Women’s skirts and their meanings for women with different religions

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to understand the social meaning of skirt consumption in the 21st century for women of different religions. Therefore, the theoretical foundation includes the theory of fashion, exploring its concepts and its history, understanding it as a cultural phenomenon that reflects society and its characteristics in each time. A brief history of how the female skirt and its meanings have been changed over time was presented, mainly analyzing its influences and roles in society. As for the methodological procedures, this is a qualitative, descriptive and cross-sectional research. For data collection in the first stage, 13 semi-structured interviews were carried out, which were complemented by photos of the looks of the day, recorded over 10 days by the interviewees, thus allowing the analysis of how women used these skirts. Starting from the importance of social interaction for the construction of the meanings of consumption that are socially shared. For data analysis, categorical content analysis was used. As main results, nine main meanings attributed to the consumption of female skirts stand out, namely: feminine expression; elegance; religiosity; socialization and belonging; seduction; shame; comfort; versatility and vulnerability.