DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAPANESE AND FRENCH TASTES IN WOMEN S T-SHIRTS FOR SPORTSWEAR

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1 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN JAPANESE AND FRENCH TASTES IN WOMEN S T-SHIRTS FOR SPORTSWEAR Marsac EVA a, KyoungOk KiM b and Masayuki TAKATERA b* a Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Industries Textiles (ENSAIT), France, b eva.marsac@ensait.fr Division of Kansei and Fashion Engineering, Institute for Fiber Engineering (IFES), Shinshu University, Japan, kimko@shinshu-u.ac.jp, takatera@shinshu-u.ac.jp ABSTRACT This study investigates the differences in taste in training t-shirts for women, between Japanese and French people. A questionnaire survey on the impression of the t-shirts appearances was conducted using the 3D simulations that we created. A sensory test was made on 24 different designs (type of sleeve, bodice length and fitting), on 51 examinees (26 Japanese and 25 French) who voluntarily participated. The results shown that for both Japanese and French people, very short t-shirts were the most appreciated and that the sleeveless and the tank top ones were the most appropriated for practice. It pointed out that people like cool, modern, showy, short, special, elaborated and feminine in design. Also, we noticed that for the Japanese people, casual clothes that are suitable for exercise, are not suitable to be worn outside of a gym, but this was not notable for the French people. This research will be valuable to sportswear industries and enable them to better target their client. Keywords: sportswear, t-shirts, design, sensory analysis, PCA 1. INTRODUCTION Nowadays, people are getting more and more concerned about remaining healthy and active. A growing number of consumers are taking part in sport and exercise. Because of this new behavior, the demands of sportswear garments have recently been simulated all over the 489

2 world. Moreover, wearing those garments have become a trend, called athleisure. It refers to a style based on wearing sportswear garments on a daily basis [1, 2]. Sportswear garments have to be comfortable and must enable the consumers to do sport in the best conditions. Indeed, producing this type of garment must take into consideration the technical properties of the material used. However, the companies that sell those type of products must also be careful about the design, since people care about their appearance while doing sport. Even if we can notice the development of the sportswear s field over the world, trends are influenced by societies conceptions regarding decency, hygiene, esthetic and freedom [3, 4]. Depending on those conceptions, fashion and tastes differs all around the world. Thus, the culture has an impact on the preferences and on the feelings of the people [5-8]. A same product can be seen differently from one country to another. In this study, we investigated the taste of the Japanese and the French regarding different t-shirts for training for women using 3D simulations that we created. To understand the differences of tastes in sportswear garments, we chose several pairs of adjectives, and we asked people to give a remark depending on their impression on the different designs. Understanding the preferences and the evaluations of the Japanese and the French will help designers and manufacturers to make clothing that satisfy customers in each country. 2. EXPERIMENT To clarify differences in tastes between the Japanese and the French, we investigated the evaluation of 24 types of women s t-shirts; the fittings (loose or fitted), lengths (long, midlength, short, or very short) and the type of sleeves (half sleeves, sleeveless, or tank top) as shown in Table 1. The evaluation was carried out using a semantic differential method and a seven-point scale with simulated t-shirt images. We prepared a questionnaire on Google Form (Google Inc. CA, United States). In the evaluation, a front view, side view, and back view of each t-shirt were presented. We selected 19 pairs of adjectives that are related to visual feelings, preferences, and physical appearance as shown in Table 2. The questionnaire was translated into Japanese and French, and the adjectives were defined. This experiment was conducted for 51 participants (26 Japanese and 25 French in their 20s). The scores obtained were processed through employing principal component analysis (PCA), to understand the relationship between the different designs and the different adjectives. We performed 2 PCAs using XLSTAT (Addinsoft, Paris) to summarize the evaluation structure of each t-shirt (for the French and Japanese participants). We made basic patterns of a t-shirt and a skirt according to a pattern making book [9]. All patterns were created referring to the French size 38 (bust 88 cm, waist 68 cm, hip 94 cm, and height cm). We created a wearer model corresponding to size 38 and simulated t-shirts and a skirt with the created patterns using simulation software (CLO Enterprise, Yuka & Alpha Co., Ltd., Japan). The examples of the simulation are shown in Figure

3 Table 1: Description of the 24 t-shirts Fitting Length Sleeves Name of the t-shirt Fitting Length Sleeves Name of the t-shirt half t-shirt 1 half t-shirt 13 long mid-length loose short very short no t-shirt 2 long no t-shirt 14 tank t-shirt 3 tank t-shirt 15 half t-shirt 4 half t-shirt 16 no t-shirt 5 mid-length no t-shirt 17 tank t-shirt 6 tank t-shirt 18 fitted half t-shirt 7 half t-shirt 19 no t-shirt 8 short no t-shirt 20 tank t-shirt 9 tank t-shirt 21 half t-shirt 10 half t-shirt 22 no t-shirt 11 very short no t-shirt 23 tank t-shirt 12 tank t-shirt 24 Table 2: Pairs of adjectives used in the questionnaire Japanese English French Initial 個性的 - 一般的な special common spécial - commun S-C カジュアルな-フォーマルな casual formal décontracté - formel C-F 男らしい- 女らしい masculine feminine masculin - féminin M-F 古典的な- 現代的な classic modern classique - moderne C-M 目立たない- 華やかな discreet showy discret - voyant D-S 流行遅れの - 格好良い out of style cool démodé - à la mode OOS-C seems uncomfortable a l'air inconfortable - a l'air U-C 心地が悪そう- 心地がよさそう seems comfortable confortable 低俗な-エレガントな provocative elegant provoquant - élégant P-E スポーティーではない-スポー not a sporty style sporty NS-S style pas sportif - style sportif ティーな style みすぼらしい-こぎれいな scruffy neat négligé - soigné S-N シンプルな- 精巧な simple elaborate simple - travaillé S-E not adaptable to be worn inapproprié à être porté hors d'une NOG-OG ジム以外で着られない-ジム以 outside a gym adaptable salle de sport - approprié à être 外でも着られる to be worn outside a gym porté hors d'une salle de sport トレーニングに相応しくない - トレーニングに相応しい not adaptable for practice adaptable for practice inapproprié à la pratique sportive - approprié à la pratique sportive 短い- 長い short long court - long S-L きつい-ゆったり fitted loose moulant - ample F-L not enough skin is NESE- 露出が少なすぎる- 露出が多す la peau n'est pas assez découverte - exposed too much skin is TMSE ぎる la peau est trop découverte exposed 魅力的でない- 魅力的な not attractive attractive pas beau - beau NA-A 嫌い- 好き I do not like I like je n'aime pas - j'aime DL-L I do not want to wear it I je ne veux pas le porter - je veux le DW-W 着たくない- 着たい want to wear it porter NP-P 491

4 T-shirt 1 T-shirt 2 T-shirt 3 Figure 1: Examples of simulation 3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Figures 2 and 3 show the relationship between the first and second principal component T-shirt 4 T-shirt 5 T-shirt 6 scores of t-shirts for French and Japanese participants. We repartitioned the t-shirts according to their position on the graphs. For the French, the contribution ratio of the first principal component was 57.8% while the contribution ratio of the second principal component was 15.3%. The graphs explained 73.1% of the data. For the Japanese, the contribution ratio of the first principal component was 59.6% while the contribution ratio of the second principal component was 15.5%. In Figures 2 and 3, we label the axes of the first and second principal components as short and long, and loose and fitted. In Figure 2 for French participants, we clearly identify three groups of t-shirt design that correspond to a special type of design: very short shirts (t-shirts 10, 11, 12, 22, 23, and 24), fitted shirts with half sleeves (long, mid-length, and short) (t-shirts 13, 16, and 19), and loose shirts (long and mid-length) (t-shirts 1 6). In Figure 3 for Japanese participants, the t-shirts were more scattered and it was more difficult to clearly identify groups. However, we found a certain repartition of the designs when considering larger areas: the very short t-shirts (t-shirts 10, 11, 12, 22, 23, and 24), the half sleeve t-shirts (long, mid-length, and short) (t-shirts 1, 4, 7, 13, 16, and 19), and the loose sleeveless and tank top t-shirts (long, mid-length, and short) (t-shirts 2, 5, 8, 3, 6, and 9). Figures 4 and 5 show the correlations between the adjectives for French and Japanese participants. In Figure 4, we label axes of the first and second principal components as out of style and cool, and casual and formal. In Figure 5, we label the axis of the first principal components as showy and discreet. For the French participants in Figure 4, Feminine, elegant, attractive, I like, cool, modern, showy, and too much skin exposed were correlated with provocative, not adaptable to be worn outside a gym, short, and special. Additionally, neat, seems uncomfortable, and fitted were correlated. We finally observed that sporty style and adaptable for practice were correlated with casual. Loose (long and mid-length) also had a relationship with seems comfortable for the French participants. The French participants also described the very short (sleeveless and tank top) shirts as provocative. For the Japanese participants, feminine, I like, neat, modern, attractive, cool, and showy were correlated with short and special. We also observed that sporty style, adaptable for practice, and too much skin exposed were strongly correlated with not adaptable to be worn outside a gym and casual. 492

5 Comparing the t-shirt repartition and the adjectives of the French and Japanese participants, the Japanese participants thought that the half-sleeve shirts (very short) were neat. Whereas French participants considered only fitted half-sleeve shirts to be in the same group, Japanese participants considered all half-sleeve shirts (loose and fitted, long, mid-length, and short) to be in the same group. They described this type of design as formal, common, not a sporty style, and not adaptable for practice but adaptable to be worn outside a gym. However, t-shirt 7 was closer to the very-short half-sleeve shirts. The Japanese participants wanted to wear this t-shirt. Like the French participants, the Japanese participants grouped loose (long and mid-length) together. The difference was that the Japanese participants included short shirts and excluded half-sleeve shirts. The Japanese participants thought that this type of design was classic and provocative, in addition to the other adjectives given by the French participants. The Japanese participants did not want to wear those designs. Fitted Second principal component score Long Fitted, half sleeves (long, mid-length, short) T-shirt 19 T-shirt 16 Very short T-shirt 13 Half sleeves T-shirt 7 T-shirt 14 T-shirt 15 T-shirt 10 T-shirt 8 T-shirt 22 T-shirt 20 T-shirt 9 T-shirt 4 T-shirt 5 T-shirt 21 T-shirt 17 T-shirt 23 T-shirt 24 T-shirt 2 T-shirt 3 T-shirt 18 T-shirt 12 T-shirt 1 T-shirt 6 T-shirt 11 Loose (long, mid-length) Sleeveless, tank top -7 Loose First principal component score Formal Short Figure 2: Relationship between the first and Casual Correlation between second principal component second principal components scores of t shirts for French participants S-L S-C P-E NOG-OG U-C F-L C-F DW-W NP-P NS-S S-N M-F S-E NA-A DL-L OOS-C D-S C-M NESE-TMSE Out of style Correlation between first principal component Cool Figure 4: Correlation between the first and second principal components, and the adjectives for French participants Fitted Second principal component score Half sleeves (long, mid-length, short) T-shirt 7 Very short T-shirt 16 T-shirt 1 Half sleeves T-shirt 10 T-shirt 4 T-shirt 19 T-shirt 15 T-shirt 14 T-shirt 22 T-shirt 13 T-shirt 18 T-shirt 5 T-shirt 20 T-shirt 17 T-shirt 21 T-shirt 23 T-shirt 3 T-shirt 8 T-shirt 12 T-shirt 24 T-shirt 11 T-shirt 6 Sleeveless, tank top T-shirt 2 T-shirt 9-5 Loose, sleeveless, -6 tank top (long, midlength, short) -7 Loose First principal component score Long Short Figure 3: Relationship between the first and second principal components scores of t-shirts Correlation between second principal component for Japanese participants NOG-OG S-L S-C C-F F-L DW-W U-C P-E S-E NS-S NP-P NESE-TMSE M-F DL-L S-N C-M NA-A OOS-C D-S Correlation between first principal component Discreet Showy Figure 5: Correlation between the first and second principal components, and the adjectives for Japanese participants 493

6 4. CONCLUSION The groups have similarities but there are differences between French and Japanese evaluators. The results shown that for both Japanese and French people, very short t-shirts were the most appreciated and that the sleeveless and the tank top ones were the most appropriated for practice. It pointed out that people like cool, modern, showy, short, special, elaborated and feminine design. Also, we noticed that for Japanese people, casual clothes that are suitable for exercise, are not suitable to be worn outside of a gym, but this was not notable for the French people. This research will be valuable to sportswear industries and enable them to better target their clients. Acknowledgments This work was supported under KAKENHI grant numbers JP , JP17H01955, and JP16K16255 from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology of Japan. REFERENCES Euromonitor International. (2017). Sportswear in Japan. retrieved from: Euromonitor International. (2017). Sportswear in France. retrieved from: Noémie Aulombard. (2014). «Abou Ndiaye, L ordre vestimentaire : de la distinction par l habillement à la culture de l élégance», retrieved from: Au, J., G. Taylor, & E. W. Newton. (2003). How are European and Japanese Fashion Designers Inspired?. Journal of the Textile Institute Kim, K. O., Takatera, M., Zhu, C., & Otani, T. (2015). Comparison of Japanese and Chinese clothing evaluation by experts taking into account marketability Kim, K. O., Miyatake, K., Sano, K., Takatera, M., & Otani, T. (2014). Research on Jacket Patterns and Specifications of Ready-to-wear for High-end in Italy and Japan Kim, K. O., Nozawa, A., and Takatera, M. Comparison of elegance of Japanese and European Jackets. Otani, T., Kim, K. O., Miyatake, K., Sano, K., & Takatera, M. (2014). Characteristics of the Design and Production Process for Italian- and Japanese-Madde Tailored Jackets in the Global Market Devenir Modéliste, Le vêtement féminin. (2009). ESMOD Editions, Paris, pp.88-91, pp.74-83, pp and pp