An Industry View on Process Competencies of Apparel Designers, A Study

Abstract

Process competencies of apparel designers' study were conducted based on an industry view on three concepts such as Process Knowledge; Clothing &Textile and Analysis & Synthesis. Process Knowledge has been analysed based on ten variables such as adaptation of technology, design process, developing profitable products, evaluate product quality, fashion marketing & merchandising, industry regulations, industry terminology, manufacturing process, principles of design and product photography. The criteria of clothing/textile have been analysed based on five different variables such as aesthetic influences, appearance and design for market needs etc. About 50 questionnaires were distributed randomly to the heads of different types of fashion apparel business establishments across India-like export house, fashion, retail store and fashion house, of which 39 were responded. The response rate is to be 78%. Towards a reliability test, Cronbach alpha (α) analysis has been carried out for 18 variables on process competencies of apparel designers. The alpha value ranges between 0.7241 and 0.8962 which indicates that the variables taken up for the study were acceptable. The highest number of the total respondents believed that the evaluation of product quality was a very important criterion, followed by developing profitable product and manufacturing process. Product photography was considered least. The same views can be seen among respondents region wise and portfolio wise. In the case of clothing and textile respondents leaned towards design for market needs, followed by aesthetic influences while the least preference was given towards the history of dress/fashion. In the case of analysis and synthesis respondents leaned towards analytical skills and quantitative skills while the least preference was given towards presentation skills.