Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2008 Communicating Through Clothing: The Meaning of Clothing Among Hispanic Women of Different Levels of Acculturation Maria Gracia Inglessis Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF COMMUNICATION COMMUNICATING THROUGH CLOTHING: THE MEANING OF CLOTHING AMONG HISPANIC WOMEN OF DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ACCULTURATION By MARIA GRACIA INGLESSIS A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Degree Awarded: Summer Semester, 2008 The members of the Committee approve the Dissertation of Maria Gracia Inglessis defended on April 11, 2008. __________________________ Felipe Korzenny Professor Directing Dissertation __________________________ Leisa Flynn Outside Committee Member __________________________ Stephen D. McDowell Committee Member __________________________ John K. Mayo Committee Member Approved: _____________________ Stephen D. McDowell, Chair, Department of Communication _____________________ John K. Mayo, Dean, College of Communication The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all I want to thank my committee members Felipe Korzenny, Ph.D., Stephen McDowell, Ph.D., John Mayo, Ph.D., and Leisa Flynn, Ph.D. They all gave me guidance, support, and motivation to complete this work. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Felipe Korzenny for his invaluable direction, generosity, and joyful spirit. I am also grateful to Dr. Betty-Ann Korzenny for her precious advice and encouragement. I would also like to express my deepest gratitude to my friends Holly McGavock, Yarma Velazquez, Youngrak Park, Monwipa Wongrujira, Livingston White, Seung Jin Lee, Mihaela Nocasian, David Fermin, Ramin Yazdanpanah, Ian Weir, Gail Palo, Sam Chen, Daniel Gutierrez, Elias Taravay, Stefano Gramitto, Angel Jimenez, Naida Saavedra, Jacobo Myerston, Eugene Alper and many others, for their company, patience, love, inspiration, and support. I also would like to express my thanks to the Hispanic women who received me warmly in their houses and shared with me the stories that made this work possible. I would like to express my infinite gratitude to my family. I thank my parents Ana B. and John for their wisdom, love and endless support. I thank my brothers, sisters, nephews and nieces for their love and joy. Finally I would like to thank God. I dedicate this work to my grandfather and the two of my grandmothers- the greatest dressmakers. And…. to Uncle. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures……………………………………………………………………….……ix Abstract ……………………………………………………………………………..……x CHAPTER 1. THE MEANING OF CLOTHING ............................................................1 Scope of the study ...........................................................................................................2 Significance of the study .................................................................................................3 Organization of the study ................................................................................................4 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 7 Basic functions of clothing ..............................................................................................8 Social-psychological and cultural functions of fashion ..................................................10 Clothing as communication 11 The diffusion of fashion 18 Clothing and culture 25 Acculturation 29 Research questions 37 Anticipations 39 Guide for sensitizing concepts, definitions, and terms 42 CHAPTER 3. METHODOLOGY .................................................................................44 Qualitative inquiry.........................................................................................................44 Sampling.......................................................................................................................46 Data collection. .............................................................................................................51 Data analysis and interpretation 54 Reporting the findings 57 Who were these 10 women? 58 CHAPTER 4. LEARNING WHAT TO WEAR ............................................................75 Introduction...................................................................................................................74 The prevalence of Hispanic values.................................................................................76 Mothers and early influences.........................................................................................77 The influence of institutions ..........................................................................................88 Acculturation. New norms and behaviors to learn..........................................................95 Summary and conclusion.............................................................................................105 CHAPTER 5. COMMUNICATING IDENTITY.........................................................110 Introduction.................................................................................................................110 Feeling girly. ...............................................................................................................112 Being young................................................................................................................120 Being Hispanic............................................................................................................123 Communicating achievement.......................................................................................124 Summary and Conclusion............................................................................................126 iv CHAPTER 6. DECIDING WHAT TO WEAR. ROLES AND STRATEGIES.............134 Introduction.................................................................................................................134 Playing roles. Communicating parts of identity ...........................................................135 The audience ...............................................................................................................142 Strategies to create roles ..............................................................................................145 How do I feel? The influence of mood.........................................................................152 Summary and Conclusion............................................................................................154 CHAPTER 7. DECIDING WHAT TO BUY. SOURCES OF INFLUENCE AND DECISION-MAKING.................................................................................................163 Introduction.................................................................................................................165 Sources of influence ....................................................................................................165 Clothing choice criteria ...............................................................................................185 Shopping and decision making ....................................................................................195 Summary and conclusion.............................................................................................203 CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS, AND FUTURE STUDIES...............213 APPENDIX A. SCREENER .......................................................................................234 APPENDIX B. INTERVIEWS REFERENCES...........................................................236 APPENDIX C. INTERVIEW GUIDE 237 APPENDIX D. OBSERVATIONS GUIDE 241 APPENDIX E. APPROVAL LETTER AND INFORMED CONSENT FORM 242 APPENDIX F. IMPLICATIONS FOR MARKETERS. RECOMMENDATIONS.......245 REFERENCES............................................................................................................258 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Acculturation strategies and segments. ...........................................................31 Figure 2. Research conceptual map................................................................................37 Figure 3. Research design..............................................................................................56 vi ABSTRACT This dissertation is an exploration of how Hispanic women of different levels of acculturation communicate their individual, social and cultural identities through clothing and appearance. The purpose of this study is to help understand the way in which clothes, as objects, embody deeper cultural values, and how the meanings assigned to them are socially constructed and diffused in a bicultural context. This dissertation employs a cross-disciplinary theoretical perspective, bringing together concepts from social- psychology, symbolic interactionism, symbolic consumption, diffusion of innovation, and acculturation theories. Following the exploratory nature of this study, in-depth interviews and observations were employed to systematically examine the experiences of ten Hispanic women living in the United States. The study demonstrates that, when it comes to clothing and appearance, Hispanic women have more commonalities than differences. Hispanic women --regardless of the level of acculturation— retain over time a