Pattern Cutting as System Design

Before I began this PhD, pattern cutting was about silhouette, proportion, balance.

Now I see it as infrastructure.

A garment is not just shape. It is a mapped landscape of strain distribution, compression zones, anchoring points, and movement corridors. Every seam placement affects how force travels across the body.

When we begin to consider textile-integrated systems, these structural decisions become even more significant.

A seam is no longer only a construction line.
It can become a boundary condition.

A dart is not just shaping - it redirects tension.
A panel shift changes how strain disperses.

Design decisions that once felt aesthetic now carry functional weight.

This reframing has shifted how I sketch and prototype. I find myself thinking about:

• Areas of minimal distortion

• Zones of consistent contact with the body

• Natural compression created by garment fit

• How posture influences material behaviour

The body is not static. It breathes, shifts, leans, twists. Clothing sits at the interface between skin and environment.

If garments are to support emotional awareness, they must work with movement - not against it.

Pattern cutting, in this context, becomes a form of systems engineering.