Department of Design and Merchandising
Permanent URI for this community
These digital collections include datasets, theses, dissertations, faculty publications, photographs from the Firefighters Uniform Design Competition, and student fashion show videos from the Department of Design and Merchandising. Due to departmental name changes, materials from the following historical department are also included here: Department of Design, Merchandising, and Consumer Sciences.
Videos of a student fashion show held at CSU in 2001 in honor of Mr. Blackwell, one of the most important American designers to come from the West Coast, can be found in Mountain Scholar.
Browse
Browsing Department of Design and Merchandising by Subject "apparel industry"
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Open Access Challenges and solutions of sustainable apparel product development: a case study of Eileen Fisher(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Curwen, Lisa G., author; Sarkar, Ajoy, advisor; Park, Juyeon, committee member; Golicic, Susan, committee memberThis paper reports on a case study of the product development experience of an apparel firm's sustainable sweater program. The three-fold purpose of this study is to document current challenges the firm experienced, discover product development strategies that were implemented in fulfilling its sustainable business goals, and determine the principles guiding the design team and its interaction within the upstream supply chain. The case company is Eileen Fisher, a brand name international women's fashion apparel firm which is committed to social and environmental initiatives. Data were collected from thirteen in-depth interviews conducted with members of the case company and its vendors. Secondary data analysis from the case company's website and archival records provided supplementary information. The qualitative data were analyzed with the use of NVivo9 software. The study identified five challenges encountered by the Eileen Fisher design team in developing its organic and fair trade cotton sweater program which include concerns with perceived value, process timing, quality standards, supplier capacity, and price. Corresponding solutions that were put into place include heightening creativity and innovation, optimizing timing and resources, interfacing hands-on "upstream", managing relationships responsibly and for the long term, and making trade-offs based on cost and values. Furthermore, the study identified five principles which guided the design team and its interaction within the upstream supply chain for sustainable design practices; they are the prerequisite of a company mandate, match of core values, gathering and diffusion of information, cross-functional organization to support sustainability initiatives, and the significance of the supply chain arrangement. This study hopes to provide guidance for apparel manufacturers and suppliers for surmounting the challenges facing product development of sustainable apparel products.Item Open Access Factors affecting China's apparel manufacturing industry's international competitive advantage(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Brubaker, Morgan, author; Hyllegard, Karen, advisor; Perry, Anna, advisor; Vasudevan, Ramaa, committee memberSince the early 1980s, China has grown its apparel manufacturing export industry by utilizing a large labor pool, low wages, and its access to a significant amount of raw materials (Zhang, Kong, & Ramu, 2015; Zhang & Hathcote, 2008). A world leader in apparel exports, China exported US $153.2 billion of apparel products in 2012 ("2016 Top Markets," 2016). In recent years, China's international competitive advantage in the apparel manufacturing export industry has faced a variety of challenges. China attributes its loss of competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing industry to increased costs of labor and raw materials ("2016 Top Markets," 2016). With an awareness of these challenges, China's new strategy for establishing competitive advantage has been to reposition itself in the global value chain and to become a stronger industry in the international marketplace (China National Garment Association, 2013). Challenges to China's world-renowned apparel manufacturing export industry, and the industry's awareness of the need to implement new strategies to meet these challenges, provided direction for this study. The purpose of this study was to analyze the economic, government, and social factors that were affecting national competitive advantage in China's apparel manufacturing export industry, as well as the competitive advantage of individual businesses as perceived by industry executives. Nine Chinese apparel manufacturing business executives were interviewed for this study and a qualitative research method was employed to capture the perspectives of the business executives, who were asked to respond to open-ended interview questions. The findings from this research study aid in better understanding two research questions. The first research question focused on what and how factors affect China's international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing export industry. The second research question focused on the changes Chinese apparel export manufacturers made in order to maintain their international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing export industry. The findings from this study revealed that three main factors were influencing China's international competitive advantage in the global apparel manufacturing industry: labor and wages, China's apparel manufacturing supply chain and raw material suppliers, and the government's policies, actions, and improvements. Findings revealed the following changes in production processes and strategies as primary ways our participants were maintaining international competitive advantage: increased focus on research and design, efficiency and productivity, customer service, and increased focus on opportunities in producing apparel goods for China's domestic market.