Abstract:
In garment making, particularly for female garment designing and constructing, consideration of variations in female body shape is important for better fit of the garment to body. Female body shape variation yet not studied in Ethiopia. Therefore, in this work primarily the body shape of female students studied and identified. The study was done on female students of Ethiopian Institute of Textile and Fashion Technology (EiTEX) considering 234 female student samples with age variation from 18-25. Since students are from different regions of the country and hence they can possibly represent majority of Ethiopian females from wide area of the country. The body shape identification is very important, for fashion designers and garment makers to produce fashionable garments fitted for Ethiopian ladies. As per analysis made considering the age variation and the circumference body measurements from female sample students, the existing five types of female body categorizes were evaluated according the result obtained from measured body circumference. Accordingly the measured circumference revealed the dominant body shape for Ethiopian females are in the category of spoon type with 72.2% from 234 female students.The next dominant body shape types identified are hourglass and rectangle respectively with 16.7 % and 9.4%.The spoon type body shape is identified for female students whose average age varied from 19-20.Then following this garment was developed for identified body shape from Ethiopian traditional fabric after print development on it for the aim of value addition for traditional fabrics. Screen printing technique is used for developing print design, since garment making from traditional printed fabric is very common and fashionable in many African countries, whereas this yet not common in Ethiopia..