ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
END OF AWARD REPORT

For awards ending on or after 1 November 2009

This End of Award Report should be completed and submitted using the grant reference as the email subject, to reportsofficer@esrc.ac.uk on or before the due date.

The final instalment of the grant will not be paid until an End of Award Report is completed in full and accepted by ESRC.
Grant holders whose End of Award Report is overdue or incomplete will not be eligible for further ESRC funding until the Report is accepted. ESRC reserves the right to recover a sum of the expenditure incurred on the grant if the End of Award Report is overdue. (Please see Section 5 of the ESRC Research Funding Guide for details.)

Please refer to the Guidance notes when completing this End of Award Report. 

Grant Reference	RES- 000-22-2079	
Grant Title	Clothing, age and the body	
Grant Start Date	August 1 2007	Total Amount Expended:	£ 83, 097	
Grant End Date	July 31 2010			
Grant holding Institution	University of Kent	
Grant Holder	Professor Julia Twigg	
Grant Holder’s Contact Details	Address	Email	
	SSPSSR
University of Kent
Canterbury CT2 7NF	j.m.twigg@kent.ac.uk	
		Telephone	
		01227 827539	
Co-Investigators (as per project application):	Institution	

		

1. NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY

Please provide below a project summary written in non-technical language. The summary may be used by ESRC to publicise your work and should explain the aims and findings of the project. [Max 250 words]

The study explores the changing nature of later years, focussing on the role of clothing and dress, explored from the perspective of both older women (55+) and media and retailers who make up the Fashion System. It addresses questions of consumption and the reconstitution of age, as well as the role of embodiment in the experience and presentation of ageing. Age ordering in dress persists, though its intensity and character has changed, found less in static prescriptions than in dynamic processes, with styles diffusing from younger to older age groups, displacing the earlier pattern based in class. Dress acts to integrate older women into the mainstream through engagement with consumption. The driver, however, is less the changing cultural location of older people, than shifts in material production resulting from the influx of mass cheap clothing. This has produced an intensification of the fashion cycle, and a search for new markets, with the bodies of older women increasingly colonised by the idea of fashionability. Though this can be interpreted in terms of the greater cultural endorsement of older women, offering new engagement with the mainstream, it also imposes new requirements in the form of the disciplinary practices of normative femininity. Magazines, and related media, use fashion/dress to present a distinctive discursive construction of later years. Up beat and celebrationist, they suggest how consumption might be used to assert the worth of older readers, offering older women ways of operating more successfully in ageist culture, at same time as endorsing strongly conservative messages. 

2. PROJECT OVERVIEW

a) Objectives
Please state the aims and objectives of your project as outlined in your proposal to the ESRC. [Max 200 words]

-	 contribute to theoretical debates concerning the body and ageing, exploring the role of clothing in mediating the construction of age at individual and cultural level

-	establish how far clothing acts as an instrument of age ordering, how cultural expectations translate into clothing norms, testing hypotheses concerning the degree to which traditional structures of meaning are being disrupted, reversed and resisted. 

-	explore clothing as an aspect of material culture and narrative of identity 

-	 address questions of gender and age

-	examine the changing ways in which the fashion/clothing system constructs and relates to older women. It will provide findings in relation to the market for clothing among older women, and the potential mismatch between the views of older consumers and dominant patterns of provision.

-	 consolidate the development of cultural gerontology as a field, bringing new themes and theorising to it. 

-	will provide evidence about a previously understudied group in the form of older women not in the context of frailty or dependence

-	extend the remit of cultural studies, fashion theory and media work to encompass age.

-	contribute to debates around the changing meaning of age within modern culture both within the academy and beyond. 
-	Widen the context in which policy for older people is discussed. 	

b) Project Changes
Please describe any changes made to the original aims and objectives, and confirm that these were agreed with the ESRC.  Please also detail any changes to the grant holder’s institutional affiliation, project staffing or funding. [Max 200 words]

	

c) Methodology
Please describe the methodology that you employed in the project. Please also note any ethical issues that arose during the course of the work, the effects of this and any action taken. [Max. 500 words]

The study was based on qualitative interviews with older women, representatives of the Fashion System - designers, manufacturers, journalists - and fieldwork and magazine content analysis.

Recruitment of sample of older women was through a variety of routes to reduce bias, included: local paper; press release by university; local organisations, community associations, WI, residents club for older people in low income area; personal contacts.

Sample (20) was selected to balance factors relevant to the research: age (10 55-75, 10 75+), partnered (10 partnered, 10 not), socio-economic status (7 low income/working class, 13x more prosperous), working or not (2xworking, 18 not though including those involved in voluntary work).  

The study deployed photographic methods. Two respondents declined to be photographed; and one decided that she did not want her picture used in public presentations. At the initial stage, respondents were offered the opportunity to have their faces blanked out to maintain anonymity. This was rejected, and the option dropped. Prior to the interview each respondent was asked to select an outfit that she liked and felt expressed her identity. Pictures were also taken of items of clothing selected from the wardrobe. The aim was to reflect the concrete reality of dress, and to ground the respondents’ comments in these. 

In addition, three respondents were selected to additional biographical narrative interviews in order to explore clothing through the life. These have been the subject of an article.

Four interviews were conducted with magazine/fashion editors, together with content analysis of the magazines. Three - Woman & Home, SAGA and Yours - were selected on the basis of BRAD data on age and social class of readership. The focus was on how fashion is integrated into magazines aimed at older market. This has been the basis of an article. Vogue was selected as UK premier fashion magazine. In this case, the focus was on how age was managed in a magazine centred around fashion. In the case of Vogue, a small sub-study was added, contrasting the treatment of age in the 1950/1960s with now. This entailed content analysis of earlier magazines and a systematic study of all covers from 1948-2009. This formed the basis of a journal article.

Interviews were undertaken with 11 representatives of the clothing industry. These ranged from high street staples like M&S, where the Head of Women’s wear was interviewed, to companies specialising in the older market such as Viyella and Edinburgh Woollen Mill, where designers and production people were interviewed. A supermarket chain, GEORGE at ASDA, represented the value end of the market; and Jaeger the more expensive end of the high street. A designer of a small collection aimed at older women was interviewed. An interview was undertaken with an expert on sizing to explore the interaction of clothing, cut and age. Photographic fieldwork was undertaken in shops.

The study was enhanced by additional, parallel study, not funded by ESRC, looking at changing patterns of spending by older women on clothing 1961-2006, using Family Expenditure Survey data. 

d) Project Findings
Please summarise the findings of the project, referring where appropriate to outputs recorded on ESRC Society Today. Any future research plans should also be identified. [Max 500 words]
Age ordering in dress persists, though its intensity and character has changed. It is found less in static prescriptions than in dynamic processes. Among these is the pattern whereby styles diffuse from younger to older age groups, displacing the earlier pattern based in class. 

Clothing and dress do act to integrate older women into the mainstream through engagement with consumption. The driver for this, however, is not only the changing cultural location of older people, than shifts in material production resulting the influx in the late nineties and early twenty first century of mass cheap clothing. This has produced an intensification of the fashion cycle, and a search for new markets, with the bodies of older women increasingly colonised by the idea of fashionability.  

Though the extension of fashionability can be interpreted in terms of the greater cultural endorsement of older women, offering new forms of engagement with the mainstream, it also represents an imposition of new requirements to meet the disciplinary practices of normative femininity, and with this new threats of exclusion based around bodily appearance.

Clothing can also play a part in how ageism is naturalised in bodies. As Entwistle asserts, clothes are ideological; and some of the drabness associated with older people’s dress is a product of their wider social and economic position that itself reflects systematic ageism, as the Political Economy School earlier argued. The enforced invisibility of toned down dress, the traditional avoidance of showy, bright styles are part of this. Evidence from the interviews with older women and fashion retailers, however, testified to a shift that is occurring with older women increasingly choosing bright colours and strong prints. This was more marked among the younger old group and was linked - particularly in the minds of retailers - with a new sense of assertiveness associated with the experience of employment.

Magazines, and related media, do use fashion/dress to present a distinctive discursive construction of later years. Up beat and celebrationist, they suggest how consumption might be used to assert the worth of older readers, offering older women ways of operating more successfully in ageist culture. At same time, they contain strongly escapist elements, presenting an idealized, aspirational world that allows older women to escape from the day to day limitations of their lives, sending conservative messages to older women about the meaning of their lives and situations.

Further work: the research has acted as springboard for the development of work on clothing in relation to frail populations: PI currently has application for study of Dementia and Dress; further work is planned on the management of hair in old age. There is the possibility of a parallel study around masculinity, age and dress. Further work around consumption is also planned. Finally the study feeds into a larger project on The Embodiment of Age, which it is hoped will the focus of major book, subsequent to the book based on the ESRC project to be published by Berg.

e) Contributions to wider ESRC initiatives (eg Research Programmes or Networks)
If your project was part of a wider ESRC initiative, please describe your contributions to the initiative’s objectives and activities and note any effect on your project resulting from participation. [Max. 200 words]

	

3. EARLY AND ANTICIPATED IMPACTS

a) Summary of Impacts to date 
Please summarise any impacts of the project to date, referring where appropriate to associated outputs recorded on ESRC Society Today. This should include both scientific impacts (relevant to the academic community) and economic and societal impacts (relevant to broader society). The impact can be relevant to any organisation, community or individual. [Max. 400 words]

Academic presentations: the work has been presented in the UK at universities of: Leeds (Visual Sociology); Reading (BSA study group, twice ); Brighton; Bradford (Dementia group); Cheltenham (AHRC media conference); Birkbeck (ageing seminar); Warwick (Social History Conference); Cardiff (BSA); Newcastle; London (BSA Biography group); Manchester (CRESC); Brunel (BSG plenary).
 
Internationally work presented at universities of: Barcelona (ISA); Lleida (Cultural Gerontology); Helsinki; Gothenberg (ISA); Copenhagen (IARU congress). It will be presented at University of Roskilda in December, and at IAGG in Bologna in April 2011.

Media dissemination: interim press release of the findings resulted in: two features on BBC TV South East; article in Daily Mail (17.3.10) and on line (16.3.10); on line (Stylist, Secretsales); Information (Danish daily paper) 6.10.10

Theatre: research was subject of theatre production, Qualia as part of ESRC Festival of Social Science, Bristol Old Vic.

Policy impact: the research will be featured by think tank International Longevity Centre UK, Older Consumers, 23.11.10.

A website has been established dedicated to this and related projects:  www.clothingandage.org

Links made as result of the research: 
-	Royal College of Art: working with colleagues in the Helen Hamlyn Centre on future work with the fashion industry including possible ESRC seminar bid. PA has become judge for Include biennial award by RCA.
-	London College of Fashion: PA was invited to External Examiner for two PhDs on design and  further links are anticipated
-	Design for Ageing Well: NDA project, University of Newport. PA invited to contribute to publication.
-	design schools at University of Lancaster (working with Dr Candy) and Alto University, Helsinki (working with Dr Ilanten)
Academic Publications 
J. Twigg (2010) ‘Clothing, identity and the embodiment of age’, in J. Powell and T. Gilbert (eds) Aging and Identity: A Dialogue with Postmodernism New York: Nova Science Publishers, 
J. Twigg (2010) ‘How does Vogue negotiate age?: fashion, the body and age’ Fashion Theory,2010, 14, 4, 471-90
J. Twigg (2009) ‘Clothing, Ageing and Me – Routes to Research’, Journal of Aging Studies, 22, 2, 1 

Forthcoming
J. Twigg (2011 forthcoming) Fashion and age: the role of women’s magazines in the constitution of aged identities’ in V. Ylanne (ed) Representing Ageing: Image and Identity, London: Routledge 
J. Twigg (2011 forthcoming) ‘Dress and the narration of life: women’s reflections on clothing and age’ in  Sparkes. A. (ed) Auto/Biography Yearbook 2010. Nottingham: Russell Press, 2010

b) Anticipated/Potential Future Impacts
Please outline any anticipated or potential impacts (scientific or economic and societal) that you believe your project might have in future. [Max. 200 words]

Future publications
Fashion and Age: Dress, the Body and Later Life, Oxford: Berg, forthcoming 2011/12

 ‘The Embodiment of Age or Why do clothes matter to social gerontology?’ to be offered to Journal of Aging Studies.

‘How does the High Street conceptualise age?’ to be offered to Ageing & Society

An edited book Handbook of Cultural Gerontology is being negotiated with Routledge

Future dissemination: work is underway with RCA Helen Hamlyn Centre, Dr Jo Anne Bichard, on seminar series, possibly cross research council, drawing in people from the fashion industry and academia to address questions of clothing, design and age. Respondents in the Fashion System from the study have already expressed interest in taking part. 

New research around embodiment and age: PA currently has an application for research on Dementia and Dress. Work around hair and the older people that would draw on the ESRC study is also planned.	

You will be asked to complete an ESRC Impact Report 12 months after the end date of your award. The Impact Report will ask for details of any impacts that have arisen since the completion of the End of Award Report.

4. DECLARATIONS
Please ensure that sections A, B and C below are completed and signed by the appropriate individuals. The End of Award Report will not be accepted unless all sections are signed.
Please note hard copies are NOT required; electronic signatures are accepted and should be used.
A: To be completed by Grant Holder
Please read the following statements. Tick ONE statement under ii) and iii), then sign with an electronic signature at the end of the section.
i) The Project
This Report is an accurate overview of the project, its findings and impacts. All co-investigators named in the proposal to ESRC or appointed subsequently have seen and approved the Report.	x	

ii) Submissions to ESRC Society Today
Output and impact information has been submitted to ESRC Society Today.  Details of any future outputs and impacts will be submitted as soon as they become available.
OR
This grant has not yet produced any outputs or impacts. Details of any future outputs and impacts will be submitted to ESRC Society Today as soon as they become available.
OR
This grant is not listed on ESRC Society Today.	x

	

iii) Submission of Datasets
Datasets arising from this grant have been offered for deposit with the Economic and Social Data Service.
OR
Datasets that were anticipated in the grant proposal have not been produced and the Economic and Social Data Service has been notified.
OR
No datasets were proposed or produced from this grant. 	x

	

SIGNATURE:

NAME:								DATE:	

B: To be completed by Head of Department, School or Faculty

Please read the statement below then sign with an electronic signature to confirm your agreement.

This Report is an accurate overview of the project, its findings and impacts.

SIGNATURE:
NAME:
POSITION: 							DATE:	

C: To be completed by Finance Officer of Grant-Holding Research Organisation 

Please read the statement below then sign with an electronic signature to confirm your agreement.

ESRC funds have been used in accordance with the ESRC Research Funding Guide. All investigators named in the proposal to ESRC or appointed subsequently have seen and approved the Report.

SIGNATURE:
NAME:
POSITION: 							DATE: