LibGuides: FASH 100 Introduction to the Fashion Industry: Researching Fashion Theory

Finding Background Information

Reference works are helpful for background information on your topic and often have bibliographies which will lead to other resources. The articles might help you develop your topic and identify search terms. You might research people and ideas connected to your fashion theory.

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
This database allows you to find encyclopedia articles from a variety of disciplines. For example, here is a link to an article From the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion about fashion theories. You might also research a fashion theory here or search for information about a person connected with that theory. George Mead is connected with the Symbolic Interaction theory. Here is an article about Mead found in the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Here is an article about Symbolic Interactionism, which forms the basis of that fashion theory.
Description: Gale EBOOKS is a collection of searchable subject encyclopedias and reference books from Gale Publishing and many other publishers.
Time Period: Current
Sources: Searches across nearly 500 reference sources.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Philosophy & Religion, Science, Social Sciences, Technology (Reference books)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Reference Resources
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent:
Publisher: Gale Group
Updates: Yearly
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited

Finding Articles

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Good all sorts of topics including fashion. Indexes some important fashion journals.
Description: Good database for most research topics and contains lots of full text, peer reviewed articles. More than 18,000 of the journal titles indexed are peer reviewed and almost all of the full text is. Provides searchable cited references for more than 1,000 journal titles so you can easily see what sources a given article cites.
Time Period: 1911 to present
Sources: Indexes nearly 18,000 journals and magazine and provides full text for more than 8,700.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Case Studies, Citations, Conference Papers, Images, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles, News, Other, Reviews
Information Included: Abstracts,Full Text,Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: Yes
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: EBSCO
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
Locate articles found in Women's Wear Daily and Time Magazine. Good for the business aspects of fashion. Although it searches across thousands of publications, searches can be limited a to a single publication. Look for the Publication box below the search boxes.
Note: This database includes the text of articles. Many of the articles include pdf text which will have the page number, making citation easier.
Description: Business Source Complete covers all disciplines of business, including marketing, management, accounting, banking, finance, and more.
Time Period: 1886 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 6,700 journals and magazines plus thousands of reports and other sources.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, News, Social Sciences (Accounting, Finance, Management, Business Education, Banking, Economics, Marketing, Computer Science)
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Case Studies, Citations, Conference Papers, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles, News, Other, Report, Reviews, Trade Publications
Information Included: Abstracts, Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: Yes
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: EBSCO
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Vogue Archive This link opens in a new window
Search and browse every issue of Vogue from 1892 to the previous month. Unlike the publisher's website, it provides unlimited subscription-free access.
Description: Browse and search Vogue magazine from 1892 to the present. Entire issues can be browsed from cover to cover.
Time Period: 1892 to Present
Sources:
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Humanities
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials:
Information Included: Full Text
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: Vogue
Publisher: ProQuest
Updates: Monthly
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited

NRF
The National Retail Federation website. Although this is not a library database, it is a reliable source for articles related to fashion.

OneSearch This link opens in a new window
Good for articles, books, and other resources. Tells you what is in our collections and where they are located. You can limit to peer reviewed articles, to books and other formats too. Put quotes around phrases and capitalize Boolean operators (e.g. AND, OR, NOT).
Description: OneSearch is a tool that cross searches much of the content our databases and other online sources. You can search across many collections in one search box simplifying the resource discovery process.
Time Period: 1600 to Present
Sources:
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Business, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Music, News, Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Science, Social Sciences, Technology
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations, Government Documents, Journal Articles, Books
Information Included: Abstracts, Full Text, Citations
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: ProQuest
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Mintel Reports This link opens in a new window
Good for information about fashion and consumers. Access studies of consumers which include demographics and psycographics.
Description: Mintel Reports provides access to reports on market sizes, market shares and forecasts, and consumer trends. Users will find primary consumer research that helps unraveling key trends, behavior, and attitudes. Reports cover consumer markets in the CPG/FMCG, financial services, media, retail, leisure and industrial space. Reports are primarily on the U.S. and U.K., some European and Asia reports are included. The database also includes analyst insight and news.
Time Period: Current
Sources: Contains approximately 800 reports.
Subject Headings: Business, Social Sciences (Consumer Behavior)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: News, Reports, Statistics or Data
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: Mintel
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
Indexes 15 fashion related journals. Here some examples of articles related to"Haute Couture" OR Fashion. Also good for fashion forecasting. You might do a search like "Fashion Forecasting" OR Color Forecasting.
Description: Art Index Full Text, a key database for art, provides full text articles from more than 300 titles. Of the 600 titles indexed, 280 are peer reviewed. The database also covers subjects such as interior design, costume design, architecture and landscape architecture. Art Index Full Text indexes titles back to 1984 and contains the full text of articles beginning in 1994.
Time Period: 1984 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 600 titles and contains full text articles from more than 300 periodicals.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Humanities, Mobile
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Abstracts, Citations, Dissertation and Theses, Journal Articles, Magazine Articles, Reviews, Trade Publications
Information Included: Abstracts, Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: Yes
Print Equivalent: none
Publisher: EBSCO
Updates: Daily
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Good for sociological aspect of a fashion topic or if the the theory has its origins in sociology.
Description: Sociological Abstracts provides access to U.S. and international literature on sociology and related disciplines and may be useful for research in social work and women and gender studies.
Time Period: 1952 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 1,800 journals.
Subject Headings: Philosophy & Religion, Psychology, Social Sciences (Sociology)
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Journal Articles, Dissertations and Theses, Books, Conference Papers
Information Included: Abstracts, Citations, Full Text
FindIt@BALL STATE: Yes
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: Cambridge Scientific Abstracts
Updates: Monthly
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited
APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new window
Good for sociological aspect of a fashion topic.
Description: PsycInfo is a key database in the field of psychology. Includes information of use to psychologists, students, and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, and education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.
Time Period: 1887 to present
Sources: Indexes more than 2,500 journals.
Subject Headings: Education, Mobile, Psychology, Social Sciences (Psychology)
Scholarly or Popular: Scholarly
Primary Materials: Journal Articles
Information Included: Abstracts, Citations, Linked Full Text
FindIt@BALL STATE: Yes
Print Equivalent: None
Publisher: American Psychological Association
Updates: Monthly
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited

Reference works are helpful for background information on your topic. See the sources below. You find information about the people and ideas connected to your fashion theory.

Finding Books

Use OneSearch to find all sorts of books and eBooks. To limit results to books, use the Content Type facet on the results list to limit to Book / eBook. When you search, couple broad terms with narrower terms.

Examples of broad terms:

"Fashion Industry" OR "Fashion Design" OR "Fashion Merchandising" OR "Clothing Trade" OR "Clothing and Dress" OR Dressmaking OR "Garment Cutting" OR "Fashion Designers"

Click here to perform that search.

Examples of narrower terms:

Modern OR Modernism OR Postmodern OR Post-modern OR "Post Modern" OR Post-postmodern OR "Bell Curve" OR Trickle-across OR "Innovation Theory" OR "Historic Resurrection" OR "Adoption and Diffusion" OR "Shifting Erogenous Zones"

Click here to perform that search.

Click here to perform both searches combine with AND.

Reference books are good for background information and often include a bibliography which will direct you to other sources, including articles. You might do an Advanced search and put the broader search terms listed above in the top box and put Encyclopedia OR Reference Work in the second box.

Here are a few examples of reference works which might be helpful

Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion
Here is a link to an article From the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion about fashion theories.
World Clothing and Fashion : An Encyclopedia of History, Culture, and Social Influence
This encyclopedia takes at clothing from a multicultural, social, and economic perspective and explores its history from prehistoric times to the present. Here is an article about fashion design
Ethnic Dress in the United States : A Cultural Encyclopedia
This encyclopedia has more than 150 articles about how articles from other countries have influenced U.S. fashion. Here's an article about the Dahshiki.

Gale eBooks This link opens in a new window
This database allows you to search more than 500 reference sources such as encyclopedias as well as many other eBooks. Here is a link to an article From the Encyclopedia of Clothing and Fashion about fashion theories.
Description: Gale EBOOKS is a collection of searchable subject encyclopedias and reference books from Gale Publishing and many other publishers.
Time Period: Current
Sources: Searches across nearly 500 reference sources.
Subject Headings: Art & Architecture, Education, English & Linguistics, General, Health, History, Humanities, Law, Philosophy & Religion, Science, Social Sciences, Technology (Reference books)
Scholarly or Popular: Semi-scholarly
Primary Materials: Reference Resources
Information Included: Full Text, Citations
FindIt@BALL STATE: No
Print Equivalent:
Publisher: Gale Group
Updates: Yearly
Number of Simultaneous Users: Unlimited