Proposal- Clothing
A trend I noticed during the family history presentation is the importance of clothing to different immigrant communities. During the family history presentations there was many examples of people coming over to America and buying winter clothes for the first time. Coming from different climates people had to adjust for the weather. We also had in class discussions about the importance of clothing to the Russian community, in regards to the fur coat. This topic spans different groups, not just those who came from warm weather climates. We would be able to go into detail about how culturally traditional clothes have adapted to become Americanized, or how an immigrant group is expressing their home nation through the clothes they wear.
When I went to Astoria, in the store I saw colorful clothing that appeared different from “American” clothing. Those clothes were clearly being sold as a novelty gift, but we can do an in depth investigation of various immigrant groups as see how they have subtlety (or obviously) “culturalized” their American clothing. Each group can investigate a different neighborhood and see how the people dress. They can do interviews and ask people if they had to adopt any clothing styles. Also the groups can go into local stores and see what type of clothes is readily available to the residents of that community.
We can start by comparing to typical clothing of the home nation. This will help establish what types of influences have carried over to America. We will then show how the people of a particular neighborhood dress, what the local clothing stores sell, and how the influences have carried over to America. Essentially this project can have two analyses; showing how American clothes have been changed to fit another cultural, and showing how foreign clothing have adapted to American culture.
Personally I can think of a variety of examples of Ukrainian clothing that was brought over to America. Ukrainian wear traditional clothes for certain festivals and holidays and these clothes are available for purchase here in a America. A Ukrainian store on W 3rd street in Manhattan sells these clothes. I was able to come up with an example on the spot, so I assume people from other nations would be able to do so also. This topic is broad enough to included different type of clothing influences, such as clothing adaptations or the opening of clothing stores. However, this broadness would allow each group to narrow down on a specific part and do an in depth investigation of the people of a specific immigrant group.
