to inductively identify the factors influencing fashion designers through the perceptions of fashion designers, educators and students; 3) to formulate frameworks of factors influencing fashion designers and models of the design process when creating new fashion and 4) to develop constructs for design theories of fashion using the qualitative method of grounded theory developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) and Glaser (1978). In order to formulate the grounded design theories of contemporary European and Japanese fashion designers, five fashion sites - Paris, Milan, London, Tokyo and Hong Kong - were selected. A qualitative research methodology, which employed the inductive approach in the development of grounded theory, was adopted in this study. The data collection method included in-depth interviews, questionaire surverys, on-site observaions and document review. In the first four fashion sites, a total of 66 fashion designers, educators and students were interviewed. 53 open-ended design questionaires were returned by fashion designers and students. 18 on-site obervations of fashion designers and educators were carried out. The fifth fashion site - Hong Kong - was used to field test the data collection instruments. From this research study, the grounded design theories of French, Italian, British, European and Japanese fashion designers were formulated. Different consturcts for those design theories were identified. The resuls of theory-building research suggested that there were differences between the grounded design theories of European and Japanese fashion designers due to their various cultural contexts.