Employing heritage in women's fashion design

Abstract

Research Summary:

Identifying clothing across the ages is a daunting task, whether through a society's outward appearance, its interaction with contemporary civilizations, or its attitudes toward them. The research includes a study of the development of traditional fashions and their types within the available cultural heritage. Clothing is used to highlight beauty, increase attractiveness, charm, and influence others. In some societies, it was also used to indicate the social status of individuals, with each class distinguished by its own clothing in terms of materials, colors, sewing methods, and wearing. It is no exaggeration to say that clothing is one of the most important material cultural elements and one of the best indicators of a society's status, conditions, and circumstances. The research includes a study of traditional fashions across the ages and the influence of Iraqi cultural heritage on modern Iraqi fashions, particularly Babylonian and Assyrian, in addition to Arab-Islamic fashions. The research also includes the derivation or design of fashions inspired by these traditional fashions. The research includes fashions produced by an Iraqi fashion house inspired by traditional fashions, their modifications, and the addition of some artistic additions, resulting in the production of advanced models with a civilized and contemporary character.

Based on the above, the research resulted in the following question:

Does the use of traditional heritage play an important role that reflects a civilized image on women's fashion designs? The current research aims to employ traditional heritage in women's fashion design.

The researcher followed the descriptive analytical approach, as it is the closest to achieving the desired goal of the research. The research community consists of heritage sources for Iraqi fashion design in the ancient Iraqi civilization, which were employed in women's fashion designs at the Iraqi Fashion House. These sources comprised (25) samples. The researcher intentionally selected four samples, some of which were duplicated and others had been severely damaged.

The research yielded a set of results:

1. Drawing from natural resources appeared to be the primary source of fashion design from ancient Iraqi civilizations.