The observed similarity in the clothing and appearance of adolescents from the same school led to the hypothesis that awareness of and conformity to the modal pattern of dress would be associated with social acceptance by peers. Filmed observations of the clothing of 121 boys and 110 girls from a high school sophomore class and reactions from a questionnaire concerning what “most were wearing” were analyzed and related to general peer acceptance. Significant positive relationships were found to exist between awareness of and conformity to the clothing mode and peer acceptance. Awareness of the mode and conformity to the mode were significantly related to each other. These findings indicate that clothing and adornment may serve a strategic function in the socialization of high school students.

The personal attractiveness of 228 high school students and the attractiveness of their clothing, as assessed by college student observers, were related to awareness of, and conformity to, the modal dress, to various types of peer acceptance, to participation in high school ac tivities, and to leadership potential. Significant correlation coefficients indicated that attrac tive students generally wore attractive clothing, and were aware of, and conformed to, the modal dress. The attractive students were also more likely to be accepted by their peers, to be selected for important roles in the high school situation, and to be more active in school ac tivities than students assessed as less attractive.

Comparisons of the body proportions of the Greek ideal of female beauty with mean body propor tions of fashion figures of costume silhouette periods, 1840 through 1940, revealed that fashion illustrators in general have not adhered to the Greek ideal over time. In addition, comparisons of mean body proportions as well as the popular types of hair styles, face shapes, and shoulder slopes of sketched figures from three periods of stable costume silhouettes and two periods of transition from one silhouette to another revealed that the mean body proportions and the popularity of specific types of features changed during both.

The interrelationships between four clothing variables (clothing mode awareness, clothing mode conformity, prestige clothing, clothing attractiveness) and three measures of leadership (representational leadership, organizational leadership, composite leadership) were investi gated. The data were collected from a population consisting of the sophomore class of a cen tral Michigan high school containing 119 boys and 109 girls. Correlation coefficients and multiple regression were the major forms of statistical analyses used to determine the interrela tionships between the variables and to identify the clothing variables which were significant in explaining variation in leadership. Clothing attractiveness and clothing mode awareness were both significant in explaining variation in leadership, but clothing mode conformity was not.