‘I just don't think I look right in a lot of modern clothes … ’: historically inspired dress as leisure dress

Some American science fiction and fantasy (SF&F) female fans participate in Cosplay or costume play, the global practice of dressing in costume and performing fictional characters from popular culture. Cosplay is typically only socially sanctioned at conventions and other fan events, leaving fans searching for new ways to express their fandom in everyday life. Closet cosplay is one solution in which everyday clothing and accessories can be worn to express fandom. The motivations for wearing everyday fan fashion have been only briefly mentioned by other authors or studied within limited social contexts. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to explore SF&F female fans' participation in closet cosplay as it is worn in everyday contexts. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted using a social interactionist perspective, and Sarah Thornton's concept of subcultural capital and Pierre Bourdieu's theory of cultural capital. Semi-structured, online interviews were conducted with sixteen participants who wore closet cosplay related to SF&F films and/or television series, which included Star Wars, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Disney films, Harry Potter and anime fandoms like Sailor Moon (1995‐2000). The interview data were analysed using NVivo qualitative analysis software and the constant comparison method. Two themes emerged from the data: the definition of closet cosplay and motivations for wearing closet cosplay. Through examining these themes, it was evident that female SF&F fans used closet cosplay to express a salient fan identity, which enabled them to simultaneously gain subcultural capital and feminized cultural capital.

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Closet cosplay: Everyday expressions of science fiction and fantasy fandom among women

Smith

Stannar

Kuttruff

2020

Fashion, Style &Amp; Popular Culture

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Fan fashion of multiple fandoms: An exploration of female science-fiction and fantasy fans’ dress practices

Smith

Stannard

Kuttruff

2021

Journal of Fandom Studies, The

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The purpose of this research was to explore the dress practices of females who wear fan fashion connected to multiple sci-fi/fantasy fandoms in a variety of everyday social contexts. Data from semi-structured, online interviews were analysed in relation to identity theory and the concept of appearance labour using NVivo qualitative analysis software and the constant comparison method. While the data revealed general motivations for wearing fan fashion, it also showed that participants expressed their fan identity across formal, semi-formal and professional settings through wearing fan fashion. Participants also alleviated appearance labour by carefully choosing specific types of fan fashion appropriate for certain social settings and audiences (i.e. conspicuous vs. inconspicuous). This research provided more insight into the trend of fan fashion and led to the development of a taxonomy in which types of fan fashion are classified in terms of their conspicuousness.

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A Pilot Study Investigating Motivations for Wearing Historically-Inspired Dress

Smith,

Martinez

2023

j fam consum sci

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A pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of the quantitative survey method in identifying common motivations for wearing historically-inspired dress and identifying differences in motivation between genders. A questionnaire was developed and used with 131 respondents, and Principal component factor analysis with varimax rotation was run to determine construct validity and if there were multiple constructs that can explain respondents' motivations for wearing an everyday historically-inspired dress style. Data also were analyzed using descriptive statistics and an independent samples t -test. The results suggested that the design of the instrument and sampling and data collection methods used in the pilot study must be adjusted to be feasible. Recommendations for future research include further scale development and increasing the pool of qualified research participants by reframing historically-inspired dress as HistoryBounding.

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‘I just don't think I look right in a lot of modern clothes … ’: historically inspired dress as leisure dress

Cited by 3 publications

References 17 publications

Closet cosplay: Everyday expressions of science fiction and fantasy fandom among women

Closet cosplay: Everyday expressions of science fiction and fantasy fandom among women

Fan fashion of multiple fandoms: An exploration of female science-fiction and fantasy fans’ dress practices

A Pilot Study Investigating Motivations for Wearing Historically-Inspired Dress

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