Effects of Motifs and Patterns in Decorated Fabrics on Figure Types

Abstract

Motifs and patterns are the significant part of every culture from the ancient days. Embroidery, appliqué, tie dye/batik, prints, smocking and shirring display a rich variety of dynamic patterns and motifs in a garment. Fashion designers in Ghana appear not to take the fabric decorations into consideration when selecting and producing garments for their clients/customers. This results in the poor selection and placement of patterns and motifs in the production of garments for the various figure types. This study aimed at examining the effects of selected fabric decorations on the female figure types. The study adopted a qualitative research approach. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the twenty (20) fashion designers in Kumasi Metropolis. Structure interview was used in gather information from the fashion designers. The study discovered that that motifs and pattern decoration have effects on figure types. The effect of fabric decorations (embroidery, appliqué, tie and dye and printing, smocking and shirring) on the female figure types (Apple shape, Straight/rectangular shape, Pear shape and Hourglass shape.) helps end users to know the effects of fabric decorations on their figure type and more or less enables the designers to select and design clothes for a particular figure type in terms of choice of fabric decoration. It was recommended that fashion designers should take figure types into consideration when selecting and producing garments for their clients or end users.