Guided by the five cross-cutting themes of the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) Body of Knowledge (BOK) two capstone courses (C[superscript 2]) in Apparel Studies were designed to help prepare students for careers, further study, or both.

The goal of this paper is to illustrate how the promotion of 21st Century process skills can be used to enhance student learning and workplace skill development: thinking, problem solving, collaboration, communication, leadership, and management. As an illustrative case, fashion merchandising and design students conducted research for a…

The purpose of this paper is to describe an educational partnership experience between rural retailers and graduate students in a Merchandising, Apparel and Textiles program. Students were afforded an opportunity to work with small business owners in rural communities, giving them real world exposure to the actual challenges being faced by…

Textile products are used heavily every day. The apparel industry is one of the largest industrial polluters, causing damage to both human health and the environment. Despite increasing consumer concern about environmental issues and a growing trend toward supporting sustainable production, consumers are often unable to evaluate accurately which…

The purpose of this study was to investigate message T-shirts and school safety as rated by high school teachers (n = 47) and students (n = 275). Wearing message T-shirts displaying offensive statements/images may contribute to perceptions of a psychologically and/or physically unsafe school environment. Participants gave their impressions of 12…

In today's high technology, globally interdependent world, we must educate students to achieve to their highest capacity. The goal of this middle school fashion design project was to develop a classroom environment that promoted teaching for creativity. We examined the following questions. What was the students' perception of their (a)…

A high school fashion design teacher has much in common with the ringmaster of a three-ring circus. The challenges of teaching a hands-on course are to facilitate the entire class and to meet the needs of individual students. When teaching family and consumer sciences, the goal is to have a learner-active classroom. Revamping the high school's…

Educating students to embrace diversity and value all people is a core value of educators in family and consumer sciences (FCS). For instructors in FCS, integrating the contributions of African Americans--particularly in textiles and clothing--can be an inclusive learning opportunity. The authors compiled resources on African Americans and…

The goal of this study was to identify the relationship of at-risk youth workplace appearance to other job performance criteria. Employers (n = 30; each employing from 1 to 17 youths) evaluated 178 at-risk high school youths who completed a paid summer employment experience. Appearance evaluations were significantly correlated with evaluations of…

Institutions of higher education are being challenged to strengthen undergraduate education. One strategy for meeting students' needs is to incorporate research activities into the undergraduate experience. Each project can be tailored to fit the student's research interest and contribute to a faculty member's research productivity. An honors…

The purpose of this study was to gather information on the perceptions of sustainability in design held by family and consumer sciences (FCS) students majoring in interior design and apparel design/merchandising. Likert-scale responses were used to explore differences and similarities between students in the two majors. Overall, interior design…

Women can choose among many options with regard to ready-to-wear (RTW) clothing; for example, they can purchase imported or domestically produced garments, or they can select custom-made or second-hand garments. In Ghana, women have traditionally preferred imported RTW garments to RTW garments produced within the country. In this study,…

Counterfeiting, which has always been somewhat of a problem in several different industry settings, has recently become an epidemic in the fashion industry. Widespread and seemingly endless counterfeiting of fashion goods is costing the industry millions of dollars in lost profits and tarnishing the image of many luxury brands. This article…

The purpose of this article is to address the relationship between the purchase of counterfeit apparel goods by college students and their knowledge and concern of counterfeiting. Additionally, students' beliefs regarding the legality of manufacturing, distributing, and purchasing counterfeit goods are examined. This topic is important because…

The centennial of the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) provides an opportunity to explore local as well as national aspects of the field. Studying events that shaped FCS and the women and men who provided early leadership reinforces the role of FCS in improving daily living conditions for the past century. Engaging…