THE FUTURE OF FIT
Future of Fit: Review of Cornell Webinar with Susan Ashdown's Revised Apparel Design Book
by Sandi Dickenson, Sarasota Gulf Coast (FL) Member
Dare we imagine a future where our body scan is translated into a well fitted customized pattern for us as home sewists?
Susan Ashdown, Emerita Professor, held a Cornell University Zoom Webinar on March 15, 2023 to explain how that's acheivable. She co-authored Draping for Apparel Design, 4th Ed., with Helen Joseph-Armstrong. Their highly readable textbook for fashion design students is affordable ($92) and includes a book that opens flat as well as lifetime access to online content and videos.
What follows is my recap of the "Chats in the Stacks Book Talk" webinar I attended. Susan introduced herself as a theater designer sewing for a diversified range of body types. She pursued an MA in fashion and taught at Cornell where her research was utilizing body scans to create wearables for varied shapes (male, female, mature, pregnant, plus sizes, etc.) She explained how pattern grading and adjustments for plus sizes does not work for pattern makers due to the fact that weight is carried in different areas which are specific to individuals.
Susan is passionate about reducing the current 40%+ fashion industry waste and another 50%+ ill fitting clothes donations that are dumped into landfills. Her solution sounds reasonable. Create garments that fit! Her cutting edge textbook casts aside the notion of first teaching students to design for "tall and thin fashion models" and then teaching them to grade and alter their pattern to fit the "average" person. Instead she advocates teaching them to fit by draping on customized mannequins.
Her process begins with designers using body scan software ($500) which is translated by computer into measurements that result in a customized mannequin. Next they drape the fabric on the mannequin and then transform the draped item into a pattern.
By changing the process, students and future designers won't be wasting fabric and pattern paper during the trials and errors of grading and altering. By creating clothes that actually fit, customer satisfaction increases. Consumers of tomorrow will likely be buying from independent lines which specialize in their specific body shape rather than buying a size based on an "average" person's measurements.
Whether this concept succeeds as a business model is anyone’s guess but the knowledge portrayed in this webinar excited me! Using body scan software to create my personal mannequin and then using Susan's draping methods to create garments fitted to me sounds like a worthwhile investment.
I can picture myself logging into a site, uploading my body image scan, selecting my style choice, viewing it in 3D, 360° on my virtual self and completing my purchase.
I can also imagine a time where I visit my local sewing retailer or dealer who offers access this same process of a customized pattern based on my body scan. A place where I can buy or bring in my purchased fabric and use their cutting tables set up with overhead projectors that beam down the cutting lines on my fabric. I then return home with the cut fabric and pattern assembly instruction, including video tutorials.
No more tedious mulage, sloper and pattern making. No more grading and altering and fitting adjustments. What's left? The joys of sewing construction, personalized detailing and pride in wearing a well-fitting garment.
by Sandi Dickenson, Sarasota Gulf Coast (FL) Member
Dare we imagine a future where our body scan is translated into a well fitted customized pattern for us as home sewists?
Susan Ashdown, Emerita Professor, held a Cornell University Zoom Webinar on March 15, 2023 to explain how that's acheivable. She co-authored Draping for Apparel Design, 4th Ed., with Helen Joseph-Armstrong. Their highly readable textbook for fashion design students is affordable ($92) and includes a book that opens flat as well as lifetime access to online content and videos.
What follows is my recap of the "Chats in the Stacks Book Talk" webinar I attended. Susan introduced herself as a theater designer sewing for a diversified range of body types. She pursued an MA in fashion and taught at Cornell where her research was utilizing body scans to create wearables for varied shapes (male, female, mature, pregnant, plus sizes, etc.) She explained how pattern grading and adjustments for plus sizes does not work for pattern makers due to the fact that weight is carried in different areas which are specific to individuals.
Susan is passionate about reducing the current 40%+ fashion industry waste and another 50%+ ill fitting clothes donations that are dumped into landfills. Her solution sounds reasonable. Create garments that fit! Her cutting edge textbook casts aside the notion of first teaching students to design for "tall and thin fashion models" and then teaching them to grade and alter their pattern to fit the "average" person. Instead she advocates teaching them to fit by draping on customized mannequins.
Her process begins with designers using body scan software ($500) which is translated by computer into measurements that result in a customized mannequin. Next they drape the fabric on the mannequin and then transform the draped item into a pattern.
By changing the process, students and future designers won't be wasting fabric and pattern paper during the trials and errors of grading and altering. By creating clothes that actually fit, customer satisfaction increases. Consumers of tomorrow will likely be buying from independent lines which specialize in their specific body shape rather than buying a size based on an "average" person's measurements.
Whether this concept succeeds as a business model is anyone’s guess but the knowledge portrayed in this webinar excited me! Using body scan software to create my personal mannequin and then using Susan's draping methods to create garments fitted to me sounds like a worthwhile investment.
I can picture myself logging into a site, uploading my body image scan, selecting my style choice, viewing it in 3D, 360° on my virtual self and completing my purchase.
I can also imagine a time where I visit my local sewing retailer or dealer who offers access this same process of a customized pattern based on my body scan. A place where I can buy or bring in my purchased fabric and use their cutting tables set up with overhead projectors that beam down the cutting lines on my fabric. I then return home with the cut fabric and pattern assembly instruction, including video tutorials.
No more tedious mulage, sloper and pattern making. No more grading and altering and fitting adjustments. What's left? The joys of sewing construction, personalized detailing and pride in wearing a well-fitting garment.