The theme of the 22nd Annual International Foundation of Fashion Technology Institutes (IFFTI) planned conference of Social Justice has become all the more poignant as the world comes to grips with the 2020 global pandemic. It was our pleasure to organize a conference, “Between Individual and Society: Social Justice Through Fashion” to be held at Kent State University in Kent, Ohio, USA.
Unfortunately, due to the threat of the COVID-19 virus, the conference was cancelled only three weeks before it was set to open. Our conference team at Kent State University’s School of Fashion was of course saddened to not be able to share our home of Kent, Ohio with everyone from around the world. However, the ensuing announcement brought scores of messages from potential research participants, keynote speakers, and IFFTI representatives who expressed heartfelt disappointment and a renewed sense of community and comradery. The sense of connection brought about by this vastly disruptive global experience reinforced our motivation to take what is best about an international conference- sharing research and inspiring collaboration- to create an online journal that we hope will become a permanent part of the IFFTI experience.
We are pleased to announce the award winners in each of the three categories of senior researcher, early career researcher and research student. All awards are made after an independent, ‘blind-review’ process by the reviewers and research committee members. We congratulate them on their achievements.
Senior Researcher Award
- Kirstin C. Loos and Karen M. Bosch, ‘Teaching Sustainability: How Educators Can Impact the Industry’.
- Justine Davidson and Cathy Chase, ‘Breaking Boundaries of the Traditional Curriculum to Develop Collaboration and Cognitive Diversity’
- Elisa Palomino-Perez, Edwin Phiri, and Katrin Maria Káradóttir ‘Indigenous Fish-Skin Craft Revived Through Contemporary Fashion.’
Early Career Award
- Chanjuan Chen and Kendra Lapolla ‘Stitched Together: Community Engagement for Undergraduate Student Learning in Supporting Refugee Women’
- Magnum Lam, Eric Li, Man-yin Chung and Wing-sun Liu, ‘Examination of Fashion Practicality and Sociality Among Acculturating Indonesian Domestic Workers in Hong Kong’
Graduate Student Award
Presented below are all of the accepted papers and creative practice-based research that was scheduled to be presented at the 2020 IFFTI conference. The international academic fashion community has long known of the potential of fashion as a powerful tool of change for good. Fashion is an essential conduit of communication about who we are as individuals, what we believe in as a group, and is often emblematic of changes in social policy. The papers of this conference publication are therefore generally categorized under the subthemes of the Individual, the Community, and the Global.
Acknowledgements
Browse the IFFTI Annual Conference 2020 Collections
Customization of Toda Tribal Community Embroidery in Fashion & Home Furnishing Products: A Change of Approach in Indian Context.
Customization of Toda Tribal Community Embroidery in Fashion & Home Furnishing Products: A Change of Approach in Indian Context.
Sub Theme : Communal and Global
Keywords : Traditional Embroidery, Tribe Community, Customization, Indian Textiles, Domestic Brands
India is well known for its craft, cultural and traditional textiles. India is very familiar for heritage textiles and interactive workmanship in textiles and clothing. Textiles are part of their traditions in Indian people life as Weddings, Diwali, Onam, Pongal and other festivals. Garment and Home furnishings both in India and Abroad have the great potential for promoting the traditional Indian textiles to the people around the world.
Many traditional crafts have been integrated to the Fashion world through adaptation and customization very successfully as Block print, Batik, Tie and Dye. But still there are many with potential, which are not been.
One such craft is the Toda tribe community embroidery, which are unique and artistic. These designs can find good application in the Fashion and Clothing. But currently use of toda tribe community embroidery is restricted to developing stitches on the cotton fabric. There is a good potential to develop and promote toda tribe community embroidery in apparel, accessories, home furnishings and decorative products both in indian and international market.
Toda community tribes are found only in the Nilgiri District of Tamilnadu State, South India. They are very reclusive in nature and very few are aware of toda tribe embroidery.
This research paper explains how to customize and adapt toda tribe community embroidery in the fashion and home décor products in indian market and change of approach in marketing through different formats in marketing.
Paper will explore
- Interacting, educating & involving toda tribe in the development of new designs
- Adaptation of the designs in new products
- Study and catalogue current designs
- Change of approach in marketing and promotion of the toda tribal embroidery
- Involving NGOs, Government for support for distributing the toda embroidery products to the consumers
Dissolving Gender in Fashion Design Education
Fashion Education, Gender, Curriculum Structure, Gender Dilution, Design Directions
Colorblindness vs. Trendy Wardrobes
Colours are an integral part of fashion; we cannot visualize clothing without colours. I often wonder how colour blind people choose clothes for them. Do they always wear neutral shades? How do they plan their wardrobe and handle their shortcomings? I have never come across any fashion store in India where people are even having such a concern. According to global research data around eight percent of men and one percent of women cannot differentiate certain colours. In total, they are nine percent of the global population, which is quite a large number of people suffering from this issue. Colourblind people mostly choose to wear monotone neutral shade clothing, therefore, it is one of the prime responsibilities of fashion experts to provide them with a clothing range to choose upon. This paper put forward the concept and concerns of colour blind people and explores into the possibilities of helping them from the fashion expert's perspective using case studies and also analyses the primary data received from fashion experts, eye specialist and from the user's point of view. The paper deals into the sub-theme of design responsibility towards shaping the global social concern. The output of the paper shall be able to help the colourblind people to plan their smart wardrobe according to the changing the season of fashion and trends.
