Fashioning the American Debutante in the Black Culture:
Qualitative Study of Dress & the Body
Statement of the Problem
There are multiple gaps in the study of the American debutante's experience through dress and how it impacts her image-making process, as well as the objects of dress involved. This historical and cultural documentation is necessary to build the foundation for collecting, archiving, and exhibiting debutante history and culture in both local and national institutions (Featherstone, 2000). In the area of archiving and collecting, this information will put into focus what debutante objects and ephemera should be collected from communities to document and share historically and culturally accurate stories to educate those with little to no knowledge of the subject (Matassa, 2011).
In the empirical and conceptual literature on this topic, several published works address dress and the body. These publications focus on the overall experience and historical and cultural background through qualitative interviews and ethnographic research but do not include an in-depth study of dress. The work of Escalas (1993), Harrison (1997), and Cole (2010) set a standard for a semi-structured feminist interviewing style to continue research on the former and current debutantes in Black communities. This research will address the gaps in the literature that provide information about culturally diverse or non-white debutantes and contribute to the phenomenological study of dress and the body of young women (and men) involved and how they used these social groups to uplift themselves and their communities (Lynch, 1999; Ballard, 2020).
This research is important as it contributes to areas of gender and women’s studies, cultural phenomena, and studies of class and societal norms. The findings will better inform the researcher and the reader about fashion objects used to create meaning in the performance of the debutante dress.
Purpose Statement
This research seeks to understand and document the experience of the American debutante and how these experiences influence image-making, in Black communities. The purpose of this work is to document this image-making process through dress (fashion, hair, and beauty) and all the ephemeral objects that American debutantes interact with. The data collected and analyzed in the study will contribute to the overall historical, image-making, and material culture documentation of the American debutante across diverse communities and cultures. This research will critique the practices of debutante groups and the impact (positive or negative) that it has on the youth and community involved. The findings will directly impact historically Black debutante groups that have existed for decades, building archives for them directly and in community institutions, as well as better inform new groups being formed in the 21st century.
Research Questions
Research Question 1:
What is the experience of the American debutante in dress and image-making in Black communities?
Research Question 2:
How have the material culture objects of dress of American debutantes in Black communities changed throughout the mid-20th to early 21st centuries?
The first question identifies the experiences, qualitatively through a series of interviews with former and current debutantes, while the second question analyzes the experience through the objects involved historically and culturally.
Subjectivities Statement
I come to this research as a member of the community, as former debutante and cotillion dress designer. I share many of the same experiences and identities as the current and former debutantes I have interacted with in my research. Although I am from a small community where I was part of a historically Black debutante organization, my time away has helped to distance me from the same worldviews as the majority of my participants, while my personal memories and professional and academic experience guide some of the research pathways. Recent practice in qualitative research helps to distance myself from the participants enough to probe and uncover details about the experience and objects involved. The unique perspective I bring to this study includes my personal past experience as a debutante (and memories of etiquette training in dress), my undergraduate scholarship in fashion studies and design, my graduate scholarship in charm schools, and my professional experience in fashion and cultural studies. This unique combination informs my research by providing a foundation to discuss dress and parts of dress from a technical and cultural perspective through the lens of the Black diaspora, and gender.
Description of Theoretical Perspective
The broad paradigm that supports this research design is phenomenology, focusing on the body and objects.
The theoretical perspective of phenomenology, following Marilyn DeLong’s (1998) apparel-body construct theory and framework, supports this study and research design. Components of DeLong’s (1998) theoretical framework consist of form (the clothed body), the viewer (the body), and context.
Phenomenology and the apparel-body construct theory assume that it is the first-hand personal experience that creates meaning and informs a qualitative understanding of cultural phenomena (Woodruff, 2018).
These assumptions will be translated into the research strategy and methodology by focusing on recorded and transcribed individual interviews, providing a first-hand account of their experience with dress.
Methodological Statement
The research design that best supports the purpose statement and research questions includes
1) Literature Review: Review of literary sources that include historical and cultural information about dress and existing published qualitative research about American debutante organizations.
2) Historical Background Research: Compile a list of historically Black debutante organizations in three major cities in Georgia and conduct historical research on each.
3) Interviews: Conduct semi-structured qualitative interviews with each selected group. These interviews would include current and former debutantes, as well as advisors and any images the participants would like to share.
4) Analysis: using the existing literature, historical background, and interviews to understand the experiences of dress, material culture objects involved, and see the changes in dress and the body over time within each organization.
This approach and use of existing literature and historical background will set the foundation for collecting and analyzing new data. The semi-structured interviews will allow for flexibility and new questions to probe deeper for more information (Ruslin, et. al., 2022). This methodology supports the relationship the researcher is seeking by establishing trust and a partnership with the participants to their oral histories and material culture objects to add to and or create historical and cultural collections for their individual organizations, local institutions, and national archives.
References
Ballard, H. D. (2020). “Foundations and Beginnings”: W.E.B. Du Bois Posing as a Dandy. Fashion Theory, 24(4), 471–497. https://doi.org/10.1080/1362704X.2020.1746505
Cole, A. (2010). 10. Making a debut: myths, memories and mimesis. Passionate histories: myth, memory and Indigenous Australia/edited by Frances Peters-Little, 205-2.
Delong, M. R. (1998). Chapter 1: Your Aesthetic Response. In The Way we Look 2nd edition: Dress and Aesthetics (pp. 1–24). essay, Fairchild Publications, Inc.
Escalas, J. E. (1993). The Consumption of Insignificant Rituals: A Look at Debutante Balls. Advances in Consumer Research, 20(1), 709–716.
Featherstone, M. (2000). Archiving cultures. British Journal of Sociology, 51(1), 161–184. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-4446.2000.00161.x
Harrison, L. (1997). `It’s a Nice Day for a White Wedding’: The Debutante Ball and Constructions of Femininity. Feminism & Psychology, 7(4), 495-516. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959353597074004
Lynch, A. (1999). Dress, gender and cultural change: Asian American and African American rites of Passage. Berg.
Matassa, F. (2011). Museum Collections Management: A Handbook. Facet Publishing.
Ruslin, et. al. (2022). "Semi-structured Interview: A Methodological Reflection on the Development of a Qualitative Research Instrument in Educational Studies." IOSR Journal of Research & Method in Education. (pp. 22-29). DOI: 10.9790/7388-1201052229
Woodruff, D.S. 2018. Phenomenology. In The Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy, edited by E. N. Zalta. https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2018/entries/phenomenology/. Accessed November 4, 2024.