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Body moisture and heat are factors connected with athlete's comfort, performance and physical condition during and after sporting activities. Up to date approaches on fabric's moisture and heat control involve: i) chemical pre- or post-treatments of the fibres, and/or the fabrics, ii) combination of original properties of fibres, by fibre blending or fabric multi-layering, or iii) increased fabric surface area or 3D structures to remove moisture from the body through the fabric volume, whilst enabling air ventilation. The novelty of the work undertaken was to develop a process which created a light- weight multifunctional textile surface for moisture and heat management that facilitates drying and cooling of athletes' body during high levels of activity. The work involved; i) plasma treatment of a light-weight knitted polypropylene (PP) fabric and the subsequent ii) nanocoating of the plasma treated surface. Both processes are environmental friendly; using minimum amount of chemicals, and with no by- products. Appropriate fabric mechanical and physical properties were obtained by extruding and fabricating the polypropylene (PP) fibres using experimental equipment. Optimum treatment parameters of the process were determined to impart hydrophilicity and hydrophobicity on opposite sides of the fabric while leaving its bulk untouched. The treated surface was evaluated by FTIR and SEM analysis, water contact angle measurements and moisture and heat transfer rates, through its bulk, with a device that was designed and constructed in the lab supported by the theoretical background of the physical processes that. took place during the moisture and heat transfer. In total, the contribution of this work to knowledge, is the design and construction of a Wilhelmy frame for dynamic contact angle measurements on fabric structures, creation of wicking of moisture through fabric structures by contact angle difference on opposite sides, developing of a single layer multifunctional surface using environmentally friendly and low cost methods, and finally the design and construction of a sweat simulator for moisture and heat transfer through fabric structure.

Printed textile and garment design are generally taught and practised as separate disciplines. Integrated CAD software enables textile and clothing designers to envisage printed garments by assimilating graphic imagery with 2D garment shapes, and 3D visualisations. Digital printing can be enlisted to transpose print-filled garment shapes directly onto cloth. This research challenges existing 2D practice by synthesising manual and CAD technologies, to explore the integration of print design and garment shape from a simultaneous, 3D perspective. This research has identified three fundamental archetypes of printed garment styles from Twentieth Century fashion: 'sculptural', 'architectural' and 'crossover'. The contrasting spatial characteristics and surface patterning inherent in these models provided the theoretical and practical framework for the research. Design approaches such as'textile-led', 'garment-led'and 'the garment as canvas' highlighted the originality of the simultaneous design method, which embraces all of these concepts. This research recognises the body form as a positive influence within the printed textile and printed garment designing process, whereby modelled fabric shapes can be enlisted to determine mark making. The aim of the practice, to create printed garment designs from a 3D perspective, was facilitated by an original method of image capture, resulting in blueprinted toiles, or cyanoforms, that formed the basis of engineer-printed garments and textiles. Integrated CAD software provided the interface between manual modelling, design development and realisation, where draping software was employed to digitally craft 3D textiles. The practical and aesthetic characteristics of digital printing were tested through the printing of photographic-style, integrated garment prototypes. The design outcomes demonstrate that a simultaneous approach to the body, cloth and print can result in innovative textile vocabulary, that'plays a proactive role within the design equation, through its aesthetic integration with garment and form. The integration of print directly with the garment contour can result in a 3D orientated approach to printed garment design that is empathetic with the natural body shape.

This study reveals the often overlooked but highly significant role of the Leeds multiple tailors in the history of British men’s clothing and fashion from the 1940s to 1980. Focusing on these particular companies, their mass production of men’s tailoring, and the ways these garments were consumed, makes an important contribution to a more complex understanding of men’s fashion and dress as well as the history of the Leeds tailoring industry in the post-war period. This thesis takes a dress historical approach which combines object study, oral history and personal accounts, company archives and trade literature to look at the design, production and consumption of the men’s tailoring made by the Leeds multiples. The use of object study and oral history has revealed details and meanings of suits that illuminate the richness and diversity of men’s experiences and relationships with mass produced and everyday clothing which is rare in the history of men’s dress. Four main themes are analysed by this thesis: the role of design and fashion within the Leeds multiple tailoring firms; masculinity and identity and the suit; masculine consumption; and mass produced and everyday men’s dress. These are explored through four chapters focusing on mass production, made-to-measure and design; visual identity, design and display in retail; men’s consumption of suits and tailoring through their lives; and the partnership between Hepworths and fashion designer Hardy Amies from the early 1960s. These themes are contextualised within the wider changes in men’s fashion in this period and demonstrate the variety of approaches taken by the Leeds multiple tailors to make and sell men’s suits for British high streets in the four decades after the Second World War.

The aim of this research was to implement a computer-aided 3D to 2D pattern development technique for outerwear. A preponderance of total clothing consumption is of garments in this category, which are designed to offer the wearer significant levels of ease. Yet there has not previously been on the market any system which offers a practical solution to the problems of 3D design and pattern flattening for clothing in this category. A set of 3D outerwear templates, one for men's shirts and another for men's trousers, has been developed to execute pattern flattening from virtual designs and this approach offers significant reduction in time and manpower involvement in the clothing development phase by combining creative and technical garment design processes into a single step. The outerwear templates developed and demonstrated in this research work can provide 3D design platforms for clothing designers to create virtual clothing as a surface layer which can be flattened to create a traditional pattern. Point-Cloud data captured by a modern white-light-based 3D body-scanning system were used as the basic input for creating the outerwear templates. A set of sectional curves, representative of anthropometric size parameters, was extracted from a virtual model generated from the body scan data by using reverse engineering software. These sectional curves were then modified to reproduce the required profile upon which to create items of men's outerwear. The curves were made symmetrical, as required, before scaling to impart resizability. Using geometric modelling technique, a new surface was generated out of these resizable curves to form the required 3D outerwear templates. Through a set of functionality tests, it has been found that both of the templates developed in this research may be used for virtual design, 3D grading and pattern flattening.

Scoliosis of the spine is defined as a side-to-side deviation from the normal frontal axis of the body resulting in body asymmetry, and as a complex, three-dimensional and multifaceted deformity, not only affects a female adolescent’s appearance - fit, usability and appearance of clothing - but can also compromise her health and ability to function. Scoliosis affects at least 2.9% of the population in Greece, appearing particularly among children aged 8-14 years, and more frequently in girls (9 girls for 1 boy). This study traces previous initiatives and current provision for clothing people with divergent body figures, exploring issues at the intersection of human anatomy and fashion, while it takes place in Greece, starting with measuring procedures specifically adapted for body asymmetry that comply with the appropriate code of ethics. External body measurements provide non-invasive evaluation of changes in external asymmetry due to scoliosis, while analysis of the measurements related to the trunk can document the asymmetry arising from the different types and degrees of spinal curvature, providing a 3D classification of scoliotic deformities. Both right and left body halves of 75 females aged 16-22 years of age, diagnosed with Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis (AIS), are measured in order to register their different body shapes and to classify them in different scoliotic groups, according to the magnitude and type of their scoliosis. The asymmetric basic pattern blocks derived from the median body measurements for each scoliotic group will be more tolerant of bodies with scoliosis, providing a better garment fit than conventional symmetrical patterns. These new ‘blocks’ will have the potential to be used in mass production, after the development of sizing systems based on body asymmetry, whereby an ‘aesthetic’ and an ‘ethical’ dimension in design could be then incorporated. Applying auto-ethnography, as well as using participant observation and interviewing methods, this research will help gain a deeper understanding of the culture and the needs of the specific target group. Future challenges relate to design perspectives of fashionable clothing for females with non-standard body dimensions, with particular emphasis on scoliosis, having potential for wider application in mass customised apparel for scoliosis.

M. Tech. (Fashion, Department of Arts and Design, Faculty of Human Sciences): Vaal University of Technology / Criteria used by fashion consumers to assess the quality of apparel products during the decision-making process are a good indication of what considerations to keep in mind for customer satisfaction. Evaluative criteria of concern to apparel customers are intrinsic attributes, involving physical features such as design/style, materials and construction and performance features such as aesthetic and functional aspects and extrinsic attributes such as price, brand, store image, label, country of origin and appropriateness for the occasion, in this case casual day wear. The broad research aim of this exploratory study was to determine which evaluative criteria were used by female fashion consumers in the Vaal Region to determine apparel quality when purchasing casual daywear, and to what extent the various criteria were applied. A self-administered, structured questionnaire was used to collect the data. Sections 1 and 2 measured the importance of intrinsic and extrinsic clothing evaluative criteria. Section 3 investigated the frequency with which the respondents bought casual daywear at various store types, namely specialty, department and discount stores, while section 4 gathered the demographic information of the respondents. A representative sample was chosen from the academic personnel of all seven tertiary institutions in the Vaal Region. The majority of the lecturers (38.00 percent) were between the ages of 31 and 40, which can be described as relatively young, constituting a group sometimes referred to as baby busters or Generation X. Although the predominant population group was white (65.71 percent), a quarter of the respondents were black. They all had a tertiary qualification, indicating a relatively high educational level, and an average income. These espondents were predominantly married, either by orthodox or customary marriage. Regarding the application of evaluative criteria for quality assessment, these respondents used intrinsic apparel attributes to a greater extent than extrinsic attributes. Three functional performance aspects namely durability, comfort and fit were rated equal and most important for judging quality, followed closely by an extrinsic attribute namely appropriateness for casual daywear. Three clusters of respondents could be distinguished, each with a specific disposition towards the evaluative criteria. The most popular store type for clothing was Department stores, followed by Discount and Specialty stores.