Pedagogy and Professional Development

Searching Apparel Online: What Words Do We Use?

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Abstract

Patterns of searching for apparel products online are important to examine to understand consumer behavior and to facilitate clear communication about apparel. The purpose of this study was to determine, when searching online, words commonly used for intrinsic construction features of apparel. The survey used included 12 pictures of primary garment construction features followed by the open-ended question: “You are searching for this specific clothing feature on Google as pictured above. What keywords would you use to find it?” After data collection was completed on Amazon Turk, the responses were analyzed the data for themes. Thirty-one trained sewers and 686 other participants completed the survey. Categories found were aesthetics (e.g., party, trendy),construction (e.g. sewing), color, fabrication (e.g. denim) and type of garment(e.g. dress). Further research includes developing, testing, and administering a multiple-choice survey developed from the results, and examining words associated with additional garment features.

Keywords: Word Searching, Construction, Google

How to Cite:

Saiki, D. & Stratton, T., (2020) “Searching Apparel Online: What Words Do We Use?”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 77(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/itaa.12224