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Insufficient Allure: The Luxurious Art and Cost of Creative Pattern Cutting

This research set out to investigate the significance of creative pattern cutting to the fashion industry, conducted over a 3-year period. It emphasises the impact of the research and examines aspects of creative pattern-cutting and its importance to the design process within the fashion industry and fashion education. This paper builds upon a limited amount of enquiry (British Fashion Council 2000, Fischer 2008). It suggests that ‘creative cut’ is an interpretation of the designer’s vision and therefore equitable with the position of the fashion designer, in terms of esteem and remuneration. The text and photographed garments from the paper were curated as an exhibition at Huddersfield Art Gallery, ‘Insufficient Allure’ (2012). Reviewed by international fashion journalist Brenda Polan, the exhibition provided a critical appraisal of the pattern-cutter’s position as integral to creative design through its emphasis upon clothing compositions placed onto the body to create original forms. The research project also included an international peer-reviewed conference sponsored by fashion technology experts Lectra, which attracted 160 delegates from 20 countries and included 30 paper presentations from leading researchers. The conference proceedings have led to a Guest Editorial Special Edition ‘Creative Cut’, The International Journal of Fashion Design, Technology and Education (2013)