Editorial

The apparel industry, one of the largest industries in the global economy, is undergoing transition. The industry is based on design and technology, serves many and diverse markets, and addresses many growing concerns. Recently, we celebrated and highlighted “Perspectives on 10 Years of Fashion Practice” by asking those involved in the first 10 years to share their thoughts. Von Busch (2019) posed some poignant questions, i.e., what do we want from the current fashion system and can we even imagine a coherent alternative? Then he concluded, “The future of sustainable fashion must be to cultivate, test, and evaluate new modes of being with fashion and each other … (p. 267).” The global nature of the industry is in transition, as focus on innovation, evolving personnel roles, the rise of local and regional markets, and changing standards in retail spaces and design become challenges that must be met. Sustainable best practices need to be added as concerns to be addressed in locations facing the challenges of transition such as those featured in this issue: Sri Lanka, Taiwan, China, and the United States. In creating solutions, current trends, examination of blurring boundaries in the roles of industry professionals, and all aspects of the design process must be considered.

Three apparel companies are examined by Niromi Seram, Julian Nanyakkara, and Gamini Lanarolle in “Decision Making in the Front-End of Apparel Innovation: a study from Sri Lanka.” Challenges faced by the industry include demand for on-time customized products, the rise in productions costs, reduced consumer spending, incorporation of emerging technologies, and concerns about the environment. Managing the innovation process at the front-end is considered a means to meet these challenges. A qualitative analysis of key decision-making gates is focused on the front end of apparel innovation during the preliminary strategy identification and implementation phases. These front-end decisions are described in detail as a way of making decisions when initiating an apparel innovation process. These include potential innovations and practices, technological options, consideration of internal resources and external partners.

Another study also located in Sri Lanka by Sumith Gopura, Alice Payne, and Laurie Buys addresses the changing role of the designer: “The fashion designer’s evolving role in the apparel value chain: Perspectives from Sri Lankan designers” highlights the challenges faced when an industry transitions from apparel assembly to providing higher value-added products and services. The designer plays a significant role in this transition. In this qualitative study, authors interview fashion and product development professionals in the Sri Lankan apparel industry. They found that designers take a multidisciplinary approach in their design practice aligning with the functional and strategic aspects of their respective companies. Important to the success of these designers was their fashion knowledge based upon their familiarity with Western brands, Western retailers and consumer lifestyles and culture. Changing trends globally will require considerations such as what will happen with an increase in near-shoring in Europe and the US and the potential decline in off-shoring production. At the same time the rapidly growing middle-class in Asia will mean developing their own brands to meet the demands of regional markets.

Moving to the practice of fashion processes in Taiwan, WenYing Claire Shih, and Konstantinos Agrafiotis consider the influence of creative arts at the start of the fashion design process in their paper “Transmission mechanisms in the creative economy, fashion design processes and competitiveness: the case of progressive Taiwanese fashion designers” Their investigation brings together Bourriaud’s “Altermodern” concept and the psychological construct “neogenesis” and discusses how these apply to the early stages of the design process where innovation can confer distinctive style and therefore competitiveness in the market. The authors interview selected emerging Taiwanese fashion designers as exemplars to give insights into their creative influences from “wandering” through global arts and culture and situate their work in the context of a developing fashion market in Taiwan that is independent of traditional local culture, a new hybrid.

Redesigning the school uniform for Chinese elementary students is addressed by Peijing Li in “Designing an Elementary School Uniform with Functions of Fit, Comfort and Road Safety”. In this study the current product standards for school uniforms are measured against the quality defects reported in recent years. Students who wear the uniforms completed a survey and from those results, uniforms were redesigned to address three key issues: size, wearing comfort, and protective performance. Four design concepts were initially developed for esthetic appearance and then the three issues were assessed through experimentation: Adjustable sizes met the students’ need for growth; Materials were recommended for wearing comfort; Reflective materials were added to enhance visibility in the dark, thus encouraging road safety.

A challenge facing the apparel industry especially in the USA is the current demand for green retail spaces and the advent of LEED certified retail stores. LEED certification stands for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design and has six assessment categories. Seung-Eun Lee and Stephen Skorski explore this challenge from a multidisciplinary perspective in a paper entitled “Green Stores: An Analysis of LEED-Certified Fashion Stores.” These categories were analysed for each of 199 fashion stores who had completed their LEED certification. A concern for many retailers in building sustainable retail spaces is that the spaces often originated when sustainable practices were not considered so critical as they are currently. Standards for such retail spaces include a greater need than many other types of buildings for considering hours of operation, parking and transportation, and water and energy consumption. For example, energy consumption is held to the standard, even though lighting is so important to the retailer in engaging the consumer. However, findings revealed that esthetic considerations were often more important than sustainability concerns.

Book reviews

Two book reviews complete this issue. The first is by Michelle Hanks who reviews Folk fashion: understanding homemade clothes by Amy Twigger Holroyd. This book about the current movement toward making and wearing of homemade clothing is based on interviews with the makers. Twigger Holroyd discusses the meaning of handmade clothing from the perspectives of the maker and society and their impact on identity. The process of engaging in crafts as a sustainability measure is a contribution to the maker movement and especially the practice of knitting.

The second book reviewed by Seoha Min is Global Perspectives on Sustainable Fashion edited by Alison Gwilt, Alice Payne and Evelise Anicet Ruthschilling. A wide range of sustainable fashion practices from around the globe are outlined according to practices in six continents. The cases included in each chapter address three questions: How is the movement toward sustainable fashion evolving around the world? Are there similarities and differences to be found in approaches to sustainability and circularity across the regions? How to do we see fashion in a global system developing in the future?

Marilyn DeLong, Ph.D.
College of Design, University of Minnesota
Co-editor, Fashion Practice
[email protected]