The study was designed to determine if attractive clothing had a more positive effect than unattractive clothing on a perceiver's impressions of the personal characteristics of the writer of an essay and the qualities of the essay. Perceivers who assigned high interest/importance to clothing were expected to favorably rate both personal characteristics of an attractively dressed writer and the essay. A negative relationship was anticipated between high clothing interest/importance scores and ratings of an unattractively dressed writer and the essay. A total of 160 college coeds were divided equally among 8 experimental treatments: interest ing/uninteresting essay, two writers, and attractive/unattractive clothing. Significantly higher ratings were found with attractive clothing for the 5 personal traits and for 4 of the 5 essay qualities. Significant positive correlations occurred between high clothing interest/importance scores and ratings of personal traits and essay qualities. No significant negative correlations occurred between any evaluative ratings and high clothing interest/importance scores.

The study was designed to investigate the effects on credibility ratings and stated intent to purchase of clothing worn by a message source in an advertising situation. Two levels of dress of the message source and two advertising situations were crossed to constitute a 2 x 2 factorial design. The subjects, 102 Black female consumers, were randomly assigned to the four experimental manipulations. Each subject evaluated one advertisement and rated her impression of the credibility of the person pictured in the advertisement and her intent to purchase the product advertised When the source was appropriately dressed for the task demonstrated in the advertisement and photographed in the appropriate situation, the subjects assigned significantly higher credibility and intent-to-purchase ratings than for any other dress-by-situation manipulation.

Generally, women's fashion magazines have not featured models over age 40 to communicate fashion messages to the older population. A counter‐balanced de sign was used to test whether age similarity between a message source (fashion model) and a message receiver (fashion consumer) would (1) affect consumers' attitudes toward fashion models and (2) influence consumers' purchase intent of fashion apparel. Respondent and model ages were the variables investigated. Respondents 46 and under were defined as younger (n = 48); respondents over 46 were older (n = 48). A pretest ascertained that models were perceived as younger (established at about 25 years) or older (close to 55 years). Using a ran domized plan, subjects completed two identical attitude measures (each with a photograph of either a younger or older model), a purchase intent measure and a demographic measure. The attitude questionnaire measured perceived age simi larity, source credibility and interpersonal attraction. Age similarity between older models and older consumers resulted in significant positive effects for source credibility and interpersonal attraction. Younger consumers evaluated older models higher than younger models on one dimension of credibility, but indi cated no other significant differences in attitudes toward younger or older models. Purchase intent was not affected by age similarity or dissimilarity.

Two fabrics, 100% cotton and 100% nylon, were abraded with Stoll (inflated diaphragm), Schiefer, and Accelerotor instruments. Fabrics were given nine levels of abrasion, ranging from slight distortion of the fabric surface to fabric rupture, with each type of instrument. After abrasion, selected physical properties of the fabrics were measured and microscopic studies were made to determine the types of fabric, yarn, and fiber damage caused by the three abraders.The Stoll abrader caused severe fabric damage at very low levels of abrasion because the abradant pressure was highly localized in the center of the abraded area. The Schiefer and Accelerotor instruments caused uniform abrasion over the entire areas and abrasive damage to the fabric structure built up more slowly than with the Stoll. Both the Accelerotor and the Schiefer were more sensitive to differences in fiber toughness than was the Stoll. An imbalance between warp and filling yarn crimps had a much greater effect on the rate of damage and point of attack for the two flat abrasion testers than it had on Accelerotor abrasion. The tumbling action of the Accelerotor caused the greatest increases in fabric thickness by shaking fiber ends loose from the yarn structure and then cutting or breaking them off more slowly than did the Stoll abrader.

The purpose of the study was to describe Dutch silks of the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Dutch and British research papers and transcribed sixteenth and seventeenth century trade documents were translated and critiqued. Selected museums and archives in the Netherlands, England, and the United States were visited. A descriptive chart was developed to record the motifs, colors, weaves, and other surface qualities of the 49 silks selected for analysis; line drawings and photographs were also made. The majority of silks had floral or plant motifs that were uniformly two dimensional in treatment. Most motifs were stylized, usually did not exceed 13.0 centimeters in length or width, and were isolated rather than connected units. Alternating rows of reversed designs (comber repeat) were most frequently found in the silks. Predominant hues were Munsell System Red, Yellow Red, Yellow, Green Yellow, Red Purple, and Black. Because only seven silks with seventeenth century documentation were accessible to the researcher, no general conclusions about their aesthetics or structure could be drawn.