A Pilot Study Investigating Motivations for Wearing Historically-Inspired Dress

Abstract

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.