Menswear Research: 2009

Research module – Learning/understanding so far
I went through my notebook again, where I have been writing notes these past two months, and realized I have actually learnt quite a bit. When we worked on research projects in our BA level, we did do a lot of reading and collecting information, but what lacked was a methodology to do it. I understood the importance of literature review for any successful research. Often we just do research on superficial level, whenever we saw any link to our project, we put that in our research. But after learning about literature review, I actually started looking at the importance of article or literature I am reading – when it was written, the authenticity of it, if it is actually relevant information, basically to do an in depth analysis of key text. Doing all this, makes my method very precise and research specific. I know what I am doing is not just copy pasting information but actually sorting and sifting through it and taking only necessary part. Another thing that I have started plasticising is reading a lot of books on that particular topic. I used to read earlier too, but now I do it with a purpose. I go to Amazon, read reviews of the book, and then see if it is actually what I am looking for. Also this gives me other book titles which always help.

Doing literature review before and during every research also made me more confident about the project, if I am going on the right path or not, considering the relevance of information I have collected, or if I am just building hypothetical situations. It also made me see flaws in my research, like in my topic of “Is fashion limited/restrictive for men?”, I was fixed with the notion that not much development has happened in men’s fashion, but when I researched, looked at current fashion shows, read articles, asked people, I realized that actually quite a lot is being done in that area. And so then I looked again into the problem and rephrased my question to “To what extent are men receptive to fashion trends?” This explains in a better way my research interest. Though I am still not sure, if this is the correct question, I am still reading and researching on this to see if this is actually true.

Another thing that I learnt is the need to find out what already has been done in relation to one’s topic. Often, we just get fixated with our idea and overlook the possibility that other people might have already done it. It is important to know this so that one can improvise on what has been done, think logically & rationally if we are going in the right direction, to find the gap and not just re-invent the wheel. While doing this, I learnt new sources f for researching. One of them is blog, I never considered blogs before – just books, articles, interviews. Second source I found useful was videos. I always searched for photographs as they are important source for fashion designers but never videos. But now, I realized they also are quite good source for knowledge. This happened during our second technology project – Ambient Intelligence. I browsed through many videos and blogs, and it actually helped me quite a lot in that project.

Next, during Matt Marsh’s lecture, I realized how we artists/designers often forget our market while designing. We tend to do what we think is needed, right for the people, which in a way is right because that is how we bring any kind of change or revolution in the society. But also, sometimes it is important to know what actually is needed by the consumers, to find the gap, involve consumers in the process of designing and then come up with something which is actually a revolution. We need to make things real before they are real but at the same time should know to what extent we can visualize so that all that just doesn’t become hypothetical situation in the end. This also means we need to find out things, facts before doing and not just make assumptions.

I also learnt the concept of paradox – to learn to keep contradicting yourself at every step. This was very important for me because it helped me reflect on what I have done so far, and also to see if I missed anything. It also challenged me every time, because like I said in research project, I changed my topic after I realized I was going the wrong way. Again, I try to come up with questions related to my topic, if I am doing what I initially started , or if it is actually right what in am doing. It keeps me motivated and forces me to improve myself at every step. When I was researching on my topic, I started with mind map, branching out in all directions, but then I also wrote in big block letters, if what I am saying is actually true. That thought kept me going, to find if I was wrong, and that was how I still keep improving, narrowing down on my research topic.

Then I started my research methodology. I usually do it by writing my topic and then coming up with all the questions I could think are related to it. Then I find the way to answer each of these questions, and that is how I come up with my research strategy. While doing this, I realized I need not look into every resource available. I should plan my time line and accordingly decide which is the best method because doing everything even when not needed is waste of time and becomes irrelevant too. But then the question comes, how will I know if this is the best method to do it. I still have to figure that question!

To sum up I can say that, past two months one thing that I sure learnt was to always verify the information and see its authenticity and to make your research as defined as possible.