A pattern of growth and change in consumer studies

Not so long ago, UD students majoring in home economics or human resources took clothing construction courses that required them to transform one of their old skirts into a pair of overalls for a toddler.

Today, students in CHEP's Department of Consumer Studies' apparel design program use sophisticated computer-aided design software and hardware to create the kinds of products that major retailers might want.

That type of change--from an emphasis on work in the home to an emphasis on careers in industry--is evident in all the department's programs, which also include fashion merchandising and leadership and consumer economics, according to Frances Mayhew. A firsthand witness to many of those changes, Mayhew, CHEP '63, '74M, earned her bachelor's and master's degrees in clothing and textiles at UD and now is an associate professor in the consumer studies department.

"When I was an undergraduate, the focus was on educating women to be parents, to be homemakers, to promote their husbands' careers," she says. "Although some of those students went on to work as home economics teachers or in other careers, the department did not have the professional focus it has today. I've really seen the department and the field evolve."

According to Penny Deiner, professor and chairperson of CHEP's Department of Individual and Family Studies, that evolution both reflects and results from economic and social changes in American life that have substantially increased the number of women in the workforce. At the same time, she says, the field of home economics itself has changed.

"In the past, many home economists were generalists," Deiner says. "But, today, with the surge in the amount of research and information available, people in the field need to specialize."

Karen Stein, chairperson of the Department of Consumer Studies, agrees. "With more than 500 students enrolled, we're stronger and more competitive than ever," Stein says, noting that only about 27 percent of applicants are admitted to the department. "We guide our students to become leaders of change in a rapidly evolving world and to develop their sense of social responsibility. Professionalism and ethical leadership are hallmarks of our department."

Stein cites a few recent trends and initiatives:

• Faculty and students are becoming increasingly involved in the field of material culture, including a new research project in which Janet Hethorn and Belinda Orzada, both associate professors in the apparel design program, are digitizing photographs of the department's historic costume collection. The goal is to create a database that can be searched using images, not words--drawing the shape of a particular style of sleeve, for example, rather than trying to describe it. Once established, Stein says, the database will be useful as an instructional tool, and the technology will have implications for architecture and other visual disciplines.
  
  
• Students have more opportunities to work with outside clients, gaining practical experience in industry and learning how the real world of apparel design and merchandising works. Last semester, for example, a group of Hethorn's students consulted with Under Armour, a Baltimore-based company that makes sports apparel. The students met with company representatives to get their assignment and, later, to present their concepts and designs for a new clothing line. Hethorn says the process, including the company's critiques of the students' presentations, was exceptionally realistic and professional. "Learning how the sports apparel industry works was especially helpful for me, since it is an area I am interested in pursuing," says Sari Kaufman, CHEP 2003, one of the student team leaders. "Our team had many ups and downs and obstacles that we had to overcome. This is important in the fashion industry, since most jobs will require teamwork."
  
  
• The department, which offers a major in leadership and consumer economics and a minor in leadership, is becoming a national prototype in leadership education because of its emphasis on experiential learning, Stein says. Jong-Youn Rha, assistant professor, says she attended a weeklong workshop at Harvard University last spring on leadership development and found the experience "a validation of what we're already doing." The UD leadership program, Rha says, is more advanced than many other universities'--both in the number and variety of courses offered and also in the way students enhance their academic work by doing real community service projects that require them to develop and practice leadership skills.

 A dress for success

 Two years ago, Kyoko Wakamatsu took the first sewing class of her life. A little more than a year later, she had created a striking, hand-painted, floor-length silk gown that won her a place in the finals of a major international competition for young designers.

Although Wakamatsu, CHEP 2003, possesses exceptional talent and determination, her background no longer is unusual among apparel design students, according to Jo Kallal, a professor in the Department of Consumer Studies. Unlike previous eras, when home economics sewing classes were a required part of a girl's secondary school education, Kallal says many students now enter CHEP's apparel design program without knowing how to use a sewing machine or what to do with a pattern.

Wakamatsu, for example, transferred to UD in spring 2001 from a university with no fashion program and took her first sewing class that summer. Since then, Kallal says, "She's just been driven to learn more."

That drive led her to enter the 2002 International Contest for Young Designers, an annual competition sponsored by Air France. The final phase of the contest, held in Paris in December, attracted designers from about 50 fashion schools in 12 countries.

Participating in the contest was quite a learning experience, Wakamatsu says. When she first sketched the dress, she says, "I was designing it without even knowing how I was going to make it."

The dress consists of an inner layer of peach-colored silk charmeuse and an outer layer of off-white silk satin organza with a bateau neckline. Wakamatsu painted cherry tree branches on the right shoulder and more branches, on which two bright-green lovebirds perch, on the right side near the hem. She used the same organza of the outer layer to make lengths of cording, which she knotted and draped over the bodice, giving it a three-dimensional quality.

"I had never done a fabric painting before," Wakamatsu says. "The dress is cut on the bias, and I had never worked on the bias before. Also, the way I designed it meant that it had to be draped, and I hadn't learned draping techniques yet. Everything was new to me."

With the help of Kallal and other CHEP faculty members, teaching assistants and fellow students, Wakamatsu learned what she needed to turn her sketches into an actual dress. She estimates that she worked at least 200 hours on the project.

"The dress is quite a sophisticated design, especially for a designer without a lot of experience, and it required a lot of time-consuming handwork," Kallal says.

As for Wakamatsu, she says she liked her first sewing class immediately, "and every time I do more sewing and design, I just love it. Every project teaches me something new."

Teamwork in fashion

Students in certain fashion merchandising and apparel design courses soon will be getting a preview of their eventual workplaces by engaging in projects that rely on technology, teamwork and connecting concepts to solve problems.

Three courses in CHEP's Department of Consumer Studies--"Fundamentals of Textiles," "Fashion Direct Marketing" and "Fashion Sales Promotion"--will give students the opportunity to see how the elements of each class interrelate in the real world, according to the professors who teach them.

"We've always taught these courses separately, but with this innovative redesign, we're trying to emphasize that the courses do more than just build on each other," says Karen Stein, chairperson of the department. "They're really interrelated, with shared concepts."

The new course structure was proposed last year by Hye-Shin Kim, Rosetta Lafleur and Karen Schaeffer, associate professors. Their proposal received a $14,000 grant from UD's Technology-Enhanced Course Redesign Grant Program.

In addition to emphasizing how apparel product development, marketing and promotion are linked, the three courses, which all will be taught in the same semester, will include a shared student project. For example, Schaeffer says, suppose a hypothetical fashion retailer wants to start selling handbags online.

"Students in the textiles class will use software to develop a collection of fabrications suitable for a variety of handbag styles," she says. "Then, the direct marketing students will identify specified consumer groups and choose the styles of bags with appropriate fabrications that are likely to appeal to each group. Finally, students in the sales promotion class will design web sites featuring the bags targeted to specific consumers."

It will be possible for students to enroll in all three classes simultaneously and therefore be involved in all aspects of the multi-course project, Schaeffer says. It also will be possible for students to take just one or two of the courses.

Lafleur, who teaches the textiles course, says she and her colleagues believe students will benefit educationally by taking classes that "connect the dots among concepts and courses."?

The redesigned courses also will help prepare students for careers by showing them how various jobs in a
company fit together, Kim says. "We're duplicating dynamic activities that would occur within an apparel company, with the courses representing different departments or function areas that work together," she says. "It gives students a bigger picture--a holistic, realistic view of what they're learning."

Leaders travel far

True leaders are always learning, says Audrey Helfman, assistant professor of consumer studies, and that's what she expects from her students at home and abroad.

Helfman, one of two faculty directors of the first UD study-abroad program to focus on leadership, took a group of 30 students to Australia and New Zealand last Winter Session and will do so again next January.

"Study abroad isn't like a traditional classroom, where you meet for an hour and then go do something else," she says. "We really focused on experiential learning, 24/7. Leaders are constant learners."

The program was an interdisciplinary one with faculty co-director Betty Haslett, a professor in the College of Arts and Science's communication department. All students took Helfman's "Leadership in Organizations" course and Haslett's "Organizational Communication," and the group's activities were designed to apply to both fields.

"I'm a firm believer in the importance of strong communication to leadership, so the two courses were a good fit," Helfman says.

In Australia, the students heard from guest speakers about such topics as the culture of their organizations, toured businesses to learn how they were structured and formed teams to develop presentations, which they delivered at the end of the trip. They also completed daily assignments.

"They had a prompt for each day of the program," Helfman says. "It directed them to do a task and then write about how they did it and what they learned about themselves and about the process of leadership."

Kate Guider, CHEP 2003, who graduated with an interdisciplinary CHEP major and a minor in leadership, describes the study-abroad experience as "amazing, like nothing I've ever done before." She says learning about different cultures, including participating in some traditional aboriginal and Maori educational programs, was a highlight of the experience. A surprising result of the trip, she says, was how close and cohesive the group of students became as they worked on projects in teams.

She says every activity taught her something new, and she especially enjoyed seeing how the students became a cooperative group through teamwork.

"I learned something from every single thing we did," Guider says. "Dr. Helfman always tells us that there's leadership everywhere you look, and I see now that's very true."

--Ann Manser, AS '73, CHEP '73