Abstract:
The frequent misidentification of Asian garments in small museum collections indicated
the need for a garment identification system specifically for use in differentiating the
various forms of Asian clothing. The decision tree system proposed in this thesis is
intended to provide an instrument to distinguish the clothing styles of Japan, China,
Korea, Tibet, and northern Nepal which are found most frequently in museum clothing
collections. The first step of the decision tree uses the shape of the neckline to
distinguish the garment's country of origin. The second step of the decision tree uses the
sleeve shape to determine factors such as the gender and marital status of the wearer, and
the formality level of the garment.
The decision tree instrument was tested with a sample population of 10
undergraduates representing volunteer docents and 4 graduate students representing
curators of a small museum. The subjects were asked to determine the country of origin,
the original wearer's gender and marital status, and the garment's formality and function,
as appropriate. The test was successful in identifying the country of origin of all 12
Asian garments and had less successful results for the remaining variables.
