Madeline Nichols

Community Research Proposal

Introduction
My project revolves around something that the majority of woman can relate to. It was
when I was shopping in a basic, trendy store when the idea for this project came. My shorter,
skinnier friends would see an item they liked, grab one of the first few items on top, and move
on. While they were collecting a pile of clothes, I was asking a sales associate if they carried
anything bigger than a medium in tops. That feeling is why I'd like to explore misrepresentation
and size discrimination in the fashion industry. The more awareness that gets brought to this
issue, hopefully the more retail companies can think about how their sizes are impacting an
average consumer's self esteem.

Rationale
Although the purpose of my research is to expose the large amount of misrepresentation there is
within the fashion industry, my goal is to use my research to enact change. It would be great if a
substantial employee at a retail company was motivated by my research to promote inclusivity,
but in reality if change comes it will be much smaller than that. Even though my research might
not move mountains for plus size women, if I can create enough change to allow one less girl to
hear the phrase, "We don't have a plus size section, but you can try online." then I'll be satisfied.
I am also planning to go about my research inductively, collecting information through surveys
and data about sizing and advertising within the fashion industry.

Person/ Organization to Contact

At the moment the only people that I will be contacting are retail employees from a few stores in
the mall. I would eventually like to contact upper level management in a retail company, but I
don’t have access to a contact of that kind at this time.

Current Contacts:
Daulton Finchum- Rue21 Employee
Emily Whaley- Victoria’s Secret Employee
Natalie Thomison- Previous Rue21 Employee
Olivia Rightmyer- H&M Employee
Consent Form
Link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1zzov3ODPtK85SUrFVpZwLwd_fIdBQFmdLkdsZQP1uq
o/edit?usp=sharing
Research Timeline
Optimally, I’ll have my survey written by April 7th. I can send out my consent form and survey
on April 7th or 8th. I am giving myself a short amount of time to prepare my questions because
having ample time to analyze and implement the answers into my work is my priority. I will also
conduct interviews at a later time, most likely between April 12th and 15th.

Research Questions
- How often does a customer ask for a size you don’t carry?
- How were you trained (if you were trained at all) to answer that question?
- Does your store hire plus size employees?
- Does your store advertise its sizes/ promote inclusiveness?
- Did you ever discuss expanding size range with upper level management?
- What would an inclusive size range look like in your opinion?
- Have you noticed a change in the range of sizes at your store since you started working
there?
- Does the advertising that your brand produces (both in store and out) accurately depict
what you sell?

Survey
Short Answer Responses
Link to Survey: ​https://forms.gle/9cKcjEhxutrgXj2P6
Link to Responses:

Observation
I will send my survey to each interviewee, then I will make a google sheet to organize the
answers by question and people.

Reflection
My research will be focused on retail in the central Illinois area, so I expect that their will be
some differences from my previous research that has been conducted mainly on the east coast.
Some questions that still remain as I prepare to begin collecting primary information are whether
or not a survey or an interview will provide me with more straight forward answers. Although I
am conducting both, I will have to wait to receive responses before I can determine which
answers are more useful to me. I am also a bit concerned that I will only pick answers that I want
to hear, and will have to rely on my instructor and peers to help me avoid bias.