Fashion Technologies Research Centre
Research Centre Leader: Dr Tracy Cassidy
Research activities within the Fashion Technologies Research Centre bring together the Department of Clothing Design & Technology's relationships with the apparel industry regionally, nationally and internationally. Research interests are wide ranging encompassing all aspects of fashion business and fashion marketing, clothing and textiles technologies and fashion design practice and theories.
The Fashion Technologies Research Centre divides its research activities into three broad generic areas; Fashion Business, Clothing and Textiles Technologies and Fashion Design Practice and Theories. Fashion business covers all aspects of international fashion marketing, logistics and supply chain management. Research interests are wide ranging from retailing through international trade issues to fashion diffusion in global markets and the evolution of global supply chains. Fashion marketing applies practice and theories to a fastidious and exciting industry making fashion business a dynamic specialism for the quality research undertaken in the centre. Fashion design practice and theories encompasses research into all aspects of textile and garment design, the practice processes of product development and the growing area of trend research and forecasting. Due to the nature of fashion design and fashion practice research often integrates with the technologies available in the centre which houses specific technologies for 3D scanning, 2D large and small scale scanning / digitalising, 3D and 2D pattern design, engineering, visualisation and fit analysis, CNC single and shallow ply cutting, sewn and non-sewn seaming, garment finishing, textile and apparel testing, human/apparel interaction evaluation and various systems of video capture and distribution forming the basis of original research projects.
