FIBER stands for the "Fashion International Business Education Response" project, a two-year project funded by a $165,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education. The FIBER journal's mission is to showcase fashion and apparel markets around the globe, share the insights of leaders in the industry and the latest academic research on critical issues, highlight opportunities for further education, and provide a forum for the exchange of ideas, connecting members of the fashion and apparel community around the globe.
The sophomore issue focuses on the growing textile and apparel industry in Thailand. It includes interviews with Pramode Vidtayasuk, director general of the Department of Industrial Promotion in Thailand's Ministry of Industry, and Foengfurad Mungtavesinsuk, professor in the Textile Science and Technology Department of Kasetsart University in Bangkok.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Thailand William Itoh and Paul Wedel, president and executive director of the Kenan Institute Asia, a Thai nonprofit development foundation, provide background information on the new Thai government formed in late 2007. Additional articles detail current Thai labor standards and the status of U.S.-Thailand free trade agreement negotiations.
A second major theme of the issue is sustainability in the fashion and apparel industry. An article by Gail Baugh, lecturer in apparel design and merchandising at San Francisco State University, presents the latest developments in the debate as to whether cotton or polyester is the most environmentally friendly fiber. Readers can also view video excerpts and read highlights from a talk presented at UD earlier this year by Lynda Grose, an industry pioneer in sustainable design.
The FIBER journal is a major component of a research and outreach project on the internationalization of the apparel industry led by Hye-Shin Kim, associate professor and project director, Marsha Dickson, professor and chairperson of the Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, and Sharron Lennon, the Irma Ayers Professor of Fashion and Apparel Studies, and George Irvine, project manager.
The journal is produced semiannually by an editorial team from the University of Delaware Department of Fashion and Apparel Studies, the Division of Professional and Continuing Studies, the Center for International Studies, and the Office of Communications and Marketing's Research Communications Initiative.
Subscribe to the journal at [www.udel.edu/fiber].
Article by Beth Chajes