• Journal of Fashion Business
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• v.17 no.5
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• pp.165-182
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• 2013

This study conducts a survey based on 425 Chinese females in their twenties to thirties in order to examine the relevance between the cognitions of appearance effectiveness, ideal appearance seeking behavior and clothing image preference which have effects on their self-identity and interpersonal relations. The results of this study are as follows ; First, from the factor analysis for cognition of appearance effectiveness, and ideal appearance seeking behavior, a total of 4 factors such as psychological benefits, social benefits factors, pursuit of plastic surgery and pursuit of beauty treatment are being were drawn. As a result, there are significant correlations between heights of demographic variables and the cognition of appearance effectiveness, together with the ideal appearance seeking behavior. Respondents with higher heights represent the higher cognitions of appearance effectiveness, while the respondents with lower heights show more pursuits of beauty treatment behavior to reach the ideal image. Second, factor analysis of the clothing images are 4 factors such as classic-trendy, natural-dynamic, casual-formal, and masculine-feminine images. There are significant correlations between the four factors from clothing preference images and four factors from the cognition of appearance effectiveness, and ideal appearance seeking behavior. This suggests that higher social status such as job, income, residential district, and age among the demographic factors has greater effects on the clothing image preference.