Do You See What I See? Using Ethnographic Methods to Inform Functional Design

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2016-11-08
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Tullio-Pow, Sandra
Strickfaden, Megan
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International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) Annual Conference Proceedings
Iowa State University Conferences and Symposia

The first national meeting of textile and clothing professors took place in Madison, Wisconsin in June 1959. With a mission to advance excellence in education, scholarship and innovation, and their global applications, the International Textile and Apparel Association (ITAA) is a professional and educational association of scholars, educators, and students in the textile, apparel, and merchandising disciplines in higher education.

This site provides free, public access to the ITAA annual conference proceedings beginning in 2015. Previous proceedings can be found by following the "Additional ITAA Proceedings" link on the left sidebar of this page.

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All people wear clothes, but dressing is an activity taken for granted until balance and synchronized movements required to do so are lost due to illness, injury, disease, or surgery. Ethnographic methods were used to map the use scenario, examine the clothing context and its meaning to people through field observation of therapy sessions and patient routines with personal support workers (n=46), and interviews with therapists, care workers, and patients (n=34). Results reveal patients' experience related to clothing, disability, and functioning as well as the psychological aspects of clothing. Findings include design recommendations to mediate difficulties people have when dressing through consideration of fabric choices, garment silhouettes, circumference of garment openings, garment fasteners, dual waistbands, pockets, loops, and visual clues to guide garment orientation and product development opportunities. Results of the study may impact fashion designers, specialized product developers, design educators, and rehabilitation therapists.

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