Fashion Design Commons^™

Shadow Garments: Costume Creation For Integrating Alienated Parts Of The Self, Mega M. Galvin

Art Therapy | Master's Theses

This study explores costume creation as a narrative-based intervention for integrating "shadow" parts, or aspects of the self that are repressed or alienated due to shame, trauma, or social pressure. Grounded in Jungian analytic psychology, narrative therapy, and expressive arts theory, the research addresses the limitations of traditional talk therapy in accessing somatic memory and proposes costume making as a pathway for externalization and re-authorship. Using a qualitative, participatory study inspired by Pat B. Allen’s Open Studio Process, four adult participants engaged in a three-session workshop to design, construct, and wear costumes representing their identified shadow aspects. Data was collected …

Vestirse Con Un Cuadro”: El Mantón De Manila En La Encrucijada Entre Tradición Y Modernidad En Fortunata Y Jacinta De Benito Pérez Galdós, Ines Corujo Martin

Publications and Research

Este artículo analiza la relevancia sociocultural que adquirió el mantón de Manila en la España de finales del siglo XIX, tomandocomo punto de partida las diversas representaciones de esta prenda en la novela Fortunata y Jacinta(1887) de Benito Pérez Galdós. Como se propone, el mantón, prenda de origen asiático cuyo surgimiento está ligado a la ruta comercial colonial de los Galeones de Manila, constituye en el texto galdosiano un objeto clave para explorar algunos de los debates centrales del imaginario cultural finisecular en torno a la identidad nacional, forjada entre el tradicionalismo y la modernidad. El llamativo accesorio, ligado a …

Ile Idasile Aso: Creating Spaces That Promote The Creative Economy In Lagos., Ifeoluwa S. Gandonu

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

Ilé Ìdásílẹ̀ Aṣọ directly translates to “House of Cloth Creation”. Yoruba fashion is more than attire; it is a cultural system that encodes identity, resilience, and social belonging through fabric. Every textile from the indigo-dyed adire of Osogbo to the ceremonial aso-oke woven in Abeokuta carries a story of community, heritage, and continuity. These materials serve not merely as garments but as living archives that express the Yoruba worldview through color, pattern, and form. Just as fashion weaves meaning into cloth, architecture can weave culture into space. Both disciplines involve composition, layering, and adaptation, reflecting how societies construct and express …

A Comparative Analysis Of Jean Sizing And Fit Across Popular Denim Brands, Brooke R. Sterbens

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

Denim jeans have been a staple in closets for many decades. In more recent times, human bodies have changed and have a larger variety in shapes than in the past. Brands are looking to create the perfect denim jean for their customer but lack putting in the time and research to make sure their measurement are accurately fitting. Variability in jean sizing among brands creates challenges for consumers to have a consistent fit among different styles and brands. This study aims to examine jean fit through different garment measurement sizing charts across multiple brands at different clothing stores. A quantitative …

Adaptive Leggings For Crohn’S/Colitis/Isbs Patients With A Colostomy Bag, Sarah E. Liebbe

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

As the prevalence of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, continues to rise in the United States, an increasing number of individuals undergo colostomy or ileostomy procedures requiring the use of an ostomy bag (Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, 2023). While these medical devices are essential for maintaining health and quality of life, they often introduce challenges related to clothing, including discomfort, lack of support, limited concealment, and restricted self-expression (Hubbard et al., 2019). Despite growing attention to inclusive design within the fashion industry, adaptive apparel for ostomy patients remains limited in availability, style, and affordability, leaving …

Cannibalizing The American Dream: Memory, Materials, And Manifesting, Juan Hinojosa

Theses and Dissertations

Juan Hinojosa’s thesis explores collage and assemblage through discarded materials, pop culture, and personal history. He transforms found objects into layered works that reflect consumption, memory, and American identity. Moving between sculpture, painting, and installation, his practice examines excess, nostalgia, and the tension between what is consumed and what consumes him.

Pop Art's Influences On 1960s Mod Fashion, Erin Bryan

Create@State

Abstract

I will be exploring how the pop art movement, in particular, influenced the fashion associated with the 1960s Mod style. This style was popular among young people in Britain, as the term “Mod” is short for “Modernist”, and featured bold colors, geometric motifs, sharp lines, as well as slim and simple silhouettes.  I will be creating my own 1960s mini dress, following a vintage pattern from that time, and using fabric that reflects the bright, geometric, and colorful characteristics of pop art, all while documenting my progress. Not only will I be capturing the visual similarities between this art …

Antecedents And Consequences Of Consumer Behavior In Circular Fashion: Cognitive, Normative, And Behavioral Pathways Shaping Purchase And Participation Intentions, Mahmudul Hasan Sabuj

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The increasing environmental impact of the fashion industry has intensified the need for a systemic transition from linear to circular production and consumption models. Despite growing interest in circular fashion, there remains a limited understanding of the underlying behavioral dimensions that drive consumer engagement in sustainable practices. Grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) and Norm Activation Theory (NAT), this study examines consumer behavior through an integrated framework capturing cognitive, social, and normative influences.

Using data collected from a structured online survey (N = 575), the study employs Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), reliability analysis, and multiple regression techniques to …

Bemerge Pop Ups: Social Media Meets Sustainable Fashion, Owen Mehring, Kyla Echols, Avery Edelbrock

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Our research into the online clothing shopping industry has revealed an opportunity to mobilize the strengths of online shopping to build an in-person community. One company we researched, Poshmark, a social, peer-to-peer resale app, uses the strengths of social media to create an online community-based secondhand clothing market. However, one of the largest problems facing society today is the ease of replacing human connection with screen time in today’s world. Online shopping provides convenience, variety, and a larger reach than traditional stores do. However, the human element is often lost. Our company seeks to take the goal of Poshmark to …

Bio-Based Textiles: From Waste To Runway, Leah L. Mella Mrs., Laziza S. Shamansurova, Kory Lynn Abramowitz Ms

SPARK Symposium Presentations

Have you ever wondered what it’s like wearing fabric made from orange peels? What about mushrooms? Sustainable bio textiles are defined as “a broad category of fabrics made from renewable, natural biomass—including plants, animals, algae, or bacteria.” The purpose of this study is to explore various bio based textiles such as orange peel fabric, algae fabric, and bacterial cellulose fabric. Given that the world is currently experiencing a severe climate crisis driven by pollution and carbon emissions, we need sustainable solutions now more than ever. To prevent further damage to our planet, we need to adopt more sustainable practices, and …

Circular Textiles: How You Can Bamboo It, Corley Ballard, Sophie Ellyson, Hannah Berg, Brennan Werner

SPARK Symposium Presentations

“Circular Fashion” and “sustainability” are loosely thrown around in today’s culture, both online and in-person, but circular fashion goes far beyond common sustainability practices. It is a completely waste-free, closed-loop system of textile production and manufacturing. This presentation will focus on circular fashion, a system of reusing and recycling textiles to eliminate waste. We will take a look at its place in the fashion industry and how it interacts within the world of textile production, and give clarity on what we can do about it. We are exploring sustainability, manufacturing, and the processes by which fibers are recycled or blended. …

Dressing For The Descent: Costume Designing Eurydice, Hannah Olivia Schoen

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

During the early spring of my second graduate year, I was assigned to be costume designer for the upcoming production of Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice. Eurydice is a retelling of a narrative that had been mostly given spotlight to the male hero in past iterations. Now we as a design team were going to tell the story from Eurydice’s point of view. After doing an analysis and research into details that would give me ideas on how I wanted to present these characters, I was able to present initial ideas to the director at our first design meeting.The design process …

A Community Affair: An Exploration Of The Queer Community, Nightlife, Performance Art And Their Adjacent Qualities, Tatiana M. Castro

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

This thesis explores the importance and roll of community in queer artwork, such as drag and burlesque and retroactively also all the work that I create. This paper aims to express this importance by exploring my personal relationship with building community. By interviewing performers selected through a customized-for-savannah voting process, I allowed the community to directly influence my thesis, as well as directly referencing photos of the hands of community members as a continued motif used throughout my work to represent community. This culminated in a two night thesis performance and installation  exhibition that explored performance and how its environment …

Brands & Virtual Personas: How Virtual Influencer Types Impact Brand Awareness, Carol Calderon Ambelis

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

As social media continues to shape how consumers interact with brands, virtual influencers (VIs) have emerged as a new type of digital celebrity. While previous research has explored how VIs contribute to brand image and awareness, there has been limited attention on how different types of VIs, both anime-like and human-like, affect consumer perceptions across different markets. This study examines how these two types of VIs impact relatability, aspiration, and brand awareness, with a focus on the differences between luxury and mass market. Using a within-subjects experimental design, this study recruited 574 participants with social media experience using MTurk. The …

Tailoring Black Style And Its Powerful Pieces: From West Africa To The U.S. West Coast And Everything In-Between, Gabriel Capellan

Occasional Essays

Introduction:

On September 19, 2025, I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art Museum (MET) with some of the Bronx African American History Project team. The people in attendance were Graduate Assistant, Anthony Rosado, and Undergraduate Assistants, Serena Velasquez and Emma Garr, wonderful people, I tell you. After the tour, we ended up at the American art exhibit and had podcast conversations about history for what felt like both hours and very brief minutes... We went to the MET to see a particular piece that was in the Superfine: Tailoring Black Style exhibit curated by Barnard professor, Monica L. Miller …

Hope By A Thousand Cuts: Fashion Ethics From Cutting Fabric To Cutting A Fashion Film, Sarah G. Porterfield

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

I conducted an experiment during which I learned to sew, created a clothing collection, and wore nothing but my collection for a month. Additionally, I documented my collection and the process in a fashion film. The goal of my experiment was to investigate fashion ethics. To gain a greater understanding of the underlying theories that fashion materializes and to grasp their ethical implications better, I studied the texts of fashion theorists such as Marx, Barthes, Derrida, Deleuze and Guattari, Butler, Benjamin, and Merleau-Ponty throughout my experiment. Therefore, I gained insight into many aspects of fashion ethics, from the beginning stages …

Ray Collection: Forging A New Fashion Genre, Olivia R. Cooper

Graphic Communication

This senior project addresses a gap in the fashion industry by creating a new genre through a unique collection and comprehensive branding. The "RAY" collection draws inspiration from the designer's artistic roots and is a deeply personal homage to influential female artists like Frida Kahlo, Louise Bourgeois, and Leonora Carrington, whose works have inspired the designer's creative journey. Each piece in the collection draws direct inspiration from these artists, reflecting the creator's vision and self-expression, a key element of the streetwear genre incorporated into the designs.

The project also heavily emphasizes fashion branding, encompassing a logo, brand identity, social and …

Green Weave: A Textile Guide To The Future Of Fashion, Simon Braunschweig

University Honors Theses

Fashion and technology are inextricably linked. The more advanced our technology becomes, so too does fashion and our understanding of it. Fashion is also one of the top contributors to climate change. However, modern technology has the potential to change the way fashion impacts our planet, working harmoniously with nature instead of against it. This thesis investigates the connection between technology and fashion, resulting in a handbook for fashion designers who want to implement more sustainable practices into their work with the help of modern technology.

Folding Horizons: Knitted Textiles For A Mobile World, Yutong Li

Masters Theses

We have grown accustomed to living in flux—moving between cities, countries, languages, and digital spaces. Life no longer unfolds in a straight line, but in fragments and transitions, never quite settling. In this restless rhythm—shaped by fast trains, shifting skies, and the invisible current of the internet—we find ourselves suspended in a vast, woven network. Connection is constant, yet motion is unrelenting.

This project begins with a question: how can textiles reflect this state of in-between? I imagine textiles not as fixed surfaces, but as responsive skins—adaptive, expressive, and attuned to change. Inspired by the tensions of contemporary life—surveillance, shrinking …

Repair Through Recycling, Emma Murdock, Karl Aspelund

Senior Honors Projects

Repair Through Recycling is an instructional website I developed to encourage people to mend their garments rather than throw them away.I see this as a way to help address the growing issue of textile waste, where millions of garments are discarded each year. Many of these are made from synthetic materials that do not break down, contributing significantly to environmental pollution. This project features step-by-step instructional videos I created to teach the basics of mending, skills that are no longer commonly taught. These tutorials cover foundational techniques such as threading a needle and hand-stitching torn seams. The website also includes …

Cavedivers: A Multi-Media Visual And Musical Release, Emily J. Langford

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

For my graduating UNO Honors Program capstone project, I have chosen to undertake a creative project that involves recording and releasing an album with my band, Cavedivers, while also designing the visual media and advertising graphics to accompany the release. The songs we have recorded were all written and developed before the start of this project. Therefore, this project is less of a songwriting endeavor, since most of that process is already complete, and more of an experimentation and workshop in communicating music through recording and identifying effective trends within graphic design.

As an art major and musician, this has …

Sustainable Fashion Identified: An Exploration And Education Of Sustainable Apparel, Michaela M. Lentsch

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Consumers today are searching for and are loyal to companies who support their views and concerns about sustainability. The fashion industry is one of the biggest industries in the world, but one that has many environmental and sustainability concerns. Fortunately, there are many ways the fashion industry and consumers can take steps to make sustainable change and better the planet. Small fashion businesses and boutiques can make positive changes to operate and provide sustainable options and services for customers which can help the planet become more sustainable.

Through this manuscript, an assortment of sustainable methods and practices will be shared …

Tartans: Weaving A Warped History With Myths, Heritage And A Whole Lot Of Heather., Bethany Sassen

LSU Master's Theses

Scotland has many tartans throughout the whole of the country. Each has a different meaning and is used for different clans and purposes. Tartans are the plaids that are seen throughout the Highlands and the patterns and colors have a wide range depending on where and when the tartan was created. The purpose of this research is to investigate the history of the tartans and how they interact with our current culture. I also built two outfits to show how tartan is still being used. One a more traditional outfit and the other more avant garde. Tartans have a long …

Corsets Of Empowerment, Dorsa Farzi

Department of Textiles, Merchandising and Fashion Design: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project explores the intersection of fashion and activism, using contemporary design to reflect on significant women’s rights movements from around the world. This exhibition presents four uniquely crafted corsets, each representing a pivotal movement, from the Suffragette era to the ongoing fight for gender equality in Iran. Through modern aesthetics, innovative construction, and symbolic details, this project transforms clothing into a medium for dialogue and advocacy. Fashion becomes more than just design—it becomes a powerful tool for storytelling, sparking awareness, and encouraging new perspectives on gender equality and activism.

This project was exhibited at the Robert Hillestad Gallery, University …

The Curious Case Of Japanese Denim, Aaron Francis Ward

Japanese Society and Culture

From its humble beginnings as wholly utilitarian workwear in the 19^th century, to its modern rise to high-fashion, the ubiquity of denim, particularly in the form of jeans, has had a fascinating journey in its little-over-150-year history (Beazley, 2015). Of note has been the recent rise in popularity of Japanese denim. Since the end of the Second World War, Japan seems to have had an insatiable demand for Americana (Marx, 2023). Yet, if considered in the sociohistorical context of Japanese-American relations, this ought to be highly improbable. The current paper examines the sociological nature of Japanese denim from semiotic …

Fashion And Technology: Interconnected Evolution, Impact, And Future Potential, Diana Paulet, Sarah E. Andersen, Keely Enriquez

SPARK Symposium Presentations

This paper explores the historical connection & influence between fashion and technology and its effects on design, production, and consumption. This line of research recognizes the historical aspect and development of technology in the fashion industry. Recognizing the central idea of how technology development can be interlinked with global issues such as pollution. Our review covers themes such as, the negative impacts of technology in fashion as well as the positive outcomes and the development of it. We aim to understand how the development of technology has transformed the fashion industry throughout history and how these issues can be potentially …

Decency And Responsibility: Preserving Egyptian Tally Cloth Cultural Heritage And Protecting The Intellectual Property Of Egyptian Artisans., Noha Fawzy Ph.D, Marwa Zein Ph.D, Ahmed Elseragy Ph.D, Catherine Harper Ph.D

Arts and Design

Tally is an exquisite Egyptian netting fabric, cotton or linen with nickel silver, copper or brass strip embroidery, a powerful symbol of Egypt's opulent textile and artisanal culture. Traditionally handmade, it originated in Upper Egypt’s Asyut region where ancient Egyptian makers pioneered embellishment of translucent cloth with metallic threads. Its iconography - geometric flora, fauna, humans and camels – in black, white or ecru. With beautiful drape and fluidity, it is a highly valued part of Egypt’s rich cultural heritage.

Preserving Tally and protecting the intellectual property rights of its artisans is urgent to ensure sustainable livelihoods, safeguard this unique …

Senior Show - Merch Design, Nicole Tranel

Senior Art Portfolios

This Senior Capstone Project serves as the culmination of my undergraduate journey, highlighting the skills I have acquired and demonstrating my ability to apply them in real-world professional settings such as merch design. Through this project, I expanded my expertise beyond artistry, embracing design as a complementary skillset that enhances my creative and problem-solving abilities.

I Prophesy Disaster: Adapting Musical Storytelling To Fashion, Adam Snedden

Honors College Theses

Fashion is an artistic medium, where garments communicate ideas to any potential viewers by using visual imagery and relying on our cultural expectations. At the level of haute couture design, these visuals grow more elaborate and dramatic. With this project, I wanted to accomplish the goal of adapting a song, the gothic-inspired progressive rock epic A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers, into a single couture-style look. Getting as many details of the song as possible to be apparent in an overcoat, shirt, and pants was a challenging task that required extensive use of embroidery and attention to detail. Additionally, this look …

Catering To The Majority: Fashion’S Trial-And-Error Process To Make Style Accessible For All Sizes, Tiffany A. Del Valle

Capstones

Following the COVID-19 pandemic, two out of every three U.S. women are considered plus-size, or a size 14 and above. As the plus-size fashion market continues to grow and is expected to be worth $500 billion by 2033, finding extended sizes continues to be a barrier. While the fight for size-inclusive fashion has shown some progress in recent years, some brands have decided to scale back their plus-size offerings, while others have continued to limit their size ranges due to a multitude of reasons including production costs with a delayed return on investment, marketing and limited commitment to serving the …