Fashion Design Rediscovered: A Theory on Dressmaking Practice

Fashion design is often understood as one of design’s subfields that lacks critical reflection on its domain-specific situation. Research on fashion design practice has either simply adopted research results from design studies or been overshadowed by its social and cultural implications from fashion studies. This paper questions this overgeneralization of design, especially the practice of design. For this inquiry, distinctive features of fashion design’s dressmaking practice are presented via a theoretical sampling of the literature on fashion design and design practice. Grounded theory was employed to construct a theory on dressmaking practice based on empirical data gathered from the fashion design profession.