Example design dissertation topic 4:

Fashion design: A return of men’s bespoke tailoring through the internet.

Though the vast majority of tailoring is for the mass market, the rise in internet shopping has, with regard to men’s formal attire, seen a boom in the bespoke fashion industry with an increase in the number of firms operating solely on the Net and offering fully bespoke garments. Focusing on the production of bespoke tweed jackets and suits, this dissertation evaluates not only the success of individual firms but also the effects that the rising demand for bespoke-tweed has had upon the tweed industry itself which was, previously, on verge of collapse.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Bae, J.H. and May-Plumlee, T. (2005). ‘Customer focused textile and apparel manufacturing systems: Towards an effective e-commerce model’, Journal of Textile and Apparel, Technology and Management, Vol. 4(4), pp.
• Hammond, J. and Kohler, K. (2001). ‘E-commerce in the textile and apparel industries’. In, BRIE-IGCC E-conomy Project, Tracking a transformation: E-commerce and the terms of competition in industries. Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, pp. 332-356.
• Zheng, J., Caldwell, N., Harland, C., Powell, P., Woerndl, M. and Xu, S. (2004). ‘Small firms and e-business: cautiousness, contingency and cost-benefit’, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, Vol. 10(1), pp. 27-39.