A Creation of Textile Design through Thai Cultural DNA for Millennial in part of Fulfilling
Assist. Prof. Dr. Thanotai Mongkolsin
Introduction
From an interview with Dr. Suwit Maesinsee (2016) on the government’s policy on Thailand 4.0 in terms of Creative, Culture & High Value Service, he talked about the elements of Thai Cultural DNA. The cultural DNA meaning is the cultural information
transmission from generation to generation. It comes from two sciences, they are organisation field and biological field (Min & Lee, 2017). Cultural DNA is like a cultural identity that can be passed on from generation to generation which differs from country to country. Sasin Institute,
Chulalongkorn University and Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University have previously studied that “Thai Cultural DNA” consists of 5 Fs: Fun, Flexible, Friendly, Flavouring and Fulfilling. In this research, the researcher selected one of five Thai cultural DNA to design a loincloth pattern. It is “Fulfilling”, which corresponds to the Outdoorsy style. It refers to the researcher’s previous research (Mongkolsin, 2019). Outdoorsy Style is associated with outdoor activities lover (Merriam Webster, 2018). It is a style that combines functional and stylish together such as camping etc. Outdoorsy people dress depending on the environment and weather conditions, for example, if the weather is rainy, they tend to wear a rain parka and rubber boots (Hine, 2017). From the research, the Millennial generation was born in 1981-1995 (U.S. Census and Bureau, 2014). Nowadays, there are approximately 20.6 million people in Thailand. They have high purchasing power (Marketeer, 2015) with lifestyles that emphasise fun, entertainment, fashion, interest in charitable activities and like to do activities with a group of friends. They have freedom of thought and plan their future lives (Jitpraphai, 2007).In addition, the Millennial Generation is the first generation to receive training from schools with the eco-friendly and sustainable concept. It led this generation to focus on this idea (Rogers, 2013)
which is consistent with the research idea. The researcher wants to design a new loincloth pattern to develop loincloth patterns and exchange knowledge of weaving wisdom with villagers in Ban Suan Por women’s group, Roi Et province through two sustainable fashion and textile approaches: 1) “Recreate” is to creatively rework from the existing design concept by designing from local wisdom and local craft labour mixed with the knowledge of Thai cultural DNA and fashion design for providing local people with income and careers, and 2) “Longer Lasting Fashion” is to design using high quality materials and craftsmanship. Design and tailoring make the pieces come out beautiful, precious and durable, as well as create a more emotional bond with consumers than just the utility alone (Fletcher & Grose, 2012). This process is used through the theory of Fashion & Textile Design elements. It consists of four key elements: Colour, Silhouette, Detail & Technique, and Material (Seivewright, 2012). The research methodology consists of four steps: 1) Literature review, 2) Expert interview, 3) Consumer questionnaire, and 4) Design and conclusion. The research result is a loincloth pattern that corresponds to the research topic for continuing to create clothes with an outdoorsy style, consistent with Thai cultural DNA and the Millennials to generate income in the local community sustainably.
Conclusion
The researcher received information about Thai cultural DNA in the part of the word “Fulfilling” that corresponds to Outdoorsy style, which is a form of fashion style, to use as a reference for finding a loincloth pattern design for this research. After collecting research data from expert interviews and target group questionnaires, the researcher used the above information to analyse the results as the following research results. The table shows the results of the analysis of data collected from expert interviews and target group questionnaires to be used in the loincloth pattern design for this research.
After receiving the analysis data, the researcher used this information as a guideline for designing a loincloth pattern that was consistent with the research topic. The researcher has summarised the result of the loincloth pattern design. The loincloth pattern is designed with a 3 x 3 grid motif, each of which measures 3.6 x 3.6 centimetres. It is white, grey and black in 9 different compartments and has blue lines, 0.25 centimetres wide, to be projected into the frame of the motif grid. (As shown in the picture), the researcher then asked the villagers to weave the loincloth pattern into a piece of cloth with recycled plastic bottle fibre. The cloth size is 80 centimetres wide and 10 metres long for the villagers to sew the sample dress in the outdoorsy style.
Objectives Aims or Purposes
- To extend knowledge of Thai Cultural DNA with fashion style to design textile pattern (Pha Kao Ma)
- To develop a Pha Kao Ma pattern, local textile, to be more contemporary
- To exchange knowledge of textile design and local wisdom with locals to lead to new fabric pattern designs
Process or Methods
A Creation of Textile Design through Thai Cultural DNA for Millennial in part of Fulfilling is a mixed methodology which is quantitative and qualitative research along with the creation of works. It uses a quantitative research method to collect information about Millennials lifestyle and personality traits, and a qualitative research method to collect information about the concept of Thai cultural DNA, fashion styles and design elements of fashion and textiles to know the approach of a research method. It can be divided into 4 parts as follows:
1. Literature review
2. Expert interview
3. Consumer questionnaire
4. Design and conclusion
1. Literature review
In order to know a creation of textile design through Thai Cultural DNA for Millennial in part of Fulfilling, the steps are as follows:
1.1 To study the concepts and theories about Thai Cultural DNA by studying the meaning, background and development of Thai textile design from secondary sources, including documents, books, textbooks, electronic media and related research by selecting “Fulfilling”, 1 word from 5 words of Thai Cultural DNA to be used in the design for this research.
2. Expert interview
At this stage, the research process will be qualitative research with the Delphi technique for collecting data from experts to lead the creative design process further by seeking opinions from a group of experts in the relevant fields that the researcher would like to study to find a unified conclusion (Wadecharoen, Lertnaisat, & Teekasub, 2017) in this research topic.
2.1 Data storage framework: From the study of information about fashion style in accordance with Thai cultural DNA in part of Fulfilling from the relevant documents, it was found that the fashion style that corresponds to Thai cultural DNA is Outdoorsy style. The researcher needs to obtain a framework of pattern design and loincloth weaving to guide the creation of a pattern prototype of the research and draw the conclusions of the fashion and textiles design elements from the experts appropriately.
2.2 Expert designation: By Delphi technique, the researcher must select a person who has knowledge and ability to conduct research studies (Wadecharoen, W. et al., 2017), therefore, the researcher determines the qualifications and sizes of the experts as follows:
2.2.1 To determine the expert’s qualification: The researcher has selected experts with knowledge and competence in fabric pattern design and loincloth weaving.
2.2.2 To determine the expert’s size: After defining the expert’s qualification, the researcher determined the expert’s size at 5 with a deviation of 1.20-0.70 and a net change of 0.50 (Silcharu, T., 2008).
3. Consumer questionnaire
It is a quantitative research process involving Millennials, the target group to find information about lifestyle, fashion and textile needs, and personality. This will be a guideline for the loincloth pattern design that is suitable for the target group’s needs. The steps are as follows.
3.1 Research tool creation
3.1.1 Creating a questionnaire
1) The questionnaire was interviewed with a representative of fashion style icons corresponding to Fulfilling, which is 1 in 5 Thai cultural DNA. She is a Millennial generation and has an urban lifestyle. The researcher selected her as a fashion style icon from a sample of target consumers for knowing the lifestyle and style of dress according to the elements of fashion and textile design to be used as a guideline of a research concept and the questionnaire structure.
2) Preparing the research conceptual framework.
3) Defining the questionnaire structure.
4) Creating a questionnaire for the target group.
5) Finding out the questionnaire tool quality.
6) Improving the questionnaire.
3.2 Targeting: In this research, the main target population were Millennials, living or studying or working in Bangkok, born between 1981 and 1995.
3.3 Data Collection: The researcher collected data from 100 questionnaires in 10 days.
3.4 Data Analysis and Presentation: The data analysis from the Millennial questionnaires was shown with frequency distribution, percentage, arithmetic mean and the standard deviation through presentations in tabular form with essays explaining the various issues as determined by the researcher.
4. Design and conclusion
During this research process period, the researcher designed the pattern prototypes to be a guideline in this research with Delphi technique data collection. The researcher divided the pattern prototype process and summarised the research results as follows.
4.1 Creating a pattern prototype process
4.1.1 Drafting the loincloth pattern then bringing the fabric pattern to an expert for examination and selection to find the most suitable fabric pattern.
4.1.2 Experimenting to weave the designed pattern to see the possibilities and weaknesses before proceeding with the improvement.
4.1.3 Weaving loincloth with the designed pattern.
4.2 Summary and discussion including suggestions for further research
Satisfaction was assessed through bringing this loincloth pattern prototype to sell in civil state stores (Pracharat stores) and to issue a booth on behalf of the Ban Suan Por women’s group, Roi Et province. Both the loincloth fabric and the loincloth clothing were made according to the outdoorsy style to be summarised and discussed including suggestions for further research.
Techniques and materials
Media Design Research, Analysis, Context, Photo, Format, Typography, ColourLocal wisdom weaving / Recycled plastic bottle fibre
Size or Mins.
–
