An open letter from the Editor, Judith Rasband:

To some people, the word "image" means superficial gloss and the way a person looks is thought to be of little or no importance. Not so. Image is an essential part of the human experience, with a richness of meanings that express the individual as well as groups, organizations, and the larger society in which that person lives--meanings that vary as a result of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, status or position in society, and period of time. Your image--the way you dress, care for and carry yourself, your personal style, poise, and presence--is part of who you are. It affects the way you think, the way you feel, and the way you act or behave. Your image reflects your personality, values, attitudes, interests, roles, and often your goals. What's more, your image is you in the eyes and minds of others--a mental picture or visual impression and the way you are perceived or typified.

We all recognize the value of time management, money management, meal management, business management, home and family management--all aspects of provident living. There is equally important value in clothing, wardrobe, and image management--another aspect of provident living and part of our earthly stewardship. In the positive sense, image management is all about respect--respect for yourself and respect for others; respect for occasions, roles, and goals. Image management is a necessary life skill.

Image is an obvious and key factor in daily life--in the home, school, church, community, and in the workplace; in sports, the arts, holidays and ceremonies, intimate relationships, recreation and play, aging, and maturation throughout a person's life cycle. It is a visual account of history, a reflection of overall social processes such as political conflict and issues of domination or jurisdiction, technological changes and economic evolutions, organizational development and transition, generational experiences as well as cultural identity and change in general. Understanding the functions of image facilitates communication and interaction with others--as it moves us to reflect upon and understand ourselves.

Image management is the ongoing process of evaluating and controlling the impact of your appearance on yourself and others. In the positive sense, it is creating for yourself an authentic, appropriate, attractive, and affordable personal/professional image which increases your confidence, capability, and productivity, as well as your credibility and influence with others; contributes to the accomplishment of your goals in the home, school, church, community, and the workplace; and actually simplifies your life.

Your image--the way you look--directly affects:

• the way you think,
  

• the way you feel,
  

• the way you act or behave, and then
  

• the way others react or respond to you.

These points are the universal affects of image. They establish value for thought and attention to image or appearance--as well as investment. While individuals vary in their level of attention or involvement with image, all people, everywhere, are affected by the way they dress and groom themselves, by the way they care for and carry themselves. All people engage in some form of image management on a daily basis. It is a universal concept. The concept includes all thought processes and activities leading to the purchase and wearing of clothing items, as well as processes of body modification through grooming, diet and exercise, tattooing, body piercing, and so on. It includes how we plan, organize, and carry out these actions on a daily basis.

My job is to teach image management to others, having an interdisciplinary preparation that includes academic study in physics, chemistry, history, anthropology, psychology, sociology, biology, anatomy, nutrition, art, music, communications, semiotics, family science, consumer behavior, statistics, marketing, business management, consumer economics, popular cultural, gender studies, minority studies, and more, and resulting in a master's degree. I am therefore a generalist in the field of fashion and image education, yet a specialist in relation to each of the above listed fields.

Textbooks in the field, to name just a few, include The Social-Psychology Of Clothing by Susan B. Kaiser; Dress and Identity by Roach-Higgins, Eicher, and Johnson; The Meanings Of Dress by Damhorst, Miller, and Michelman; The Way We Look: A Framework For Visual Analysis Of Dress by Marilyn DeLong; Visual Design In Dress by Marian L. Davis; Fitting & Alteration: A Multi-Method Approach by Liechty, Pottberg, and Rasband; Wardrobe Strategies by Judith Rasband, and Consumer Behavior In Fashion by Solomon and Rabolt, to name but a few.

Course work and degrees in the field are earned at schools, colleges, and universities such as Iowa State University, Kent State University, Louisiana State University, Massachusetts College of Art, Ohio State University, Oregon State University, University of Alabama, University of California, University of Nebraska, University of Wisconsin, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, Washington State University, and scores of others. It used to be part of the curriculum at Brigham Young University.

Research in the field of image management is carried out at colleges and universities worldwide. Research is reported in professional journals such as the Clothing and Textiles Research Journal, the official publication of the International Textiles & Apparel Association; the Family & Consumer Sciences Journal, the official publication of the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences; the Journal of Social Psychology, the Journal Of Fashion Marketing and Management, the Journal of Social Behavior and Personality, the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, and scores of others. Research efforts and results, however, seldom filter down to the consumer in some meaningful way. As a result, much research goes without application in everyday life and at that point, research is dead.

Without consumer awareness and daily application of research results in clothing and image management, there is little to no perceived value for the universal effects of clothing or the process of image management. This lack of value is true of the general public, including LDS populations. We are therefore losing more courses, departments, and degrees in apparel and image management yearly. We lost the department of Clothing and Textiles at BYU in 1997, and at a time in history when it is more sorely needed than at any time in previous history due to issues of immodesty and the casualization of dress standards nationwide. It is my hope that this website will fill the void, somewhat, and become your resource for image information.

Sincerely, Judith Rasband ©2004 Conselle L.C.