The area of the research comprises the field of virtualization as specified to the field of three-dimensional user interfaces (3D UIs). It is an approach of applying the field of motion-sensing technology to potential areas of apparel value chains focusing on design. The background of this thesis is the industry’s established 3D design and development process and new digital tools that enable embodied interaction. So far companies are still working with a limited 3D design approach, which requires several non-value-adding activities, e.g. technical sketching and pattern creation, before a product can be virtually simulated and evaluated. As the current fashion industry’s human-computer interaction (HCI) applications have non-embodied interaction technologies, which deny natural hand movements, it was evaluated, if motion-sensing technology can enable the feeling of natural handcrafting. The purpose of the project was to investigate the designer’s attitude towards motion-sensing technology as a design tool and the potential of embodied HCI in design and development processes of apparel value chains. Enabling the designer the feeling of handcrafting in a 3D world opens a new area of research within the use of 3D fashion design tools. Moreover the thesis expected to prove the desire towards embodied interaction during the apparel design and development processes and the designer’s openness to try out new things. To fulfill the purpose, the motion-sensing technology tool Leap Motion was used as a practical device, which enables embodied interaction in design applications. A team of various designers was used to conduct a practical experiment, combined with interviews and observations. The experiment has been analysed on the designer’s attitude towards the use of a motion-sensing technology tool within the design field and possible implications on the design and development phases of apparel value chains. The results show, that the designers supported embodied interaction and experienced the use of motion-sensing technology as an enhancing and powerful tool. However, it has become clear that the designers experienced the usage of free-handed motion-sensing technology as not natural or intuitive and rather prefer tangible tools. Presupposing a crucial improvement of the technology, different ways of substituting current design activities like enabling the draping process on a virtual basis could enhance the value chain regarding speed, flexibility and waste. This would enable earlier entry into the evaluation stage of virtual simulated prototypes while directly starting the design and development process in 3D and reducing several iterations of non-value adding activities.

Submitted by Mariana Dornelles Vargas (marianadv) on 2015-04-01T14:13:05Z No. of bitstreams: 1 from_basic.pdf: 1929821 bytes, checksum: 770b2c0180db6cf5fcf53dc88dc9f3f3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-01T14:13:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 from_basic.pdf: 1929821 bytes, checksum: 770b2c0180db6cf5fcf53dc88dc9f3f3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-17 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This dissertation aims at explaining the elements involved with the upgrading processes in value chains. Empirical data about the upgrading processes of apparel production and consumption in Brazil is taken as a way to explore upgrading strategies in the context of a growing fashion industry. We assume that fashion has been a key element in the apparel production which responds to upgrading in apparel value chains, turning basic apparel into more valued products and services as they are embedded by particular social values recognized and legitimized as fashion trends. Consequently, fashion apparel is an enterprise which involves dealing with two different processes: (1) the tangible or material production process of apparel items and (2) the intangible or immaterial production process of fashion concept. To explain the two diverse but consonant processes, this study draws upon two theoretical approaches to unveil the value creation that leads to upgrading in apparel production. Both theoretical approaches feature value‐adding processes but in different ways: (i) the global apparel value chain industrial upgrading approach highlights the tangible production of apparel items through contractors industrial upgrading process and (ii) the fashion social embedded system approach focuses on intangible production of fashion concept or belief through a cultural upgrading process. Furthermore, bolstered on these two theoretical approaches and on empirical data, this study delineates three propositions to discuss and characterize the means by which upgrading occurs: (a) through a linear value chain configuration; (b) by way of a network system or (c) via 3 a loose chain. The results suggest that basic apparel production upgrades to fashion apparel production and consumption when different players intertwine, producing, sharing and/or incorporating intangible value‐adding activities such as designing and image‐making. The embedment of intangible value turns apparel players into hybrid forms casting doubt on the industrial/traditional upgrading approach of the apparel value chains. These hybrid forms reveal a broad perspective for upgrading in apparel production, highlighting a convergence of tangible and intangible activities related to apparel production in the realm of a fashion apparel loose chain. / Esta dissertação procura explicar os elementos envolvidos com os processos de progressão nas cadeias de valor. Dados empíricos sobre os processos de progressão da produção e do consumo de vestuário no Brasil são considerados como uma maneira de explorar estratégias de progressão no contexto de um setor de moda em desenvolvimento. Adotamos como premissa que a moda tem sido um elemento chave na produção de vestuário. A moda responde pela progressão das empresas nas cadeias de valor do vestuário, transformando o vestuário básico em produtos e serviços mais valorizados na medida em que eles são incorporados por determinados valores sociais reconhecidos e legitimados como tendências de moda. Conseqüentemente, o vestuário de moda é uma iniciativa que lida com dois processos diferentes: (1) o processo de produção tangível ou material de itens de vestuário e (2) o processo de produção intangível ou imaterial do conceito de moda. Para explicar esses dois diferentes, mas também convergentes processos, o presente estudo se baseia em duas abordagens teóricas para desvendar a criação de valor que leva à progressão na produção de vestuário. Ambas as abordagens teóricas apresentam os processos de agregação de valor, mas de maneiras diferentes: (i) a abordagem da progressão industrial na cadeia global de valor do vestuário destaca a produção tangível de itens de vestuário por meio do processo de progressão industrial dos contratados envolvidos na cadeia e (ii) a abordagem do sistema de moda impregnado por valores sociais que se foca na produção intangível 5 do conceito ou crença de moda através de um processo de progressão cultural dos agentes envolvidos no sistema. Ademais,, baseado nestas duas abordagens teóricas e em dados empíricos, este estudo propõe três proposições para discutir e caracterizar os meios pelos quais a progressão ocorre: (a) através de uma configuração linear de cadeia de valor; (b) por meio de um sistema em rede ou ( c) via uma cadeia flexível. Os resultados sugerem que a produção do vestuário básico progride para a produção e consumo do vestuário de moda quando diferentes agentes se envolvem nessa iniciativa, produzindo, partilhando e/ ou incorporando atividades de agregação de valor intangível como o design e a construção de imagem. A incorporação do valor intangível transforma os agentes produtores de vestuário em formas híbridas, lançando dúvidas sobre a abordagem da progressão industrial/tradicional das cadeias de valor do vestuário. Estas formas híbridas revelam uma ampla perspectiva para a progressão na produção de vestuário, com destaque para uma convergência de atividades tangíveis e intangíveis relacionados à produção de vestuário no âmbito de uma cadeia flexível de vestuário de moda.