Editors’ Notes: Advancing Design Scholarship in Textiles and Apparel

Abstract

The past 20 years have seen growth in exposure and academic outlets for design scholarship through new journals, special topics sessions and conferences, and PhD programs. Yet, there is a lack of strong published examples of design scholarship in textiles and apparel as designer scholars and administrators still struggle to understand how to conduct, document, and evaluate design scholarship. This issue, long overdue, looks at the current state of design research in our textile and apparel discipline and provides examples that begin to fill the gap in our shared understanding of a way forward.

A Case Study of Developing a Paralympic Shooting Jacket for Disabled Athletes

“…We specifically adopted the problem-based design research approach in response to the call to action from Clothing and Textiles Research Journal design scholars (e.g., Bye, 2010; Haar & Bye, 2021; Parsons & Morris, 2021). Employing a single-case method, we investigated the functional, expressive, and aesthetic (FEA) needs (Lamb & Kallal, 1992) of a Paralympic athlete who uses a wheelchair and competes in the sport of rifle shooting.…”