The apparel industry, though driven by fashion and expected to embrace transformation, is often resistant to change in its technologies and vision, according to Susan P. Ashdown, Professor Emerita in Human Centered Design in the College of Human Ecology. This attitude has also been apparent in pattern-making textbooks used in apparel programs, but in editing the 4th edition of Draping for Apparel Design (Fairchild Books, 2022) Ashdown transformed this text from a ‘how-to’ book suited to a 1950s classroom to a modern book with an inclusive vocabulary, as well as methods and topics directed to the students who will lead the apparel industry in the future. In this Chats in the Stacks book talk presented at Cornell University’s Mann Library, Ashdown discusses how her text is closer to an engineering book than a sewing manual, and how it teaches students a deep understanding of the concepts of pattern-making with a focus on the complex and rewarding process of developing patterns to fit the range of body variation and using materials that exhibit a seemingly endless range of properties. Emerita Professor Susan Ashdown was the Helen G. Canoyer Professor in the Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design at Cornell University, where she taught and conducted research on technical apparel design from 1991 until her retirement in 2018. Dr. Ashdown's Cornell Body Scan Research Group (now the Cornell Digital Fashion & Body Scan Research Lab) explored the interactions between apparel design and technology using several 3D body scanners. Her research into issues regarding measurement of the body (including measuring the active body and body shape analysis), interactions of materials and design, assessment of fit, automated custom fit, virtual fit, mass customization, and the development and use of half scale dress forms all informed her teaching of pattern-making and technical apparel design.
