2011-2016

IN THE WARDROBE: WOMEN, CLOTHES AND AGEING: P11-0353:1
My research deals with older women's choice of garments and style, with the purpose of exploring cultural concepts and notions on ageing, norms on what is seen as appropriate dress depending on age and on bodily changes as ageing.
I have interviewed 21 women. The youngest is 62 years old, the oldest are 94. The age range of the sample enables investigating how chronology, health, body, strength and coping are intertwined with generational and cohort belonging as well as with place and stage in the life course. Depending on situation and context old age can be used as a resource that entails maturity and experience, but also to express that the women do not see themselves as old, but see themselves as still young at heart.
This has been highlighted by the project, as well as issues of change and continuity when it comes to everyday life, roles, health, body and style. I have been interested in how the informants talked about transitions and continuity - how they talked about ageing. Some contexts and situations aroused in them a sense of old age, while other experiences emphasized a sense of continuity and an inner age that had not changed to the same degree as the body with its various signs of ageing.
The main selection criterion was thus age belonging, but issues of social class were also taken into account in the analyses. Class differences accumulate over the lifespan. This is also important for consumption. Could the informants afford new garments or were they referred to sales or thrift stores? Many described themselves as frustrated consumers. They found that most of what is on supply targets young people, with a style that exposes a body that has changed with age.
I chose to interview only women for this study. I wanted to build on previous research in the fields of fashion, clothing and body and that has focused on women. As the age range of the sample is so wide, I judged that it was important to limit the number of aspects to consider and I therefore focus on women. How femininity is done through fashion choices, and in relation to style has been an important analytical aspect in the study, as well as how this is done in relation to age.
The women stressed that it was important to dress in an adult way, to show that they accepted their age and not dressed so youthfully that they risked to look ridiculous, but neither dressed so that they looked unnecessarily old. The balancing act of accepting one's age, in a market addressing youth, but still come across as stylish and aware of fashion, made some women feel insecure about their style choices. They were interested in the style advice given in media, especially those who also represent older women.
Ageing is embodied: the body ages, and this is reflected in the clothes that can be used. Several informants told me that they had to refrain from high heels in favour of more practical shoe models. Clothing choices also had to take practical restrictions into account, for instance how easily garments are to care for or to put on, or if one could use them whilst for instance using a walker.
Several testified to bodily changes in shape, weight and height over the years. This also affected the choice of clothing. But also how the body's ageing is socially and culturally interpreted by themselves as well as by others had significance for sartorial choice. The women wanted to dress appropriately for the context and the situation they were in. Questions of how to fit in or stand out was discussed. Some described their choice of style as ordinary, pedestrian, just like other people. Some of them however wanted to stick out and described their clothes as "fun" and different.
In addition to the wardrobe interviews, I have participated in clothing sales at pensioners' associations and at homes for the elderly, when a company that is specifically aimed at older customers show their clothes on older models after which the clothes are for sale. I have written about this, together with narratives on clothes shopping by mail order, in articles on consumption.
CENTRAL RESULTS
The research project has as provided a rich empirical material with many interesting and important analytical leads. Below are stated some of the most important findings.
COVERING A GAP IN RESEARCH AND MAKING OLDER WOMEN VISIBLE
The study has been important to give visibility to a group that is otherwise not investigated in research on fashion and dress. This is important also in terms of shedding light on changes in the contemporary age landscape, where more people are living long and healthy lives and where the thresholds are shifting when it comes to cultural meanings of age - not just for the elderly but also for the cultural construction of children, young and middle-aged. Of importance is also the studies focus on clothes rather than on fashion and that the informants were invited to participate regardless of how they relate to fashion. Thus, "ordinariness" as in ordinary clothes, or to dress like most others do, becomes an interesting theme that I want to continue to explore.
Clothing and style in the elderly is little explored. My study has helped to cover a gap of knowledge. I think it is particularly important that the study complements a social-gerontological approach, where issues of health and social care are highlighted, often with a focus on intervention. I also pay attention to the fact that older people's fashion choices are of growing importance to commercial interests. The elderly are a large group of customers that have the capacity and financial resources to consume. The cultural study approach of my research contributes to highlight older people's thoughts on fashion and style in a way that is comparable to how young people's fashion choices have been investigated.
In some contexts contemporary society is described as free from various age-related norms and as free from normative social schedules on the life course. Thus style of dress is thought to be less age coded. Other researchers emphasise that age is precisely what is used as driving force for fashion change, so that young people adopt a style and older people will follow. My research has highlighted the informants' thoughts on different meanings of age-belonging in relation to norms of appropriate dress.
CONTRIBUTION TO METHODOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT
Methodologically I have used "wardrobe interviews". The conversational style interviews have used the garments that the informants have in their wardrobes and bureaus as starting point. Whilst the women showed me their clothes, they told me about them. This has proved to be a rewarding research method. The garments invite narratives about everyday life, change of role, gender, norms as well as memories. The garments have brought reflections on times gone by including tales of materials, the introduction of pants for women, as well as on the size of the women's own wardrobe. Several of the women had more garments than their mothers had ever had and more garments than previously in life. Through the approach with material objects as anchors for the interview, my research project has contributed to the development of methods.
CRITICAL AGE STUDIES
There is a growing interest in what age means in relation to identity; as power structure and for social organization in society. This means a step away from category research, with its interest in a specific age category: children, youth, the elderly, and more rarely, the middle-aged. Instead, focus is on how age is ascribed cultural meanings and is interpreted in different contexts. Age, as well as gender, is done: performed and accomplished and just as gender this is also done through separation and hierarchy. Often, midlife or middle age, is represented as an unproblematic norm of age and normality. It is important to consider how youthfulness is celebrated in contemporary society. This should not be confused with actual young people being the norm, but rather means that youthfulness is entwined with beauty ideals; creativity; change; curiosity - and therefore desirable. I have studied both how the women interviewed spoke of age-belonging, experiences and attributions of age, and explored how age is relational and based on normative cultural conceptions. Thus, the research project has contributed to the development of the growing field of critical age studies.
NEW RESEARCH QUESTIONS
Women have been interviewed for this research project. An important research question generated by the project is therefore how men's perceptions and experiences of ageing are constructed. In what situations and contexts are men ascribed identity as old and when do they themselves interpret that age category belonging is of importance? What does ageing mean for men? How is older men's relation to their body and their clothes? Research claims that women are seen as old earlier in the life course than men, with menopause as a marker of old age. Women's bodies are in focus. Small appearance changes such as gray hair or wrinkles become markers of ageing and all that is seen, while older women at the same time are comparatively socially invisible. When women's ageing is more problematized and examined there is a risk to reinforce the notion that age has different meanings for women and men.
Another important research question highlighted by the project that deserves further discussion is social class. It has proved difficult to clearly determine the class for an elderly person. During a long life different significant changes in relation to class happen. An example from the study is a highly educated informant, who were unable to work in the profession she was trained for, but instead worked in a low-wage job. Another example is a woman who for a large part of her life was a housewife, and after the divorce in her fifties worked in a low-wage occupation and consequently got a very low pension.
INTERNATIONAL CONNECTIONS
The research was conducted in Sweden. Sweden has in international contexts been highlighted as a progressive country with a high degree of equality in gender terms but also as a country with increasing class differences. Sweden is also, not least in the media, described as a country with age discrimination. Sweden is therefore interesting for a cultural study on ageing.
I have presented the project at several international conferences, where I have established contacts with researchers from different countries. Several of my articles are written in English in order to reach an international readership.
PUBLISHING STRATEGY
One strategy has been to publish in international publications in the fields of gender and ageing where the majority of the articles are available also through open access. Another has been to make my research available in Swedish and to write popular science articles about my research with the intent to reach out beyond the academic circle. I have therefore written for magazines such as Forte magasin and Äldre i centrum that reach both those active in issues concerning the elderly as well as an interested general public. Many of the texts from the project are written within various collaborations in the field of age studies.
TWO IMPORTANT PUBLICATIONS
The publications have dealt with different themes from the interviews. In the articles I have explored how the interviewees spoke about norms and style in relation to age, the women's uncertainty about style, and their interest in mediated style advice, in the genre of make-over. I have also written about their consumption strategies, all the time based on how age is given meaning in the interviews.
In the article, "Squirrels and Nostalgia - about wardrobe collections of older women," the women's often abundant clothing collections are explored, together with how they talked of the need to sort through and organize their wardrobes, and to dispose of garments no longer used, necessitated not least from an awareness that life is finite. Previous research has shown that people have far more garments in their wardrobes than they use. This means that the narratives have dealt both with everyday life, here and now, as well as on different transitions and on what life has been like in the past - reflected in the kept garments. The clothes have served as material photo albums, tactile reminders, in colour, shape, pattern, material, reminiscent of when the clothes were worn, and for what occasion, and how the body looked then. Several women had clothes for different sized versions of themselves and spoke about the importance of keeping their weight, also as old. Initially, this surprised me. It awoke thoughts of never ending feminine bodily projects. But I came to understand that watching one's weight was also a way to maintain continuity with previous versions of oneself.
Other articles explore mediated style advice directed towards older women together with how norms highlight age and how femininity should be done in culturally desirable manners. One of these articles is published in an anthology that I was the editor of. The purpose of the book: Constructing a woman: stories of norms, girls and little old ladies, was to explore age and gender, and how different stories represent this relationship. The book was written within the framework of two networks: FlickForsk! For girlhood studies and TantForsk (on old women)
PEER REVIEWED ORIGINAL ARTICLES
Lövgren, Karin (2014). 'Fun' as a resource in old women's deliberations about style and dress. I Söderberg, Eva & Nyhlén, Sara (red.). Walking beside: Challenging the role of emotions in normalization. Sundsvall: Mid Sweden University. pp. 156-175.
Lövgren, Karin (2015). Squirrels and nostalgia - about wardrobe collections of older women. In Ageing: culture and identity. Umeå: Umeå universitet, pp. 95-120.
Lövgren, Karin (2015) Gör om mig - åldrande och kvinnlighet i en populär mediegenre. Budkavlen. Åbo: Åbo universitet, s. 71-88.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). Comfortable and leisurely. Old women on style and dress. Journal of women and aging.
BOOKS AND BOOK CHAPTERS
Lövgren, Karin (2015) Gammal är någon annan. Om övergångar, kläder och kroppens åldrande. Se åldern. Nordiska museets och Skansens årsbok Fataburen. Stockholm: Nordiska museet, pp. 241-255.
Lövgren, Karin (2016) Inledning - att konstruera en kvinna. I Lövgren, Karin (ed.) Att konstruera en kvinna. Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter. Lund: Nordic academic press, pp.7-24.
Lövgren, Karin (2016) Att göra kvinnlighet och ålder i bloggosfären. I Lövgren, Karin (ed.) Att konstruera en kvinna. Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter. Lund: Nordic academic press, pp. 115-144.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). "Att köpa kläder när man blir äldre, det är hopplöst." Konsumtion, mode och åldrande. I Fredriksson, Cecilia & Sandström, Ida de Wit (ed.) Mode mellan konst, kultur, kommers. Lund: Makadam.
Lövgren, Karin & Sjöberg, Johanna (2016). Att göra ålder i distansförsäljning. I Krekula, Clary & Johansson, Barbro (eds.) Kritiska åldersstudier. Lund: Gleerups.
EDITOR
Lövgren, Karin (2015) (Co-editor with Karlsson, Lilieqvist, Landstedt & Lundgren) Ageing: culture and identity). Umeå: Umeå universitet.
Lövgren, Karin (2016) (ed.) Att konstruera en kvinna. Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter. Lund: Nordic academic press.
POPULAR SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATIONS
Lövgren, Karin (2015). Härligare att inte åldras? Forte magasin, nr 3. Stockholm: Forte, pp. 98-99.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). Pensionären i populärkulturen. Äldre i centrum Stockholm: Stiftelsen Stockholms läns äldrecentrum. Nr1, pp. 42-44.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). Kläderna gör tanten. Äldre i centrum. Stockholm: Stiftelsen Stockholms läns äldrecentrum. Nr 1, pp. 46-49.
FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS:
In addition to these publications, I have three articles for completion: an article about the importance to dress as a grown up, which I have presented as a conference paper, an article on wardrobe interviews as method which also deals with questions about age span included in the sample, and finally an article that highlights ageing, body and health.
CONFERENCES AND SEMINARS
I have presented research findings at conferences, both nationally and internationally in the fields of cultural studies, ethnology, fashion studies and cultural gerontology.
Peer reviewed conference presentations have been given at the following universities: Stockholm, Linköping, Sheffield, Gloustershire, Galway, Lund, Copenhagen and Uppsala.
I have presented my research in higher seminars at Linköping University, Växjö University and the University of Gothenburg.
PUBLIC LECTURES
An important part of the project has been to spread the research findings to a general public beyond academic audiences and thereby to contribute to an important debate on what cultural meanings ageing are given in today's society. Lectures have been given at Senioruniversitet /Senior University/, Växjö; Kulturhuvudstadsåret /Culture Year/, Umeå; Kvinnohistoriskt museum /Women's History Museum/, Umeå; Backens kyrka/ Backen church/, Umeå; Kulturen /Kulturen's Museum/, Lund; Gislaveds konsthall /Gislaved Art Gallery/ and Bokmässan /Book Fair/, Göteborg; Umeå Forskartorget.
PRESENTING RESEARCH PROJECT IN THE MEDIA
It has been important to disseminate information about the project and about the importance of research on ageing from a cultural perspective. I have been interviewed in daily newspapers; in the Swedish Radio: P4 Karlavagnen, P4 Gävleborg, P1 Stil, P4 Jönköping, Vetenskapsradion Forum; in the Swedish television: UR Samtiden, Gokväll; on the web: RJ:s homepage and Seniorhälsa. An interview for the radio program The pyramid will be made in April.
OTHER
I have met an entrepreneur who works with fashion design for the elderly and who tries to combine both practical and aesthetic aspects of fashion for this. I thought it was important to contribute with the expertise I have through my research project.
I have also been active in the network Age Studies in Sweden,
WEB PAGE
On the website http://karinlovgren.se/ there is information about the research project, on publications along with links to access them and links to interviews and media appearances which highlight the project.

Publications

FACKGRANSKADE ORIGINALARTIKLAR
Lövgren, Karin (2014). ‘Fun’ as a resource in old women’s deliberations about style and dress. I Söderberg, Eva & Nyhlén, Sara (red.). Walking beside : Challenging the role of emotions in normalization. Sundsvall: Mid Sweden University. s. 156-175.
Lövgren, Karin (2015). Squirrels and nostalgia – about wardrobe collections of older women. In Ageing: culture and identity. Umeå: Umeå universitet, s. 95-120.
Lövgren, Karin (2015) Gör om mig – åldrande och kvinnlighet i en populär mediegenre. Budkavlen. Åbo: Åbo universitet, s. 71-88.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). Comfortable and leisurely. Old women on style and dress. Journal of women and aging.
BÖCKER OCH BOKKAPITEL
Lövgren, Karin (2015) Gammal är någon annan. Om övergångar, kläder och kroppens åldrande. Se åldern. Nordiska museets och Skansens årsbok Fataburen. Stockholm: Nordiska museet, s. 241-255.
Lövgren, Karin (2016) Inledning – att konstruera en kvinna. I Lövgren, Karin (red.) Att konstruera en kvinna. Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter. Lund: Nordic academic press, s.7-24.
Lövgren, Karin (2016) Att göra kvinnlighet och ålder i bloggosfären. I Lövgren, Karin (red.) Att konstruera en kvinna. Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter. Lund: Nordic academic press, s. 115-144.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). ”Att köpa kläder när man blir äldre, det är hopplöst.” Konsumtion, mode och åldrande. I Fredriksson, Cecilia & Sandström, Ida de Wit (red.) Mode mellan konst, kultur, kommers. Lund: Makadam.
Lövgren, Karin & Sjöberg, Johanna (2016). Att göra ålder i distansförsäljning. I Krekula, Clary & Johansson, Barbro (red.) Kritiska åldersstudier. Lund: Gleerups.
REDAKTÖR
Lövgren, Karin (2015) (Redaktör tillsammans med Karlsson, Lilieqvist, Landstedt & Lundgren) Ageing: culture and identity). Umeå: Umeå universitet.
Lövgren, Karin (2016) (red.) Att konstruera en kvinna. Berättelser om normer, flickor och tanter. Lund: Nordic academic press.
POPULÄRVETENSKAPLIGA PUBLIKATIONER
Lövgren, Karin (2015). Härligare att inte åldras? Forte magasin, nr 3. Stockholm: Forte, s. 98-99.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). Pensionären i populärkulturen. Äldre i centrum Stockholm: Stiftelsen Stockholms läns äldrecentrum. Nr1, s. 42-44.
Lövgren, Karin (2016). Kläderna gör tanten. Äldre i centrum. Stockholm: Stiftelsen Stockholms läns äldrecentrum. Nr 1, s. 46-49.
KOMMANDE ARTIKLAR:
Utöver dessa publikationer har jag tre artiklar under slutarbete: en artikel om att klä sig vuxet, som jag presenterat som konferenspaper, en om garderobsintervjuer som metod där också frågor om ålder och urval belyses och en om åldrande, kropp och hälsa.
KONFERENSER
Jag har presenterat forskningsresultat vid olika konferenser, nationella såväl som internationella inom områdena kulturstudier, etnologi, modevetenskap samt kulturgerontologi. Det har varit värdefullt att därigenom få återkoppling på det pågående analysarbetet.
FACKGRANSKADE KONFERENSBIDRAG

2015-11-19-20    On wardrobe collections of old women. Cultural sociology conference, Uppsala university.
2015-08-19-21    Old? Older? Elderly? Co-constructing ageing in research.
Köpenhamns universitet. 33 Nordic Ethnology and Folklore Conference.
2015-06-16    “Det är viktigt att klä sig vuxet” Äldre kvinnor om stilval. ACSIS conference, In the flow, people, media, materialities, Norrköping 15-17 June 2015.
2014-04    Meanings of being comfortable. Old women on ageing and clothes. Cultural gerontology, Galway, Irland. April 2014. 8th International Conference on Cultural Gerontology.
2013-09-26    ”Man måste hänga med”. Om mode, kläder och åldrande. Paper presenterat vid konferensen Mode mellan konst, kultur och kommers. Institutionen för kulturvetenskaper Lunds universitet och Dunkers kulturhus.
2013-07-22–23    Re make me: on style and ageing. A qualitative exploration based on interviews with elderly women and on a popular media genre in the makeover format. Paper presenterat vid Women, ageing and media research. University of Gloustershire, Cheltenham.
2013-07-17    ”I can’t discard them”. Clothes and shoes in the wardrobe of elderly women. Paper presenterat vid Dressed bodies: a symposium. University of Sheffield.
2013-06-11–13    ”Livets rörelse över tiden. Om kläder och åldrande”. Paper presenterat vid kulturstudiekonferens, Linköpings universitet.
2012-12-14     “In the wardrobe. Studying age, women and dress.” Paper presenterat vid Center for Fashion studies, Stockholms universitet.
2012-07-02     “Dress your age, Paper presenterat vid konferensen Women, ageing and media research, Cheltenham, UK.