An axiomatic design theory for design of apparel products

Abstract

An apparel product has a unique feature other than other products in that apparel product design must consider three categories of design requirements, namely function (governed by natural sciences), comfort (governed by ergonomics), and pleasure (governed by aesthetics and psychology). This paper proposes a general design theory for apparel products. The theory is based on Axiomatic Design Theory (ADT), which is for the functional aspect of products, particularly by adapting ADT to apparel product design, to which all the aspects (function, comfort, pleasure) need to be considered. The proposed theory is thus called the Axiomatic Design Theory For Apparel (ADT-FA). The ADT-FA has two axioms. Axiom 1 (apparel) concerns coupling in the design requirement, and Axiom 2 (apparel) concerns redundancy in the design parameter. The proposed theory is preliminarily validated with the Zoot suit, which is well known in the community of apparel design. The work opens an avenue for more validations in future.