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A SYNOPSIS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN APPAREL INDUSTRY
The apparel industry has evolved from a simple to a sophisticated industry that provides style and quality apparel to consumers. In the early 19th century, the fashion industry produced custom-made apparel that fitted the individual it was made for (Stone, 2005:171). Contrary to custom-made clothes produced by professional dressmakers and home-sewers, ready-to-wear apparel is completely made in factories, produced in advance, based on companies‟ sizing systems, and is ready to be worn by consumers of different sizes and shapes (Burns & Bryant, 1997:102; Stone, 1999:179).The South African ready-to-wear (RTW) apparel consist of large and small to medium apparel manufacturers (Jauch, & Traub-Merz, 2006). Pre-democracy the industry focused on producing apparel for domestic markets that were not regulated by international standards (Jauch, & Traub-Merz, 2006). Post 1994, the South African apparel sector expanded and began venturing into international trade that exposed it to global competition (Ramdass, 2007). As a result, the South African Government challenged the apparel industry to be more competitive and proposed that among competitive priorities, they offer product differentiation i.e. supply unique apparel products and respond to consumer demands (Ramdass, 2007).
In the recent past, the South African RTW apparel industry experienced a decline due to global competition and unfavourable domestic operating conditions (Jauch, & Traub-Merz, 2006). The influx of cheaper RTW apparel product especially from China aggravated the situation (Ramdass, 2007) and resulted in the shutdown of some of the manufacturing companies. To sustain the few companies that were thriving, the South African government implemented the “Proudly South African” labels with the aim of persuading local shoppers to purchase South African products (Ronan, 2015). The apparel retail industry was also challenged to form financial links and strategic alliances with a number of large manufacturers in order to preserve their markets (Textiles Intelligence, 2014). Furthermore, in order to expand the domestic markets, the South African RTW apparel industry had to position itself to offer consistent apparel quality and respond to local consumer demands for apparel with good fit. However, studies conducted in South Africa (Strydom & De Klerk, 2006; Muthambi, 2012) show that without a South African sizing system that is based on a representative anthropometric data, it will be difficult to address the issue of ill-fit.
According to Muthambi (2012:18) the South African Bureau of Standards has never published a standard for sizing women‟s RTW apparel. The lack of standards in the South African RTW apparel industry has been a persistent challenge. Strydom (2006) gathered that some of the RTW apparel manufacturers and retailers used different methods and techniques to obtain body measurements and the body measurement surveys they conducted addressed fit concerns specific to their consumers, which does not curb the country wide problem of ill-fitting RTW apparel. Due to the limited documented scientific resources on RTW apparel manufacturing in South Africa, this study extrapolates issues facing the South African industry.
CHAPTER 1: THE STUDY IN PERSPECTIVE
1.1 A SYNOPSIS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN APPAREL INDUSTRY
1.2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.4 PRIMARY OBJECTIVES AND SUB-OBJECTIVES
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
1.6 OUTLINE OF THE STUDY .
CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1 INTRODUCTION .
2.2 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK .
2.3 THE SIZING SYSTEM .
2.4 READY-TO-WEAR APPAREL DESIGN FEATURES
2.5 READY-TO-WEAR APPAREL FIT ASSESSMENT
2.6 COMMUNICATING SIZING AND FIT ISSUE
2.7 CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY
CHAPTER 3: SUPPORTING LITERATURE REVIEW .
3.1 INTRODUCTION .
3.2 THE ROLE OF BODY SHAPE IN RTW APPAREL FIT
3.3 FEMALE BODY SHAPE CLASSIFICATION METHODS .
3.4 ESTABLISHED MAIN BODY SHAPE CATEGORIES.
3.5 FIT PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH DIFFERENT BODY SHAPE CHARACTERISTICS.
3.6 FIT PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED WITH POSTURE VARIATIONS
3.7 APPAREL STYLES AND DESIGNS SUITABLE FOR DIFFERENT FIGURE SHAPES
3.8 THE ROLE OF BODY SHAPE IN APPAREL FIT PREFERENCE
3.9 THE ROLE OF BODY SHAPE IN BODY CATHEXIS.
3.10 CONCLUSION
CHAPTER 4: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
4.1 INTRODUCTION
4.2 PRIMARY OBJECTIVES AND SUB-OBJECTIVES
4.3 RESEARCH STRATEGY, APPROACH AND DESIGN
4.4 SAMPLING PLAN
4.5 CHOICE, DESCRIPTION AND APPLICATION OF DATA COLLECTION METHODS
4.6 DATA PROCESSING
4.7 OPERATIONALISATION AND DATA ANALYSIS
4.8 QUALITY OF DATA
4.9 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
CHAPTER 5: DATA ANALYSIS, DISCUSSION & INTERPRETATION.
5.1 INTRODUCTION
5.2 IDENTIFICATION, CATEGORISATION AND COMPARISON OF YOUNG AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN WOMEN’S BODY SHAPES FROM BODY MEASUREMENTS AND SCAN IMAGES (OBJECTIVE 1 & SUB-OBJECTIVES 1.1 & 1.2) .
5.3 COMPARISON AND DETERMINATION OF SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCES IN SELECTED BODY MEASUREMENTS AND RATIOS OF PREDOMINANT AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN BODY SHAPES (OBJECTIVE 2 & SUB-OBJECTIVE 2.1) .
5.4 VISUAL COMPARISON OF PREDOMINANT AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN BODY SHAPES (OBJECTIVE 2, SUB-OBJECTIVE 2.1)
5.5 SUMMARY OF THE COMPARISON OF BODY MEASUREMENTS AND MEASUREMENT RATIOS OF THE CAUCASIAN HOURGLASS AND THE PREDOMINANT BODY SHAPES
5.6 PERCEIVED RTW APPAREL FIT PROBLEMS AND FIT IMPLICATIONS ASSOCIATED WITH AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN BODY SHAPES (OBJECTIVE 3)
5.7 SELECTED BODY PARTS’ CATHEXIS OF AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN BODY SHAPES (OBJECTIVE 4) .
5.8 PARTICIPANTS’ PERCEPTION OF AN IDEAL FIGURE AND ASSOCIATION WITH AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN BODY SHAPES (OBJECTIVE 5) .
5.9 READY-TO-WEAR APPAREL FIT PREFERENCES AND ASSOCIATION WITH AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN BODY SHAPES (OBJECTIVE 6)
5.10 INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS OF BODY SHAPE CHARACTERISTICS, PERCEIVED FIT PROBLEMS, BODY PART CATHEXIS, FIT PREFERENCES AND THE PERCEIVED IDEAL FIGURE OF AFRICAN AND CAUCASIAN WOMEN
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS, EVALUATIONS, CONTRIBUTION TO THEORY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
