By Susan Lang
For the first time in textile/apparel education, students from three colleges are using computer technology and the Internet to simulate the way apparel will be designed in the near future: commu nicating and editing technical and visual information electronically and collaborating via computer with associates at distant sites.
To train these students as realistically as possible, apparel designer and principal investigator Susan P. Ashdown, professor in Cornell's textile and apparel department, is inviting input from apparel textile designers and apparel designers/merchandisers to consult on current and future needs of the industry, assist in developing realistic scenarios for the project and help assess outcomes of the project.
"This collaborative, computer-based educational experience for undergraduate textile and apparel majors at three institutions -- Cornell, State University College at Buffalo and the Philadel phia College of Textiles and Science -- is designed to train talented students for the predicted realities of the industry. They will create apparel products from design and pattern development to prototype production, following through on the third phase of the project to the retail environment. They can align themselves with industry associates across the nation and even around the world, via the Internet," said Ashdown, project organizer.
The American textile and apparel industry primarily comprises many small- to medium-sized companies, with production located in rural areas, sometimes far removed from the big-city fashion scene where the design process occurs. The use of electronic communication to develop products quickly within the structure of symbiotic firms making up the industry is the next anticipated devel opment, Ashdown said.
"To be of value to this very fragmented industry, today's students must be trained to communi cate their creative and visual ideas and products in a high-technology setting," Ashdown said.
Currently, students learn to carry out the entire design process, from first idea to final garment, in relative isolation within the university's laboratories and studios. "This method does not prepare them well for what really happens in the industry, where more and more apparel is designed using CAD [computer aided design] by teams either within a single firm or between several firms," she said. A design team may find their ideas accepted or rejected by merchandisers who are often in another geographic area. Production decisions are typically made at yet another site, based on speci fications developed for each garment.
"This project was designed to expose students to the types of interactions they will encounter in the industry and to encourage development of relevant skills. They will, in essence, experience first -hand the promise and pitfalls that occur with new technology," Ashdown concluded.