This dissertation is a written component of a thesis, which was developed and articulated over four years in the construction of a narrative of the fashion designer and their practice. The hypothesis developed by the fashion designer as practitioner, is that it is both possible and necessary, by careful notation and reflective practice, to arrive at a better understanding of the fashion design practitioners cognitive and behavioural reasoning through the creative practice process than exists in current literature and archive. In comparison with the archiving of materials that testify to the complexity of creativity in painting, sculpture and orchestral composition, for example, the archiving of the process and practice of fashion design is negligible. Collections of designers' ephemera often constitute little more than ‘the retrospective’ or materials of celebrity culture that further mystify the 'author function' role (Foucault, 1969, p.113-138) of the fashion design practitioner. This research aims to suggest a critical visual method for and in support of constructing a narrative of fashion practice as it is lived towards a new culture of compiling, recording, noting, classifying and analysing the tacit process of the fashion design practitioners relationship to their practice. The practice therefore comprises the designing, draping, cutting and making of an eight-piece collection of fashion womenswear. The research comprises extensive documentation of the (research) practitioner’s subjective-objective1 dialogues as purposeful acts of thought (Burnette, 2009b) and action whilst developing a body of creative work. In addition to the researcher's journey this narrative inquiry extends documentation to include the responses of five other practitioners as willing participants in the project aim: to develop a new research method for documenting and understanding the fashion design practitioners cognitive and behavioural narratives. Whereas there is a significant literature on design theory written by theorists and not necessarily practitioners, and a considerable literature on fashion as object of sociological, historical, cultural, anthropological, semiotic, psychological, political, philosophical, economic study, there exists almost no serious study of fashion design practice from the perspective of the fashion designer (as practitioner). This research aims, without artificial abstraction of the creative practice from its cultural and social milieu, to start a serious, scholarly, rigorous study of fashion practice as design method. It may be that such method will be met with reactions that it could meddle with the illusion of a designer's intuitive sense of knowing and that it is an unwelcome complication of what should remain an invisible or tacit (because as yet unrecognised) process. The aim of the research is to develop a method that can be customised and adopted by the fashion design and design research communities and fashion designers in training and in professional practice, to understand more about their creative practice process in both cognitive and behavioural terms. To this end I use the forms of auto ethnography to collect data through sketchbook work, diarised journals, photographic and film reportage and interview in order to consider how a method of (doing) practice may refer to theories of practice. Literary theory of Bakhtin is offered as an example of a dialogical method to consider how the process of fashion practice can be considered as communicable knowledge. The Kantian philosophy of the 'a priori' knowledge and Foucault’s relational systems of thought and knowledge are also offered as discourse and a foundation of thought that structures the tacit dialogues in the here and now as a telling of a knowing of a doing of fashion practice. The written dissertation is a text, which co-exists with the narrative traced through the making and visual realisation of the collection exhibited and photographed at the viva voce (Figure 1 & Appendix H).

This research by practice explores our relationship with and attachment to shoes. Focusing upon the shoe as an everyday object, and on the embodied experience of wearing, it examines how through touch and use we become entangled with the things we wear. Drawing on anthropological and psychoanalytic perspectives on attachment, affect and the self, it asks: How can the act of wearing create attachment between the wearer and the worn? What is our relationship with the used and empty shoe – the shoe without the body, the shoe no longer worn? It suggests that our particular relationship to footwear is located in our intimate and tactile relationship to it; that touch and duration of wear create attachment. This research suggests that through use and wear shoes become, not only a record of the wearer’s lived experience, but also an extended part of them - a distributed aspect of the self. That the affective power of the worn shoe is a result of this intermingling, the cleaving of garment and self. Despite a growing body of research on footwear, the worn and the used shoe is absent from much of fashion research. The shoe tends to be interpreted as a symbolic, metaphorical, or imaginary artefact; its material qualities and the embodied experience of wearing the shoe are seldom referred to. This research seeks to place the artefact, the shoe, at its centre. Through an iterative process of making, wear, and observation, it aims to make apparent the intimacies of our relationship with shoes. Rather than record the narratives which we apply to footwear, it seeks to highlight the material traces of these relationships: to present the ways they are embodied within the artefacts themselves. This research is research through practice, into the nature of our relationships with shoes, through making artefacts and images (installation, film and photographs). It is material culture research enacted through the production of artefacts. It situates itself as art practice; the shoes produced are not footwear in a conventional sense but instead are objects designed to amplify and make explicit their role as records of gesture and experience. These empty shoes are records of an absent performance, of gestures which are lost to the viewer, so that only their traces, the marks upon the shoe, remain.

The London couturier, Sir Norman Bishop Hartnell (1901-1979) is famous today for dressing Their Majesties Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother (1900-2002) and the current British Monarch, Elizabeth II (1926) from 1937 until his death in 1979. His legacy is understood to lie in the establishment of the fixed British royal style devised for Queen Elizabeth in 1937, still worn by Her Majesty the Queen today. Hartnell was, however, far more than a provider of dress to British royalty. Evidence in the form of bound volumes of international press cuttings extant in a private archive indicates that he commanded great respect as a couture fashion designer between 1923-1953. He was also the first British fashion designer to attempt to develop as an international fashion brand in the immediate post war period. Neither Hartnell' s production of two couture collections per year between 1923- 1979 and ready-to-wear from 1963 nor his signature looks or house style, have been examined in-depth to date in terms of his legacy. This thesis unpicks Hartnell's work, closely analysing his sketched designs, fabric swatches, embroideries, couture and ready-to-wear garments extant in a vast, privately owned and relatively unknown archive. I suggest that the roots of this signature house style lies in the identity of the man, which is also scrutinised here, in particular, his sexuality and life-long cross-dressing. Hartnell's taste in overtly feminine styles is evident in his use of colour, fabric and embellishment and is present in his all his fashion work. This is rooted in his personal taste and the use of these signature elements in garments designed and made at his couture house for his own personal use. The major business decisions taken at his couture house between 1946-1979 will also be discussed in the context of his complex gendered identity and reputation as the royal couturier. The research on the life and work of the London couturier Norman Hartnell undertaken for this PhD, probes through his vast, privately owned archive and collection of possessions, hidden from public view since 1985. This interdisciplinary investigation will track the relationship between Hartnell' s identity, both the public professional 'face' of Hartnell and the impact of his private life, in the design work of Britain's most prominent couturier. Theoretical 10 approaches to Hartnell' s life and work include material culture approaches to analysing these specific objects of couture and decorative art objects collected by him. Issues of self-presentation, performance and memory are addressed in order to unpick his personal choice in interior design as well as his wardrobe of normative masculine styles and his coded style of dressing, and his queer identity, using studio photographic portraits taken between 1928 and 1970. Oral histories recorded between 2006-2011 with those that worked with him and were close to him in life, offer unique insight into the working regime at the House of Hartnell and a further understanding of Hartnell's personality and character. This research re-evaluates Hartnell' s contribution to British couture in order to position him, and the design and production of couture at the House of Hartnell, at the centre ofthe finally emerging, growing body of research on London couture recently established by Breward, de la Haye and Erhman. This thesis addressed how the identity of a person can be read through what they leave behind and, in particular, what can be read of the celebrity couturier Norman Hartnell's identity through the residue of his life and work.

No description available.

Thesis (BTech (Fashion Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2010 / Petite women face many difficulties when purchasing clothing (Kam, 2006). This has been the common reaction expressed by a number of petite women all over the globe (Kam, 2006). Although there have been efforts made to accommodate petite women in South Africa( National Textiles Research brief, 2007) regarding clothing such as Edgars in particular there is still a large amount of petite women who feel dissatisfied. To test whether poorly fitted clothing does have a psychological effect on the petite women, interviews will be conducted with students attending CPUT and UCT. Research on theories revolving around the human mind and how the perception of other people influence our own perceptions of our self image were covered and the product of this research will be a new sizing system for petite women and a range of smart wear which allows women to express themselves age appropriately. The apparel industry has been growing and has worked side by side with technology to address many problems concerning fit and have succeeded in many departments. The fashion industry has in fact paid little attention to petite individuals not recognizing the psychological effect it has on the consumer and could largely benefit if the industry concentrates more on fit, aesthetic and design problems.

Fundação Araucária / De origem latina “sustentare” significa suster, sustentar, suportar, conservar em bom estado, manter e resistir, logo, a expressão sustentável quer dizer capacidade de ser mantido ou suportado. A sustentabilidade encontra-se fundamentada no Triple Botton Line, denominado também de pilares ou dimensões. Nesse contexto, suas diversas áreas, vem ganhando elevada importância, devido a problemas ambientais, econômicos e socais, tornando-se uma ferramenta de diferencial entre as organizações, através da qual podem desenvolver estratégias e ações mais competitivas e sustentáveis. As organizações tem inserido informações importantes em suas tomadas de decisões por meio de indicadores de sustentabilidade. Uma das ferramentas mundialmente utilizada, sendo considera uma das mais completas em termos de indicadores é a GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), que apresenta em suas diretrizes, indicadores essenciais, adicionais e setoriais que auxiliam as organizações na geração de relatórios de sustentabilidade, com o intuito de se posicionarem diferentemente perante seus stakeholders. Logo, esse trabalho teve com objetivo avaliar a viabilidade das diretrizes da GRI-G3 para a geração de relatório de sustentabilidade em MPMDs indústrias de vestuário no APL Maringá/Cianorte - PR. Sendo assim, no referencial teórico foram abordados conceitos relacionados à sustentabilidade, relatório de sustentabilidade e APL (Arranjo Produtivo Local). O método utilizado na pesquisa foi o dedutivo, sendo a abordagem metodológica como aplicada, qualitativa, exploratória descritiva e de levantamento. Para a coleta de dados utilizou -se dois questionários, sendo o primeiro para identificar o nível de importância dos indicadores e a situação de cada indicador nas empresas pesquisadas e o segundo para identificar a materialidade dos indicadores, ou seja, quais indicadores são relevantes para compor o relatório de sustentabilidade de acordo com a percepção dos gestores. Os dados foram tabulados e tratados através de planilha eletrônica, calculando-se a média ponderada. Os resultados demonstraram diferenças entre o que os gestores percebem como importante e o que eles apontam como sendo relevante constar no relatório, bem como a situação de cada indicador, verificando-se a ausência principalmente, de um maior número de indicadores ambientais. No entanto, conforme as diretrizes da GRI-G3, para uma organização relatora iniciante é necessário identificar materialidade respondendo a um mínimo de 10 indicadores, incluindo pelo menos um de cada uma das seguintes áreas de desempenho: ambiental, social e econômico. Desse modo, pode-se concluir que, as diretrizes da GRI-G3 mostraram-se viabilizadoras de relatório de sustentabilidade em MPMDs indústrias de vestuário no APL de Maringá/Cianorte - PR, no qual foram atendidas as exigências do nível de aplicação C, para organizações iniciantes. / Latino "Sustentare" means to sustain, maintain, support, maintain in good repair, maintain and resist, hence the term sustainable means capable of being maintained or supported. Sustainability is based on the Triple Bottom Line, also called the pillars or dimensions. In this context, the various areas, has gained high importance due to environmental, economic and social rights, becoming a tool to differentiate between the organizations through which they can develop strategies and actions in order to be more competitive and sustainable. The organizations have entered information important in their decision making by means of sustainability indicators. One of the tools used worldwide and is considered one of the most complete in terms of indicators is the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), which presents in its guidelines, key indicators, and additional sectoral organizations that assist in reporting sustainability, in order to position themselves differently towards their stakeholders. Therefore, this study was to evaluate the viability of the GRI-G3 guidelines for sustainability report generation in MPMDs apparel industries in Maringá APL / Cianorte - PR. Thus, the theoretical concepts discussed were related to sustainability, sustainability reporting and APL (Local Productive Arrangement). The method used in the research was deductive, being applied as a methodological approach, qualitative, exploratory and descriptive survey. To collect data was used two questionnaires, the first being to identify the level of importance of indicators and the status of each indicator and the second in the companies surveyed to identify the materiality of the indicators, i.e. indicators which are relevant to render the report sustainability according to the perception of managers. Data were tabulated and processed through a spreadsheet, calculating the weighted average. The results showed differences between what managers perceive as important and what they indicate as being relevant in the report included, as well as the status of each indicator, verifying the absence especially of a greater number of envir onmental indicators. However, according to the guidelines of the GRI-G3 reporting organization to a beginner is necessary to identify materiality responding to a minimum of 10 indicators, including at least one of each of the following performance areas: environmental, social and economic. Thus, was can conclude that the guidelines of the GRI-G3 proved to be enablers of sustainability report in MPMDs apparel industries in APL Maringá / Cianorte - PR, which have been met the requirements of the application level C for organizations beginners.

Fundação Araucária / De origem latina “sustentare” significa suster, sustentar, suportar, conservar em bom estado, manter e resistir, logo, a expressão sustentável quer dizer capacidade de ser mantido ou suportado. A sustentabilidade encontra-se fundamentada no Triple Botton Line, denominado também de pilares ou dimensões. Nesse contexto, suas diversas áreas, vem ganhando elevada importância, devido a problemas ambientais, econômicos e socais, tornando-se uma ferramenta de diferencial entre as organizações, através da qual podem desenvolver estratégias e ações mais competitivas e sustentáveis. As organizações tem inserido informações importantes em suas tomadas de decisões por meio de indicadores de sustentabilidade. Uma das ferramentas mundialmente utilizada, sendo considera uma das mais completas em termos de indicadores é a GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), que apresenta em suas diretrizes, indicadores essenciais, adicionais e setoriais que auxiliam as organizações na geração de relatórios de sustentabilidade, com o intuito de se posicionarem diferentemente perante seus stakeholders. Logo, esse trabalho teve com objetivo avaliar a viabilidade das diretrizes da GRI-G3 para a geração de relatório de sustentabilidade em MPMDs indústrias de vestuário no APL Maringá/Cianorte - PR. Sendo assim, no referencial teórico foram abordados conceitos relacionados à sustentabilidade, relatório de sustentabilidade e APL (Arranjo Produtivo Local). O método utilizado na pesquisa foi o dedutivo, sendo a abordagem metodológica como aplicada, qualitativa, exploratória descritiva e de levantamento. Para a coleta de dados utilizou -se dois questionários, sendo o primeiro para identificar o nível de importância dos indicadores e a situação de cada indicador nas empresas pesquisadas e o segundo para identificar a materialidade dos indicadores, ou seja, quais indicadores são relevantes para compor o relatório de sustentabilidade de acordo com a percepção dos gestores. Os dados foram tabulados e tratados através de planilha eletrônica, calculando-se a média ponderada. Os resultados demonstraram diferenças entre o que os gestores percebem como importante e o que eles apontam como sendo relevante constar no relatório, bem como a situação de cada indicador, verificando-se a ausência principalmente, de um maior número de indicadores ambientais. No entanto, conforme as diretrizes da GRI-G3, para uma organização relatora iniciante é necessário identificar materialidade respondendo a um mínimo de 10 indicadores, incluindo pelo menos um de cada uma das seguintes áreas de desempenho: ambiental, social e econômico. Desse modo, pode-se concluir que, as diretrizes da GRI-G3 mostraram-se viabilizadoras de relatório de sustentabilidade em MPMDs indústrias de vestuário no APL de Maringá/Cianorte - PR, no qual foram atendidas as exigências do nível de aplicação C, para organizações iniciantes. / Latino "Sustentare" means to sustain, maintain, support, maintain in good repair, maintain and resist, hence the term sustainable means capable of being maintained or supported. Sustainability is based on the Triple Bottom Line, also called the pillars or dimensions. In this context, the various areas, has gained high importance due to environmental, economic and social rights, becoming a tool to differentiate between the organizations through which they can develop strategies and actions in order to be more competitive and sustainable. The organizations have entered information important in their decision making by means of sustainability indicators. One of the tools used worldwide and is considered one of the most complete in terms of indicators is the GRI (Global Reporting Initiative), which presents in its guidelines, key indicators, and additional sectoral organizations that assist in reporting sustainability, in order to position themselves differently towards their stakeholders. Therefore, this study was to evaluate the viability of the GRI-G3 guidelines for sustainability report generation in MPMDs apparel industries in Maringá APL / Cianorte - PR. Thus, the theoretical concepts discussed were related to sustainability, sustainability reporting and APL (Local Productive Arrangement). The method used in the research was deductive, being applied as a methodological approach, qualitative, exploratory and descriptive survey. To collect data was used two questionnaires, the first being to identify the level of importance of indicators and the status of each indicator and the second in the companies surveyed to identify the materiality of the indicators, i.e. indicators which are relevant to render the report sustainability according to the perception of managers. Data were tabulated and processed through a spreadsheet, calculating the weighted average. The results showed differences between what managers perceive as important and what they indicate as being relevant in the report included, as well as the status of each indicator, verifying the absence especially of a greater number of envir onmental indicators. However, according to the guidelines of the GRI-G3 reporting organization to a beginner is necessary to identify materiality responding to a minimum of 10 indicators, including at least one of each of the following performance areas: environmental, social and economic. Thus, was can conclude that the guidelines of the GRI-G3 proved to be enablers of sustainability report in MPMDs apparel industries in APL Maringá / Cianorte - PR, which have been met the requirements of the application level C for organizations beginners.

Can a sound itself be a garment? This practice-led research explores the sound of garments and fashion, which is unheard, unspoken or overheard, to suggest a new perspective for reconsidering garments and fashion. Through experiments with making, wearing and displaying, the research examines the sound, voice or silence embedded in garments and fashion and affective experiences aroused from garments as atmospheric spaces. A new term, ‘dress-scape’, is introduced and discussed through a series of practical and theoretical approaches to the concept. The research suggests that the dress-scape of a garment emerges as the resonance of sound, voice, noise or silence from the interplay between the garment and the maker, the wearer or the viewer. As the research attempts to locate fashion in a new place, the practice varies significantly from that in conventional garments. The maker rather explores non-wearable garments, other artefacts, installation, film and sound-making using diverse mediums. The practice, in turn, oscillates between fashion and art practice. The journal entries exist as a documentation of the maker’s reflections on the research journey and contribute to the development of both practical and theoretical renderings of the research. Inspired by the notion of ‘tacet’ (broadly, ‘silence’) as used in John Cage’s work, 4’33”, the research aims to invite the reader, the viewer and the listener to be silent and to ‘listen’ to the research, together with the maker, who also acts as the author and the composer. Thus, rather than acting as a series of problem-solving investigations for knowledge acquisition, the research is essentially the journey of the investigation of the maker’s tacit awareness of other related issues including modernist artists, film, architecture, the relationship between fashion and art, and curatorial display. This, in turn, adds to the value of the practice-led research, elevating it to an interdisciplinary study.

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.

Flexible production techniques have been implemented in a number of industries in response to the crisis following the long post World War Two boom. These new methods have recently captured the attention of social scientists from a broad range of perspectives. In the large North American automobile industry, where flexible manufacturing is best documented, firms are introducing programmable equipment, work teams are replacing the assembly line, inventories are kept at a minimum, improving turnaround time and quality are important goals, and markets are smaller as specific consumers are targeted. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that the experience of the automobile industry is not representative of other manufacturing sectors. The implementation of the new techniques is likely to be different where the organisation of production is different, the structure of the industry is less concentrated, and where norms of consumption are distinct. This thesis focuses on the clothing industry in Vancouver, British Columbia. For this study, interviews were conducted with fourteen clothing firms in the city, ten workers (most of whom were Chinese female immigrants), union officials, equipment salespeople and a government official. The primary research question was to understand the pervasiveness of the new techniques and their effects on workers and the industry in Vancouver. The results of this study suggest that it is overwhelmingly the very large fashion firms that have invested in flexible machinery. These firms are large enough to lay out the capital for the new machines which improve turnaround time and flexibility, both vital for manufacturers of fashion apparel. A second advantage of the equipment for factory owners is that it reduces their dependence on skilled male workers who command the highest wages on the shop floor. For women workers in the industry (machinists), the new machines simply speed up work, making an already debilitating job worse. On the other hand, many smaller fashion firms are unable to raise the capital for the equipment even though the potential benefits are significant. In addition, standardised clothing manufacturers in Vancouver have not purchased the new technology because it does not suit their needs. Firms without the new technology weather downturns in the economy primarily through workers in the secondary labour market, which, in Vancouver is dominated by immigrant women. At this stage it seems that are barriers to the widespread implementation of flexible equipment in Vancouver clothing industry. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate