Exploring the fashion identity of Gypsy and Traveller women: Research problems and processes

This article explores the crucial issues of identification, access, participation and documenting addressed within the research design and methodology for my M.A. thesis. Within my thesis I questioned whether English Gypsy and Irish Traveller women’s style-fashion-dress can indeed be culturally defined and fixed collectively by cultural definitions, which are so often deemed to be set by terminology. Reflecting on some of the ‘novice’ research dilemmas I faced within the field of Gypsy and Traveller Studies this article is about first approaches to ethnographic research specifically for new fashion scholars, like myself, engaging with ‘minority’ fashion studies.