Celebrating 20 years of clothing science and technology

Citation

Stylios, G.K. (2008), "Celebrating 20 years of clothing science and technology", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 20 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijcst.2008.05820aaa.001

Celebrating 20 years of clothing science and technology

Editorial

Celebrating 20 years of clothing science and technology

This year IJCST celebrates 20 years of research excellence. Unlike many other journals we have remained at the pinnacle of clothing research.

Looking back on the past 20 years, I can only admire the spirited, nai¨ve and yet somewhat tonic attitude we then had. At the time, I was giving the last finishing touches to my PhD when I realised, to my dismay that a suitable journal for its publication did not exist. After speaking to some colleagues about my reservations, the overwhelming consensus was that both the JTI and the TRJ did not have the right focus for a paper on clothing. So it struck me why not start a new journal, one that centres on clothing science and technology.

The first discussions happened with Jim Betts and Alf Keller who agreed it would be a good idea, David Lloyd and Ron Postle followed soon after the legendary First International Clothing Conference. But it was not all guns and glory. The first two publishing houses that were approached were quite polite in telling me that I was barking up the wrong tree! After all who had heard of anything as preposterous as a “clothing journal”? Turns out the joke were on them.

I was advised to speak to a young chap at MCB, now Emerald, called Keith Howard! After boring him for a full three hours with talk about my research for M&S, my international exposure and persuading him I had my eye on the future, he simply replied “when can you get me five papers for the first issue” to which I answered nai¨vely “next week”. That was it, I baptised the journal as IJCST and agreed there and then with Keith to start with three issues for year one (1989). From the following year until now IJCST has been published in five issues and from 1995 it took the research register as its sixth issue complement.

But enough about the past, currently IJCST is a well recognised international journal, cited in the ISI (MSCI, SCIE), World Textile Abstract, Textile Technology Index, amongst others. It applies a strict refereed double blind regime. It is very much at the leading edge of what concerns clothing and of course, it reports in anything related to garments such as fabrics, finishing, design as well as marketing and management, as long as the material is original and of technical nature. In these late years, high-performance clothing, functional textiles, the question of SMART and intelligent and of course, the continuation of research in modelling drape, in fabric mechanics in relation to garments quality and compliance are topics that are receiving attention in every journal issue. Emerald, as it is now called, much bigger in size, has made sure that the publication is kept with modern times, so any norm that is expected for access though the internet, for cataloguing, for using in search engines, for automated library access, etc. are all available for making life easier for subscribers and authors alike, including students to whom we owe the future of this discipline. Recently, by the citation of IJCST in the SCI, there has been a surge of papers, which creates at times difficulties in keeping up with refereeing and production schedules.

Our focus for this volume is to continue providing a platform for publishing the incremental advances of clothing science and technology, but at the same time emphasizing the following world leading areas:

1. 1.

   SMART materials and garments:

   • •

     shape and colour changing; and

   • •

     slow/control release.

2. 2.

   High-performance clothing:

   • •

     competition sportswear;

   • •

     medical clothing;

   • •

     armour for the special forces; and

   • •

     physiological/environmental protection.

   • •

     Wearable electronics.

3. 3.

   Mass customisation technologies:

   • •

     body modelling and reconstruction, sizing systems;

   • •

     automated measurement of fabric mechanics;

   • •

     modelling of yarn, fabric and garments;

   • •

     fully clothed humans in virtual shopping environments; and

   • •

     integration with intelligent textile and sewing systems.

4. 4.

   Environmental/eco textiles and garments.

5. 5.

   Synergism of design/technology:

   • •

     hi-tech clothes with high-aesthetic attributes; and

   • •

     couture with technology.

I wait for your original papers in any of the above topics and welcome any comments and suggestions, from anybody connected with clothing whether in research or commerce.

It remains for me to express a big thank you to authors, subscribers, reviewers and publishing team for all your support over the past 20 years. I am looking forward to continue working with you to make IJCST even better in the years to come.

George K. StyliosEditor-in-Chief