Layouts and Effective Creation of Female Garment Designs in Ghanaian Clothing Industry

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to highlight pattern layouts which lead to skills acquisition by both students and designers in the clothing industry in Kumasi, a city in Ghana.  The sample size of the study was 200 people. Questionnaire, interview and observation were used for data collection and content analysis done. Findings from the study indicate that some fashion designers did not see the benefits of using patterns; therefore, they did not use pattern layouts.  However, the clothing designing students agreed that layouts helped in designing creative and professional garments. Although, their major constraint in the use of layouts is the increase number of hours used to produce patterns. The paper concludes with a call on stakeholders to give some training or workshops on knowledge of pattern layouts to both formally and informally trained fashion designers.

Keywords: layout, grainlines, silhouette, nap fabrics, fashion designer