International Journal of Education & the Arts

Citation: Bernardoni, J.M. (2024). Exploring the effectiveness of social psychological theories of dress in costume design education. International Journal of Education & the Arts, 25(si2.2). http://doi.org/10.26209/ijea25si2.2

The purpose of this research was to explore the effectiveness of integrating social psychological theories of dress into a costume design curriculum. A semester-long prototype course was developed that focused on the role of dress in social interaction, self-expression, and identity formation. The prototype course covered concepts such as dramaturgical theory, social interactionism, gender, self-expression, and identity construction. The students were encouraged to use critical thinking skills to apply these theories in their costume design work. Using a mixed-method approach, data were collected through an online questionnaire consisting of open-ended and Likert scaled questions collected from five costume design students who completed the pilot theory course in the of spring 2022. Findings indicated that students valued learning social psychological theories related to dress practices and found the course helpful in informing their design decisions by widening their understanding of the social and cultural significance of dress and costume. Despite the limitations of the small sample size, this study highlights the importance of providing theoretical frameworks to students to inform design decisions and to demonstrate the practical use of theory in real-world scenarios. This study adds to the literature on costume and fashion design pedagogy and provides a preliminary framework to educators to include theoretical perspectives to design curricula.