TY - JOUR AB - Purpose– The research in this paper aims to investigate the perception created by clothing style and semantic space to describe this perception. The results of study could be applied to establish relation between customers' feelings and design elements.Design/methodology/approach– Women's overcoats were chosen as research objects. The technique of sensory engineering was applied to investigate the customers' feelings and demands related to product images. Card system, shape analytical method, and regression analysis were applied in this research.Findings– Six word‐pair were selected to establish the semantic space. The product elements space with seven items and 25 categories was established. The relation between two spaces could be quantified according to the principle of sensory engineering.Research limitations/implications– The findings can be applied to women's overcoat and similar clothing for customer‐orientated design.Originality/value– The theory of sensory engineering was applied for practical application purposes. Some useful parameters were obtained to explain the reliability of the research results and influences of design elements on perception judgment. VL - 20 IS - 3 SN - 0955-6222 DO - 10.1108/09556220810865229 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/09556220810865229 AU - Wang Ying AU - Chen Yan AU - Chen Zhi‐ge ED - Xianyi Zeng ED - Ludovic Koehl PY - 2008 Y1 - 2008/01/01 TI - The sensory research on the style of women's overcoats T2 - International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited SP - 174 EP - 183 Y2 - 2024/04/24 ER -