CCSF Library: Fashion: Articles

Key Journals for Fashion

Journals can be scholarly, which means they are academic in nature and may be peer-reviewed. Peer-reviewed articles go through a rigorous publishing process: they are written by an academic, submitted to the journal, and then circulated to experts in the field for checking before being published.

Journal of Consumer Research
An interdisciplinary academic journal focusing on all aspects of consumer education.
Critical Studies in Men's Fashion
This journal examines the multi-faceted dimensions of men’s appearance. It uses the holistic definition of dress as a means of examining the tangible and intangible aspects of creating and maintaining appearance.
Fashion, Style, and Popular Culture
This journal provides an interdisciplinary environment for fashion academics and practitioners to publish innovative scholarship in all aspects of fashion and popular culture relating to design, textiles, production, promotion, consumption and appearance-related products and services.
Fashion Theory: The Journal of Dress, Body & Culture
Provides an international & interdisciplinary forum for the analysis of cultural phenomena ranging from foot binding to fashion advertising. This is an academic journal.

Article Sources

Description

Magazines, journals, and newspapers, are types of "periodicals" - as in, they are published periodically throughout the year. There are many different intended audiences.
- Magazines are generally intended for a broader, public audience.
  - Examples: Scientific American, Vogue, and The Atlantic.
- Journals are often intended for a scholarly audience (scholars, academics, researchers, etc.) Many articles in these journals go through a rigorous publishing process called peer-review: they are written by an academic, submitted to the journal, and then circulated to experts in the field for checking before being published.
  - Examples: New England Journal of Medicine, The William and Mary Quarterly.
- Newspapers are usually written for a broader, public audience. They share the news of the day.
  - Examples: The New York Times, USA Today, The Guardian, the San Francisco Chronicle.

What do they contain?

Articles

How often are these sources published?

Magazines - usually monthly & quarterly (seasonally)
Journals - less frequently; can be monthly, but more likely quarterly
Newspapers - usually daily

Found in:

OneSearch - Periodicals
Easily locate CCSF subscribed periodicals (newspapers, journals, and magazines) in this particular view of OneSearch.
Journal Browse (BrowZine)
A clickable view of scholarly journals subscribed to by the CCSF Library.

Flipster This link opens in a new window
Easy-to-use digital magazine platform with People, National Geographic, and Archaeology. Pilot subscription runs through end of June 2025.
America's News This link opens in a new window
Features national, regional and local news content that delivers diverse perspectives on practically any issue, event or person as covered by the U.S. news media. With current content and archives back to the 1980s from more than 3,700 sources. Includes the San Francisco Chronicle and San Francisco Examiner. Hot Topics can be browsed as well.
US Major Dailies This link opens in a new window
Provides access to The New York Times (1980-present), Washington Post (1988-present), Los Angeles Times (1985-present), Chicago Tribune (1985-present), and the Wall Street Journal (1984-present). Available by 8 AM U.S. Eastern time each day. Supplemental website content from these publications may not be included in this text based resource.

Search Strategies

Digital searching can work well when you combine your search words with "Boolean" connectors.

Boolean Connector	What does it do?
AND	narrows the results of a search, though without this operator, the AND is usually implied. This searches only for items containing both search terms. Example: health disparities AND urban
OR	expands or broadens the results of a search. This searches for either term, thus widening the possibilities. This is helpful when searching using synonyms. ("OR is more.") Example search string: genetically modified OR transgenic OR GMO
NOT	excludes specific terms that may be clouding your result set with irrelevant results not related to your topic. This is helpful when trying to remove some results. Example: nutrition NOT diet

Other strategies:

Identify key concepts. Include the useful or relevant keywords in your search, as well as synonyms, rather than a full question.
Use "Filters" to limit your source type, time period, and location.
Need "scholarly" articles? Use the "Peer-Reviewed Journals" filter.

Recommended Databases for Fashion

Databases are searchable containers of the source types listed above: books, magazines, journals, and (but not webpages, which you search on the open web). Databases are owned by a few different companies, and the library pays for access to make relevant sources available for your research. The sources in the databases are rarely available for free on the open web.

When doing research in fashion, we recommend the following options:

OneSearch This link opens in a new window
Cross-searches most CCSF Library databases. Some resources are excluded. Learn more about searching in OneSearch.
Statista This link opens in a new window
Statista is a great resource for information about the clothing industry, retail, sales statistics, etc. Make sure to search Statista specifically because it's not included in OneSearch.
JSTOR Images This link opens in a new window
A digital library of nearly one million images in the areas of art, architecture, the humanities, and social sciences with a set of tools to view, present, and manage images for research and pedagogical purposes.

This platform will be retired August 1, 2024 - all content will be hosted on JSTOR. Curious about the change? Try the JSTOR image search.
Popular Magazines (Gale OneFile) This link opens in a new window
This database provides access to lots of popular fashion magazines including Allure, GQ, Glamour, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, and others.