Interviews.

Interviews with fashion students, professors, fashion industry professionals, fashion graduates, etc., about the current state of fashion, as well as discussions about the willingness to add business courses, and research about the direction of fashion graduates seeking employment. Or a free session on how schools can find better ways to help to graduate students deal with the psychological problems they face after graduation.

Interviews with UAL graduate support & career support:

1. Have ever received any emails or questions or answers about students having difficulty finding a job or being anxious about the difficulties they are experiencing?

2. Has it ever occurred there or has anyone suggested giving fashion students a little more course placement in order to fill the industry saturation and give students more possibilities in the direction of future employment options?

3. As I have studied at UAL for a long time, I am well aware of UAL’s mode of teaching. Has there been any thought of adding optional sub-specialties for students to choose from, in addition to their main studies? 

People who have never studied fashion before but would love to get into the fashion industry, have a passion for fashion, love fashion, want to be in fashion, have experience in business, and marketing, and simply think they can use these skills to run a business and manage everything.

Intervention 1
My first intervention was to get the fashion graduates to think about and take a photo of a fashion item that best represented them, embellish the photo, combine this with the rest in any way they could, use their imagination, and see the end result. The FUSL (fashion uniform symbol) group was set up.
 
Then interviewed a blogger who has managed to combine the two unifying symbols of fashion and self-publishing and makes money by advertising cosmetics and clothing.
 
Interview a British lingerie brand entrepreneur to talk about interns, she suggested that there was no way around the problem of brands squeezing fashion students.

Interviews

100% of the interviewees said that “because the fashion industry is too difficult to find a job when they first graduate, they are likely to become self-employed. “Another respondent said, “Probably start in a fashion-related industry, such as a window displayer”.

An interview with someone who has not studied fashion before and works in the fashion industry. The response I was given was that her previous major only made it a teacher in the face of today’s social environment. She wants to maintain herself financially by designing shoes. She wouldn’t want to study fashion afterward.

For someone who has not studied fashion before but is keen to enter the fashion industry, has a passion for fashion, loves fashion, wants to join fashion, has had business, and marketing experience, and feels they can use these skills to run a business. This shows there is very little space left for recent fashion graduates.

After Intervention 1, the participants learn about their own perception of their own personal fashion style, combining both fashion wear and photography. In the process, they also learn that there are other interests they can tap into besides fashion. For example, a social media account can be created. Through this group, more people can also be cultivated to join. And through this group, a follow-up test can be carried out.

* How to change something by combining some different uniform symbols to make it become a new possibility?

1. How to make different uniform symbols interact with each other?

2. How to make the uniform symbol go to a new possibility?

3. How to change the relationship between different uniform symbols to create new possibilities?

4. How can uniform symbols get rid of status and stereotypes?

5. How do graduates combine uniform symbols to create new symbols?

6. How to make people’s boundaries get more contact through uniform symbols?

7. How to make the boundary between people in a different way? through the uniform symbol?

What symbols can be used

How to find people with different symbols

In what domain is this a problem

How to ease the divide between different groups

Intersectionality

1.created a group for fashion grad

2.

Intervention 

1. Stakeholders 

     Fashion graduated

2. Platform 

  Find different fashion graduates about the uniform symbol they have and what they want to have. How they generated and built the symbols they were interested in,

3. Intention/goal

4. Questions supporting in intervention 

5. Activity/event allowing users to engage

• Try to find Intersectionality parts in their uniform symbol and think about how to combine and create new things

• Open your mind, let go of your baggage, try other areas outside of your major, and embrace challenges.

6. Feedback 

Main research question ：

* How can fashion graduates find out what they want to do in the future through uniform symbol?

* How can fashion graduates find out what they want to do in the future through uniform symbol in the saturated fashion industry?

Advdence 1

Independent women

feminism

In this article, we argue that quantitative methods can be used within an intersectional approach and that quantitative researchers should incorporate an intersectional approach to their work. To that end, we examine theoretical and episte- mological reasons for combining intersectionality and quan- titative methods. First, we provide an overview of the concept of intersectionality and discuss whether intersectionality is better considered a theory or an approach. Then, we discuss three epistemologies—positivism, social constructionism, and standpoint epistemology—and consider how each sup- ports using quantitative methods in intersectionality research. We conclude by discussing the challenges and potential of linking intersectionality and quantitative methods and issue a call for the incorporation of intersectionality into research using quantitative methods.

Standpoint epistemologies. According to standpoint episte- mology, knowledge is socially constructed but not relative (Sprague, 2005). A knower constructs knowledge from a par- ticular location or standpoint, which includes physical loca- tion, history, and culture (Harding, 1998). A particular scientist, then, has a particular standpoint that provides only a partial view of any phenomenon (Haraway, 1988). Simi- larly, every research question is located within a standpoint (Sprague, 2005, p. 180). Standpoints are not random or spon- taneous but are grounded in history and culture, conferring a particular vantage point. Moreover, because the scientist operates from a privileged standpoint, the standpoint of the oppressed or disadvantaged is crucial. The role of power is explicit here, insofar as it systematically biases how knowl- edge is created and organized.

Intersectionality, epistemology, and quantitative methods.

Some have characterized intersectionality as more compati- ble with qualitative methods than quantitative methods (e.g., Bowleg, 2008; Shields, 2008). Concerns about the compat- ibility of intersectionality with quantitative methods stem, in part, from epistemological issues; it is common to equate quantitative methods with a positivist epistemology and qua- litative methods with a social constructionist epistemology (Guba & Lincoln, 1994; Sprague, 2005). We believe these equations are flawed. While quantitative methods have been the mainstay of studies within positivism (Guba & Lincoln, 1994), it is inaccurate to say that one necessarily entails the other (Sprague, 2005). Quantitative methods can be compa- tible with social constructionist and standpoint epistemolo- gies. 

• Find other definitions for fashion uniform symbols 

1. The ability to systematically test and refine a theory hypothesis in

relation to your evaluation of current research and new modals of

practice, (AC Enquiry)

2 The ability to apply your imagination to questions and new madels of

practice at the forefront of your rubjeci discipline. [AC Knowledgo)

3 The ability to take informed risks, challenge and move beyond

predictable outcomes. (AC Process)

4. The ability to articulate the new knowledge you have gained and its

wider applicability. (AC Communication)

5 Deployment of high lovel skills to communicate effectively and

professionally with a range of audiences, (AC Communication)

6. The ability to give your question form through the creation and

presontation of a seres oil interventions (artefacts, events, processes)

and to use such interventions to elicit and test extoral responses

to your project (AC Roalisation)

7. The ability to take responsibility for your sell direction and show

informed decision making and originality in realising a major project

AC Process)

8. The ability to evaluate and incorporate external feedback. (AC Process)

The Evaluative Report asks you to demonstrate the expertise

(mastery”) you have gained in your chosen area of study.

We are asking you to tell us how you have moved beyond the

predictable, failed and pivoted to gain this knowledge.

HOW DO YOU DEMONSTRATE THAT YOU KNOW SOMETHING?

Free Writing time

在一个青少年最快乐的时光里，我的衣服是丑的。

我要改变，我不想让更多人失去对服装的理解，更或者是错误的理解。

让真正懂艺术的人设计uniform是非常有必要的。

uniform symbol 是一个很好的平台，让已经毕业的时尚学生赋予校服更多的意义。把自己身上的符号与其他元素结合。

让fashion graduated 拿出一件最能代表自己的时尚单品，与其他五个人结合，可以是任何方式，发挥想象力，看看最终效果。

* How to change something by combining some different uniform symbols to make it become a new possibility for fashion graduated?

W

In the happiest days of a teenager, my clothes were ugly.

I want to change, I don’t want more people to lose their understanding of clothing, or even wrong understanding.

It is very necessary for people who really know fashion to design uniform.

Y

As a fashion graduated, uniform symbol is a good platform for fashion students who have graduated to give uniforms more meaningful. 

Question

As for the alumni, the school uniforms they wore have a special meaning. How can I make the worn-out uniforms into a meaningful thing?

Primary research

From research, I found that uniforms can not only be used as a tool to restrict and limit the freedom of human clothing, but they can also become a way of life, and everyone has a uniform lifestyle. After graduation, students have the power to dress freely, explore and have their style and way of dressing. 

So uniform can be regarded as a symbol. It is the symbol of a specific form of expression in reality.

For example, playing guitar requires armor, students need to use Word documents, musicians need instruments to show their talent, painters need brushes, and so on. These are the embodiment of the uniform. 

Certain people have certain uniforms, which are also equivalent to a way of life. It is also a symbol of the specific identity of a class of people or a group. 

Secondary research   

A uniform is not just a piece of clothing, it is a way of life, to reflect a person.

What uniform symbols do you give yourself? How you define this symbol is crucial.

I found three graduated students and asked them to take photos of their daily wear items, and I collected the photos. to know how is their daily wear preferences and what is uniform looks like for them.

How can I combine or exchange or associate different people’s uniform symbols? And create some new possibilities? 

Stakeholders

An intervention was conducted with three fashion graduates who had previously worn uniforms. Fashion is a symbol for them. And the people who wear the uniform know more about the feeling of wearing the uniform and give the uniform more meaning, or the idea of change, or a feeling of missing. 

Intervention

1. Stakeholders

Three fashion students who used to wear uniforms and now graduated.

2. Platform

I found someone I know in person or online and let them photograph daily and for at least three days.

3.Goals/Objectives

To better understand the present dressing style of these three observers and some uniform-related things.

How do they understand and interpret the symbol of fashion?

4. issues of support for intervention

For a graduated art student, what kind of dress, and some personalized dress style preference?

How can I enjoy it and become my symbol?

How can I find people’s styles and enjoy the freedom of dressing?

5. Activities/events that allow users to participate

I organized several graduate students to join my online communication group and asked them to share their daily clothes in the group, which was used to collect data. 

6. The feedback

Art graduates have the freedom to dress and have found their own style of dressing, which makes the school uniform more meaningful.

Three graduated students have all found their style of dressing, so it can be seen that art students have realized their freedom of dressing and found their style after graduation, but I still need some non-art students to show more information. How do conduct a more comprehensive study? 

In more ways, I will find graduates with different specific symbols, and people with different occupations and identities to study people’s understanding of UNIFORM SYMBOL. 

User interviews

Craik, J., and Uniforms Exposed: From Conformity to Transgression (Dress, C., 2022. 9781859738047: Uniforms Exposed: From Conformity to Transgression (Dress, Body, Culture) – AbeBooks – Craik, Jennifer: 1859738044. [online] Abebooks.com. Available at: <https://www.abebooks.com/9781859738047/Uniforms-Exposed-Conformity-Transgression-Dress-1859738044/plp> [Accessed 1 September 2022].

Hertz, C. (2022). The Uniform: As Material, As Symbol, As Negotiated Object. Retrieved 1 September 2022, from https://www.academia.edu/4044048/The_Uniform_As_Material_As_Symbol_As_Negotiated_Object

Bickman, Leonard. 1974. The Social Power of a Uniform. Journal of Applied Social Psychology. 

Bogatyrev, Petr. [1937] 1971. The Functions of Folk Costume in Moravian Slovakia. The Hague: Mouton. Bonami, Francesco, Maria Luisa Frisa, and Stefano Tonchi, eds. 2000. Uniform: Order and Disorder. 

Ideas

Why is institution a symbol？ Why is it a symbol？ Why do these symbols become a unity?

How do these symbols become a unity? 

Fashion is a symbol that many people want to have, but they don’t know how to have, so can people who have this good symbol influence those who don’t have it.

Those who successfully find their own symbols enjoy it, but how do I create or change something for the group of people who don’t get the right uniform symbol? 

Or how do we get people who are currently in a symbol they don’t like and want to find their own symbol? 

Reflections/learnings

Why is the fashion uniform a specific form of symbol?

1. Constraints,

2. The specific dressing style of some special groups can help people to judge their career or professional direction at a glance,

3. People want to show off themselves.

How do recombine different symbols or labels to make people have more diverse identities? 

How can different single unified institutional symbols be combined to produce change?

challenges/limitations

It’s really hard to find more ideas through fashion graduates, to find people with different symbols, different uniforms.

Participants in the intervention, after finding their own uniform symbol, stick to or stay with a fixed symbol.

It cannot be defined that uniform symbols are a good phenomenon or a bad embodiment, and further investigation is needed.

It is just looking for stakeholders who own the symbol of fashion that is one-dimensional. 

Opportunities/next steps

How to change something by combining some different uniform symbols to make it become a new possibility?

The Illusion of Uniformity

Insufficient definition for the uniform has led to a general conflation of uniforms with everyday clothing or any unified appearance, thus rendering the concept of uniform irrelevant. Scholars are correct to see similarities between everyday clothing and uniforms. However, if no distinction can be made, the uniform as a term and as a concept is simply redundant and meaningless.

THE UNIFORM

The scholarship on dress quite clearly illustrates that everyday clothing mediates human encounters and guides human interactions and expectations. All clothing—whether uniforms or any other genre of dress—operates at a symbolic level within society, allowing individuals to position themselves either in connection with or opposition to any number of perceived social categories. Typically, the main criteria for labeling any item of clothing as a uniform have revolved around the idea that a critical mass of people wears it, thus creating a uniform look and uniform identity. Nevertheless, all societies have notions of appropriate and inappropriate clothing for various contexts and for various types of people. These notions are consensually held, though not always followed or regulated, and are often contested. Therefore, simply sharing the same aesthetic, social, and symbolic system should not indicate that all members of that culture or group wear the same uniform. To an outsider, the members may certainly appear similar because of this shared semiotic system. Internally, however, individuals may recognize a wide range of stratification and diversity. The “uniformity” is only an illusion to the casual viewer.

Scholars have not agreed on how much of an outfit must be regulated in order to identify it as a uniform. Does every item of apparel from hat to shoes need to be mandated and standardized by the organization or group? Can a uniform consist of a few key articles worn in conjunction with individually selected items? Restricting vision to a total uniform environment has resulted in the preoccupation of scholars with the military over other, more loosely uniformed institutions, such as fast food or other commercial establishments. Similarly, an insistence on a complete uniform, coupled with the notion that uniformed groups only exist in large numbers, has led to the assertion that the uniform is a product of modernity dependent on the technology of industrial mass production.

Ernst H. Kantorowicz (1961) claims that we can trace Western military uniforms back to the Hellenistic period; he outlines the remarkable continuity among depictions of Roman uniforms within ancient art and on coins or daily objects. Elizabeth Ewing’s historical discussion of early schools for nursemaids reveals that the Norland Institute in England maintained a sewing room for producing its own uniforms in-house. Factory production certainly is not a necessity for small institutions. But even more importantly, dependence on perfect uniformity is false.

The assumption of visual uniformity ignores the historical, social, and economic contexts in which uniforms actually operate. Uniformity is commonly compromised by miscommu- nication (like misinterpretations of code specifications), conflicting motivations, multiple manufacturers or channels of command, or material restraints (like unstable dyes or shortages). Such factors may lead to a variety of effects: substitutions or deficiencies in uniforms, varying levels of strictness from uniform enforcers, necessary adaptations to new contexts, and individualistic alterations.

The emergence of school uniforms is stifling school violence when students are compared with each other.

The existence of violence in the form of “soft violence” and “hard violence” in two forms. In the campus of the soft violence is mainly through the isolation, disregard, exclusion and other acts to make some students have long been marginalized, can`t be integrated into the class, much left out in the cold. This type of violence so that the victims of the students can`t be normal socialization, prone to inferiority complex, the students and all around the hostile psychology, breeding violence [1]. When students compare clothes by price and style, students who wear cheap clothes or those who are not fashionable enough will have a psychological inferiority complex. And the expensive and trendy dressing students will form a group, which isolates and excludes students who are not better than this group. This can easily lead to school violence. Therefore, the emergence of school uniforms is an act of restraining “soft violence” in the school.

The violence of the campus forms according to the different motives of the perpetrators can be divided into: retaliation, the jealous type, let out his hatred and play abuse. Violence revenge type with a clear point, is not random, which is caused by the perpetrators and the victims of previous behavior; the jealous type is on the other side of discontent, hatred and other emotions, lead to the victims of violence and hostility to her; plus victims because of frustration not self resolve mental state formed by the transfer of hatred to the victim’s body, and the implementation of violence; the perpetrators and victims are playful and not too much hatred, they use violence just in front of the victim showed a strong and authoritative attitude, and through the weak smile at the show a painful and helpless, because of the violence they enjoy the thrill and excitement[2]. Sometimes, the prices and styles of clothes make students form two opposing aspects. On both sides of the clothing comparison, some students who are inferior to others will have jealousy and vengeance, and then vent their emotions, and retaliate against students who wear trendy and expensive clothes. It is also possible that on the contrary, students who are dressed in a dominant way will bully students who are not as well dressed as themselves.

[1].Paul E. Pezza, Ann Bellotti. College campus violence: Origins, impacts, and responses. Educational Psychology ReviewMarch 1995, Volume 7, Issue 1, pp 105-123

[2] Sharon Aneta Bryant , Gale A. Spencer University Students’ Attitudes About Attributing Blame in Domestic Violence. Journal of Family ViolenceDecember 2003, Volume 18, Issue 6, pp 369-376

Questionnaire

1. Are you satisfied with the school uniform you are wearing now? Why?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

2. What do you think of your school uniform? Do you think it needs any improvement?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

3. Do you understand your character?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4. Do you really understand the character of your friend? What is your character?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

5. Do you want to meet more like-minded friends through school uniforms?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6. There is a plan like this: There are these kinds of school uniform tops and trousers from different schools, you can choose one of your favorites, and then match the same students as you choose according to your preferences. Let you participate in a school uniform create studio activity. This activity allows you to try to become friends with the same students you choose. Do you think you like this plan?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

7. Do you think this plan will help you have a better understanding of yourself?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

8. Will people who dress differently affect your social life? Why？

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Interviews

1. What is your opinion on your school uniform? What improvement is needed?

2. What kind of perception do you have about your character?

3. Do you have self-knowledge of what kind of person and type of person you are? what is that?

4. Why do you think you are your current character? 

5. What do you know about your friend’s character?

6. what do you have any different thoughts about your current social circle? why?

We can use colour to communicate how we feel – here’s how

Nuala Morse, University of Leicester and Jo Volley, UCL

When people are sad they are often said to be “blue”. Jealousy is implied if someone is described as being “green with envy”. Angry people “see red” while yellow is associated with happiness, and in contrast, black and shades of grey have negative connotations. Why are certain emotions associated with certain colours? And where did these associations come from?

The impact of colour on emotion has long been of particular interest to artists, poets and philosophers. In the 19th century, the poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote his Theory of Colour (1810), a treatise on the nature and function of colour in relation to mood. Goethe’s work is poetic rather than scientific and based on his own subjective experience, but is a spellbinding account of the emotive experience of colour. Another key writer is the artist Joseph Albers, whose seminal study on The Interaction of Colour (1963) focused on the effect of colour on altering human perception.

There is some accepted research on the psychology of colour, although there is little empirical work and only a few systematic studies. These divide into two main views as to what the relationship between colour and emotions is. One holds that this relationship is culturally determined, and therefore varies across people and cultures. The other suggests a more psychophysiological basis for this relationship between colour and mood, implying that it is universal.

Studies seem to conclude that colour can affect mood, but they do not agree on which moods are brought out by which colours. Additionally, research has found that different shades of the same colour (for example pale blue and dark blue) can have completely different connotations when people are asked to specifically relate their mood to a colour.

Despite a relative lack of research, colour psychology has been applied in marketing and branding, with the aim of influencing consumers’ perception of goods and services. Colour theory, on the other hand, is more concerned with the rules and guidelines regarding the use of colour and colour combination in art and design.

“Colours, like features, follow the changes of the emotions,” the artist Pablo Picasso once said. But there remain many unanswered questions.

How to use colour to communicate

Given the links between colour and emotion, we wanted to consider whether colour could be used as a language to express how we feel. In particular, we are interested in the potential of using colour as a visual language to express emotions for people with communication difficulties.

Our research developed from an interdisciplinary collaboration across the social sciences, art theory and practice and speech and language therapy. We worked with a group of seven people with aphasia – a language impairment following brain injury such as a stroke.

In a series of workshops, we explored how we might use colour to express how we feel, using stickers as the medium. As a first step, we developed a series of concrete words adapted from the Positive-Affect Negative-Affect Schedule (PANAS), which records positive and negative mood.

Research has found that with people with aphasia tend to have problems with processing abstract words. We therefore developed six pairs of concrete words to prompt thinking about emotions: happy/sad; soft/sharp; big/small; new/old; share/hide; high/low. Participants were asked to choose what colours they felt in relation to these words. Later workshops introduced the idea of shapes, texture and sizes to consider the intensity of felt emotions and moving away from words towards a colour language.

We found that concrete words can be a useful starting point for discussion and to ask people how they feel, and that colour offers people with communication difficulty another way to respond without using words. For a small number of words, similar colour choices were made by different people (such as dark, muted colours for “sad”). But for other words, people’s choice were quite individual. We found that people had different “colour vocabularies”.

We therefore produced a “Colour and Emotion Toolkit”, containing a manual which presents a number of exercises for start thinking about colour and emotion; a colour mat, which provides a communication tool for expressing emotion; and a diary, to record emotion over time. We hope that speech therapists will work with these tools to develop a tailored means of communication with their clients. Colleagues of ours will be trialling this in the near future.

We also put on an exhibition to mark the end of the project, including research materials produced within participants and artist responses to the theme of colour, emotion and well-being. This is on display at the UCLH Street Gallery in London.

Measuring well-being creatively

One potential use for this toolkit is to develop a new non-verbal measure for well-being. Well-being can be understood as how people feel and function. The psychological definition of well-being includes emotions, such as happiness, as well as meaning and satisfaction. Measuring well-being is becoming a central concern for public policy to assess social progress. It also enables organisations to improve the design and delivery of programmes and services, especially in the contexts of healthcare and culture-in-health interventions.

But well-being is usually measured through questionnaires that rely on language. These are not readily useful for people with communication difficulties. Furthermore, they focus on a cognitive assessment of well-being rather than recording the immediacy of feelings and sensations. Our toolkit provides a way for people with communication difficulties to express how they feel – using colour rather than questions.

Clearly, colour is emotional: it is an immediate way in which we experience the world. Colour can therefore provide a communication tool which offers a different way of talking about how we feel. Our project points to ways in which we can use colour to develop non-verbal approaches to assess mood and well-being outcomes, with potential application in a variety of therapy and clinical situations.

Nuala Morse, Lecturer in Museum Studies, University of Leicester and Jo Volley, Senior Lecturer in Fine Art, UCL

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.