The main problem of this study was to replicate a study by Nancy Koplin Jack and Betty Schiffer, entitled "The Limits of Fashion Control." That study is found in Volume 44 of The American Journal of Sociology, on pages 730-738. In addition, the present study investigated the effect of selected social variables on the fashion response of eighty-nine women representing three Muncie, Indiana, church groups, Ball State University, and the local country club. The seven variables tested were: 1) age, 2) knowledge of fashion, 3) marital status, 4) religious affiliation, 5) income, 6) self concept of one's own fashionableness, and 7) shapeliness.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio State University, 1975. / Bibliography: leaf 39.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio State University. / Bibliography: leaves 74-76. Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

M.Tech / This study is an investigation into current local and international fashion forecasting approaches and procedures, as well as to discover whether intuition has relevance in the forecasting process. South African fashion is currently in the process of transformation; discovering and establishing a fashion identity, after decades of unquestioningly following international fashion trends (Chang, 2005:20; Cohen, 2005:27; Levin, 2005a: 75-78). The emergence of local fashion/trend forecasting practices in recent years is part of this transformation process. An underlying assumption of this study is that South African fashion will continue to develop, resulting in an increasing demand for fashion forecasting in the country. As there are currently no guidelines available, the study aims to provide insight into a way forward for this practice in South Africa. The study is grounded within a qualitative research paradigm, and the research design and data collection methods have accordingly been selected. The chosen research design falls largely within the framework of an ethnographic study. A comprehensive analysis of existing literature was conducted in order to provide a theoretical grounding to the study and to acquire a global perspective on forecasting procedures. This was followed by semi-structured interviews to obtain primary data from a South African perspective. The participants were purposely selected according to set criteria. The first criteria for selection required the participants to be leading role-players in their particular fields. Secondly, individuals who are trend forecasters by profession, as well as those who may use forecasting material in their businesses. Thirdly, the sample of participants represents specified sectors within the South African fashion/lifestyle industries. Namely, editors at leading trend magazines, in-house trend forecasters/analysts at leading fashion retailers, designers and independent trend analysts/forecasters. In order to construct the findings of the study qualitative content analysis was used as the method for data analysis. Through this process, the descriptions of the participants were interpreted to establish commonalities in practice, so as to identify viable threads of relevance regarding trend forecasting within a South African context. The research findings narrate the participants’ experiences within the field of trend/fashion forecasting, their knowledge frameworks being key to the study (Henning, van Rensburg & Smit, 2004:19). It is evident from the findings that the practice of fashion forecasting in South Africa is at an early stage of development and therefore at present, limited procedural IV structures seem to be in place. The findings further indicate that intuition indeed plays a significant role in the forecasting process, and is often associated with insightful trend/fashion forecasting. South African fashion, although facing several challenges, is perceived to have enormous potential for growth and to be a successful international marketing commodity in the future. In order for the practice of fashion forecasting to be successful in the country, though, it needs to be approached with insight and integrity, and with a true intention to add value.

Fashion designers are presented with a range of different principles for pattern cutting and the interest in this area has grown rapidly over the past few years, both due to the publication of a number of works dealing with the subject in different ways and the fact that a growing number of designers emphasise cutting in their practices. Although a range of principles and concepts for pattern cutting are presented from different perspectives, the main body of these systems, traditional as well as contemporary, are predominately based on a quantified approximation of the body. As a consequence, the connection of existing models for pattern construction to the dynamic expression of the body or the biomechanic function of the body is problematic. This work explores and proposes an alternative model for pattern cutting that, unlike the existing models, takes as its point of origin the actual, variable body. As such, the research conducted here is basic research, aiming to identify fundamental principles in order to create alternative expression and functions. Instead of a static matrix of a non-moving body, the proposed model for cutting garments is based on a qualitative approximation of the body, visualised through balance lines and key biomechanic points. Based on some key principles found in the works by Geneviève Sevin-Doering, the proposed model for cutting is developed through concrete experiments by cutting and draping fabrics on live models. The result of a proposed model is an alternative principle for dressmaking that challenges the fundamental relationship between dress, pattern making and the body, opening up for new expressions in dress and functional possibilities for wearing.

Textile materials and textile design are a part of countless products in our surroundings, as well as of diverse design fields and industries, with very different material traditions and working methods. Textile materials and industry have undergone many changes during recent decades, in terms of how and where textiles are produced, and what textiles can be and do; in much the same way, the design practices that textiles are involved in have also developed. What these diverse and evolving design contexts in which textiles are involved in have in common is that textile materials and textile design decisions somehow meet the rest of the design during a design process. The aim of this thesis is to add to our understanding of the relationship between textiles and products in the design process, and to explore the roles that textile design plays when designing textile products, the roles they can come to play when textiles become more complex and offer new means of functionality and expressiveness, for example through smart textile technology. This thesis presents two types of result: Firstly, descriptions of textile product design processes that highlight the wide range of roles that textiles can play in the textile product design processes of today, accentuate how textile materials and design decisions can influence both what can be designed and the design process, and describe some of the additional complexities that come with designing and designing with smart textiles. These examples are presented in the appended papers, and are the outcome of an observation of students who were designing textile products and collaborative, practice-based design research projects. Secondly, this thesis presents a theoretical framework which aims to offer a broad perspective on the relationship between textile design and the product design process, with the intention of opening up for reflection on how we design, and can design, with textiles. The framework focuses on how textile design decisions and textile materials participate in the process, and to what degree they influence the development of the design; this includes methods, questions, etc. that can be used to explore and define this dynamic. One of the main points of the framework is the importance of the textile influence in textile product design processes; the specific qualities of textiles as a design material - the considerations, possibilities, and challenges, which influence both the design of the product and the process of designing it. This includes not only the textiles in the final design, but also the textiles that, in other ways, feature in this process.

This dissertation considers the way in which the figure of fashion expands and complicates the field of literary modernism. My project treats "fashion" as more than just clothing and other bodily adornment, broadening it to include certain spaces, locations, and objects organized by social hierarchies of performance and display. I focus on the way in which characters--often in the texts of authors on the margins of mainstream modernism--use fashionable dress and the manipulation of social spaces to defy constraining social positions. I argue that fashionable expression allows characters to revise personal history and represent a self in opposition to externally imposed perceptions of identity.The readings of fashionable "moments" I consider show how fashion, like the modernist aesthetic itself, allows authors to fragment and remake conceptions of self and persona, meaning and value, and past and present, all categories scholars now argue were at the heart of the aesthetics of modernism. In chapters on Theodore Dreiser, Edith Wharton, Nella Larsen, and William Faulkner, I explore the production of womanhood as anti-modern, the generation of personhood through new relations to things, the relations of the signs of race to the more general fashion system, and the relation between the domestic, modernity, and the American South. Examining texts through the lens of fashion reveals the ways in which modernist moments are produced by characters, subjects and authors often considered to be outside the boundaries of the modernist movement through an engagement with concepts of the fashionable, and the remaking of the self it allows. Building on the history of scholarship on modernist aesthetics, and on recent work on the role fashion played in the production and growth of the spirit of modernity, I show how, at the fringes of the American aesthetic, the frictions that brought literature in contact with the fashion system allow us to rethink the history of the early twentieth century.

This thesis aims to discuss ways of opening up the design brief when designing for extreme environments such as intensive care units and remand prisons. Focusing on “designials” (fundamental forms of design being), the methodology intends to illustrate the fact that objects may directly impinge upon certain “existentials” (fundamental forms of human being). Moreover, the method is a form of critical design that enables designers to shift focus, from analysis of the functionality of a design in use, e.g. by performing a functional analysis, to analysis of the form of being human that a design in use defines. More importantly, this thesis considers what may happen if we do not take into account this aspect of design; in other words, the “dark side” of design thinking. / <p>Editor: Lars Hällnäs (LHS), Swedish Shcool of Textiles</p>

The turbulent and highly volatile market in the fashion industry creates swift changes in consumer demands. Globalization has been an important development and the Outsourcing of fashion products is also an integral part of the world of fast fashion industry. The suc-cess of fast fashion greatly depends on identifying a trend quickly and translating it into the market before the trend is over. This illustrates the importance of agility within fashion firms or organizations. Gina Tricot is one of Scandinavia’s fastest growing fashion industries and it focuses on women’s fashion wares. Their ability to forecast forthcoming trends with their own designs, and their ability to manage lead times cost effectively has made them triumphant in this in-dustry. The reputation of newly designed garments arriving in the shop each week makes them attractive to the customers. Harmonization of the production process and newly de-signed garments at an affordable price is achieved by the outsourcing of products in coop-eration with independent suppliers in Asia and Europe. However the outsourcing activity may cause a longer lead time and the colossal risks of long distance transportation. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the supply chain agility towards global outsourcing of the Gina Tricot Company and also to llok at the differences between Zara and Gina Tricot. A case study using a qualitative data was chosen for this study. To get a deeper under-standing of Gina Tricot's supply chain agility towards global outsourcing and of its supply chain pipeline, a couple of interviews were used prior to the main study. Personal semi-structured interview was conducted along with a emails and phone conversations as well. The respondents were the head of Gina Tricot’s logistic department and the head of the purchasing department at the head office in Borås. Gina Tricot manages their supply chain agility by which they handle the supply chain net-work and also quickly respond to consumer demand. The main purpose of the firm’s supply chain network towards global outsourcing is to get low priced quality product delivered promptly to the customer at the right time. Their supply chain is cost effective and with ef-fective management results in less lead times because most of the suppliers are from the Far East. Its supply chain agility greatly depends on the ability to know what the customer wants, on the reliability of information sharing between networks, and on its flexibility. / Our Thesis work was 15 credit.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 2010. / Printout. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-52). Also available on the World Wide Web.