Design and Product Development

Designing apparel for Nigerian women: addressing visual appeal, body type and sizing.

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Abstract

Nigerian women’s desire for Western style apparel is mostly expressed through requisitioning custom-made clothing for upcoming social events where one African textile print is selected for all clothing people wear to the event. With growing demand for Western style apparel, dressmakers have challenges in having the resources or expertise to fit and flatter women of various sizes in western styling. As a result, most dressmakers limit their clients demanding western style apparel to smaller size women. The purpose of this study was to combine western style apparel with Nigerian fabric called Ankara to create designs to fit and flatter Nigerian women attending the same occasion. The Functional, Expressive and Aesthetic (FEA) Consumer Needs Model (Lamb & Kallal, 1992) was the conceptual framework for designing and interpreting an online Nigerian Target Market Preference Survey distributed to Nigerian women through women’s associations in Nigeria.

How to Cite:

Adelaja, O. & Salusso, C. J., (2015) “Designing apparel for Nigerian women: addressing visual appeal, body type and sizing.”, International Textile and Apparel Association Annual Conference Proceedings 72(1).