This paper proposes an interdisciplinary, conceptual framework for the study of clothing behavior, based upon a synthesis of major concepts from cognitive social psychology and symbolic interactionism. Cognitive theorists regard clothes as cues that may be selected by perceivers to understand observed persons. A symbolic interactionist approach places more emphasis on the role of dress in social communication, with consideration for both wearers' and perceivers' viewpoints. The two conceptual approaches are not mutually exclusive, and they share common concerns for perceivers' evaluations of other persons and situations. A contextual social-psychological study of clothing would allow researchers, using multi-methodological approaches, to test hypotheses that consider social and cognitive dimensions of dress in interpersonal situations.

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Note: A Preliminary form of this and the following two papers were originally presented in a post-conference workshop at the ITAA meeting in San Francisco, CA, 1991. AbstractIn this first part of a three-part series explaining fashion as a social process, a symbolic interactionist (SI) theory is presented to explain why appearance styles continue to emerge, be adopted and change. Unlike existing theories that tend to explain how a particular style diffuses through a social system, this theory draws on SI and extracts underlying concepts that, we propose, instigate and perpetuate changes in appearance styles: ambivalence, symbolic ambiguity, and negotiation. Five principles and associated theoretical statements are developed to explain fashion in general, followed by a more specific look at transitional cultural contexts, using the contemporary, U.S. context for the purpose of illustration.

Bridging theory and practice, this accessible text considers fashion from both cultural studies and fashion studies perspectives, and addresses the growing interaction between the two fields. Kaiser and Green use a wide range of cross-cultural case studies to explore how race, ethnicity, class, gender and other identities intersect and are produced through embodied fashion. Drawing on intersectionality in feminist theory and cultural studies, Fashion and Cultural Studies is essential reading for students and scholars. This revised edition includes updated case studies and two new chapters. The first new chapter explores religion, spirituality, and faith in relation to style, fashion, and dress. The second offers a critique of "beauty" and considers dressed embodiment inclusive of diverse sizes, shapes and dis/abilities. Throughout the text, Kaiser and Green use a range of examples to interrogate the complex entanglements of production, regulation, distribution, consumption, and subject formation within and through fashion.

A theoretical explanation of fashion change is offered, drawing upon symbolic‐interactionist insights on fashion and appearance, and developing macro‐micro connections between cultural ambivalence and the negotiation of meaning as inspired by symbolic ambiguity in appearances. The postmodern condition, connected with advanced capitalism, spawns cultural ambivalence and a plethora of clothing styles that emerge, in part, to clarify and lend expression to ambivalence. A broad variety of clothing styles, however, coupled with tendencies toward production of self, contribute to a high degree of ambiguity in individually constructed appearances, the meaning of which must then be collectively negotiated in social interaction. Failure of clothing styles to resolve cultural ambivalence results in fashion change in an ongoing dialectic.