Abstract
Many South African fashion designers are unsuccessful in terms of business and
strategy, by creating products that express their own artistic design style, without
sufficient consideration of specific consumer requirements. The argument is made that
fashion design education that neglects the consumer in the design process could set
students up for such failure. This paper reports on the second application of an action
research cycle to implement an improved teaching approach. The teaching approach
included an intervention to stimulate awareness of the need for a fashion designer to
integrate designer’s style with target market requirements as a strategy to produce
authentic, relevant products that can add value to the consumer. In order to reflect
upon and evaluate the effect of the action to stimulate awareness, data were obtained
from participants’ written reflections and design purpose statements, as well as
assessment results of completed concept design illustrations. The findings of the study
indicated that with the exception of one case, all the participants were able to attain
levels of awareness, as was demonstrated in the assessment results of the design
illustrations, which represented the visual expression of a participant’s design strategy.
Nevertheless, the ability to synthesise ideas was identified as a major challenge to still
address. It is clear from the findings though that the strategic principles and process
facilitated through the teaching approach and the subsequent recommendations for
refinement, present a viable opportunity for fashion design educators to pursue and
adapt to their situations and needs.