Prof's mission includes educating N.Y. apparel firms

Professor Suzanne Loker is surrounded by a computer-aided design station that is used for pattern-making, grading and marker-making by many apparel manufacturing firms. Frank DiMeo/University Photography

By Susan Lang

What do the New York state apparel industry, the Czech Republic, Vermont home knitters and Cornell have in common? Suzanne Loker, professor of textiles and apparel.

After years as an administrator, most recently as professor and director of the School of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Idaho, Loker came to Cornell this January with a strong desire to return to the trenches of teaching, research and extension.

"Although I drew great satisfaction from facilitating others to teaching and research excellence, I am looking forward to working directly with students and industry and spending more time on scholarship," she said.

In her new appointment, she will focus on the needs of New York state apparel manufacturers. Although the apparel industry has faltered in the past two decades, New York still employs more than 100,000 workers in 5,000 shops, making it the second-largest apparel manufacturing state in the country.

Using the results of an extension survey of New York state apparel manufacturers, Loker plans to identify specific educational and research needs of the apparel manufacturing firms, develop a networking association of alliances among the firms and help the industry adopt state-of-the-art computer-aided design and information technology.

Loker knows the apparel industry well, having worked with various companies on student projects and research. She has consulted with the Geiger Apparel Manufacturing Company of Austria and Vermont on international apparel marketing; with IBM (collaborating with Susan Watkins, professor of textiles and apparel) on developing a "clean room" garment for semiconductor manufacturing; and with Black Diamond, Jog Bra and other companies.

Loker comes to Cornell after five years at the University of Idaho and 10 years as chair of the Department of Merchandising, Consumer Studies and Design at the University of Vermont.

"Over these past 25 years, apparel has dramatically changed as an academic field," said Loker. "In our teaching program, the focus has shifted from personal sewing to an industrial perspective of design, production and marketing apparel. Our scholarship has matured as interdisciplinary connections were strengthened with the natural sciences and women's studies, art history, anthropology and business."

In fact, much of Loker's research looks at these interdisciplinary perspectives, particularly on how gender impacts the choice of home-based workers, what kinds of people choose specific types of home-based work, and how home-based workers manage family responsibilities. She also has published several academic articles on the privatization and market development for apparel in the Czech Republic and on K-Mart's experience in eastern Europe.

Loker earned her bachelor's degree at the University of Wisconsin. After a year as a visiting student at the Fashion Institute of Technology, she decided to focus on apparel manufacturing in academia. She went on to earn a master's degree at Syracuse University (1973) and a doctorate at Kansas State University (1981).

At Cornell Loker will teach Apparel Production and Management,which examines the technical and economic aspects of textile and apparel production.

"The breadth and depth of the textiles and apparel department in the College of Human Ecology is incredibly stimulating," Loker said recently. "It's invigorating to be working in an environment with so many apparel and textile colleagues who have such a range of perspectives."