Comfort through Clothing: North American women’s relationship with clothing through the lens of culture.

Abstract: Through ethnographic analysis, this thesis investigates the ways in which North American women seek and experience different modes of comfort through their clothing. The material is drawn from a market research study that employs qualitative methods with a spectrum of women across the United States and Canada. Framed by Bourdieu’s practice theory and Latour’s actor- network theory, the text problematizes how the structure of a pre-determined habitus can be revealed through women’s clothing choices. It highlights the contradictory messages that North American society pushes out to women, and the resulting contradictions of women’s desires and actions that are reflected in their clothing. The analysis suggests that modes of comfort can be organized into four thematic groups: spatial, communal, culturally appropriate, and true. These types of comfort can be used as cultural capital in exchange for power and social mobility. The study outlines how women navigate social life through clothing and attempt to stretch the boundaries of a systematic habitus, but ultimately make choices that keep them within it.