Influence may extend, too, to the name of the designer whose name may share connotations with a less desirable country. On the other hand, countries such as America are perceived as wealthy nations, Germany as efficient, France as fashionable, and it may be possible that a designer with a French name may be more attractive than someone with an Indian last name.
I intend to conduct my research using netnography. Netnography involves lurking on Internet sites, following discussions, and surveying participants' likes, dislikes, and motives / rationale for their decisions. I intend to approach fashion consumer sites where participants often enter to record their opinions regarding certain items. I might also access blogs and similar websites related to the fashion industry. This will be field observation.
I might also adopt a pre-test / post-test one group quantitative experiment where I will take a certain fashion designer with a French name exhibit his samples to a certain group of participants who are unfamiliar with that designer and record their observations to his items, whilst somewhat later taking that same designer and changing his name to a Middle Eastern one and record their impressions to those same (or very similar) fashion designs that had been exhibited to them a few months...
When Middle Eastern, the participants would show less favor to the samples than when the designer appeared with his original French name. The null hypothesis would indicate the reverse: that change of name would not influence participants' attitude to fashion samples.
References
Florida, R. 2004, the Rise of the Creative Class: And How it's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Basic Books, U.S..
Howkins, J. 2002, the Creative Economy: How People Make Money from Ideas, Penguin, UK.
Kuratko, D.F. 2000, 'Entrepreneurial leadership in the 21st century', Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies. Available at: http://www.allbusiness.com/human-resources/employee-development-leadership/4501619-1.html
Pink, D. 2005. A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future, Riverhead Trade, Washington D.C.
Torres, L.N. 2004, 'Puttin' on the Glitz', Entrepreneur. Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/magazine/entrepreneur/2004/april/70024.html#
The Small Business Economy (2006). www.sba.gov/advocacy/research
