Clothing Interest: Conceptualization and Measurement

Scientific inquiry in the area of clothing, while of long standing and involving some distin guished investigators, has been decidedly sporadic. The purpose of this study was to advance con ceptualization and measurement of clothing interest. An 89‐item clothing inventory, administered to 500 undergraduates in a clothing and textiles course, was factor analyzed in order to identify underlying dimensionality. Of eight interpretable factors, five were seen as central components of clothing interest: Concern with Personal Appearance, Experimenting with Appearance, Height ened Awareness of Clothes, Clothing as Enhancement of Security, and Clothing as Enhancement of Individuality. Three other dimensions, Conformity, Modesty, and Attention to Comfort, were interpreted by the authors as primarily personality variables and as more properly outside the do main of clothing interest, per se.