ADCH 17 (1) pp.

51–59 Intellect Limited 2018

Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education Volume 17 Number 1 ​© 2018 Intellect Ltd Article.
English language. doi: 10.1386/adch.17.1.51_1

Guo Chen, FenFen Ma, Yan JianG and Ruipu Liu ​Beijing Institute of
Fashion Technology

Virtual reality interactive teaching

for Chinese traditional Tibetan
clothing
design education

absTRaCT ​Chinese history represents a traditional costume culture that provides a rich source of inspiration
for fashion students. This article references typical Tibetan clothing as an example of Chinese traditional costume
and proposes a virtual reality interac- tive teaching mode for use in fashion design education. This mode enables
fash- ion students to understand in greater depth the structural features of traditional costumes through virtual
garments and also provides self-learning platforms and opportunities for other non-fashion students. Virtual
reality interactive teaching can fully demonstrate the characteristics of traditional Chinese clothing, increasing
access to garment knowledge that is not readily available outside museum collec- tions. These processes include
using two-dimensional (2D) clothing CAD software to display the traditional clothing structure, using virtual
reality technology for making three-dimensional (3D) clothing models and using the Unity 3D game development
platform for interactivity. This virtual reality interactive teaching approach expands upon traditional teaching
methods for fashion design and the study of traditional costume for design development. This article presents this
virtual method for fashion education to enable increased access to traditional costume knowledge.
KeYwoRds ​traditional costume Tibetan clothing
virtual reality interactive teaching clothing structure
Guo Chen | Fenfen Ma | Yan Jiang | Ruipu Liu

1. inTRoduCTion ​Chinese traditional costumes are a major source of inspiration for contempo- rary design.
Tibetan costumes form an important part of Chinese traditional costume culture, derived from their unique
geographical environment, alpine climatic characteristics, and specific political and religious background. These
 costumes are differentiated from those of other ethnic groups by their distinc- tive shape with a wide waist, long
sleeves and large overlapping panels. As a result they retain valuable design elements for designers and educators.
However, the rapid development of transport links and the rise of tourism are contributing towards increased
connections between Tibet, the rest of the country and the international environment, which has implications for
access to traditional Tibetan costume culture with contemporary cultures. The poten- tial loss of identity constitutes
a great threat to traditional, national culture; thus, the protection and rescue of the heritage of traditional Tibetan
costume culture is particularly important. Consequently, Tibetan costumes are now being protected at a national
level; alongside eleven other minorities they are included in the second round of Chinese national intangible
cultural heritage measures (2008).
In the context of this focus on the protection of traditional costumes and their cultural heritage, the rise of virtual reality has
provided a new opportunity for the protection and inheritance of Tibetan costume culture, and also enabled new
opportunities for fashion education modes. Virtual reality technology has made rapid advances in recent years and
is mainly used for generating a virtual world through a computing device, displayed with an interactive input. This
project aims to demonstrate the use of virtual reality technology in teaching fashion design to develop an
understanding of traditional costume design.
In recent years, researchers have developed virtual three-dimensional (3D) modelling for clothing, but have tended to
emphasize a static model. In 2009, Martin and Ko (2009) discussed a project to enhance these investigations with a
multicultural, multilingual development team using advanced technology in virtual humans. This evolved into a
development of a ‘best practices’ digital archive for historic costume using advanced digital technology to realize
new ways of interpretation, examination and contextualization of historic fashion and how these realizations
translate into real-world applications and effec- tive classroom tools (Martin and Ko 2011). Later studies used
animated 3D simulation to further enhance the virtual experience and demonstrated the significance of accurate
motion capture in creating these simulations (Martin and Mauriello 2013a). One of these aimed to enhance the
museum exhibition experience of dress in new, interactive ways, in particular through 3D simula- tions of fashion
and model body types of the 1930s (Martin and Mauriello 2013b).
With the number of cultural relics increasing, the digital library of virtual clothing has expanded on a correspondingly large
scale. In this, the suite of DC software can help to simulate a more realistic fabric or clothing model in a static
state. But we are no longer satisfied with a static view of virtual cloth- ing, and there is a need to experiment with
other software for modelling. For example, using the DC Suite and Maya Qualoth, Kang et al. (2013) selected a
woman’s robe and a man’s ensemble of the Rococo era of the eighteenth century and reconstructed the garments
with similar fabrics, hairstyles and accessories of the period. The results, while presenting the garments from a
static perspective, demonstrated the advantages of this new approach.

52 Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education

Virtual reality interactive teaching for Chinese ...

Other research has targeted the dynamic design of 3D models with limited success. For example Ling Wu
focused on making finger joints and fingers more flexible through the use of sensors. Ultimately the aim was to
rotate all the body joints to make the virtual human achieve some movement. In addi- tion, Wu et al. (2010) made
several kinds of national costumes for their virtual humans such as Tibetan costumes and costumes for the Wa
ethnic group. Other research has applied microscopic crowd simulation to the complex case of a multi-ethnic
trading port, involving different behavioural patterns, and introduced a high-level control method through the
formalization of intereth- nic interactions. The resulting system generated a variety of real-time anima- tions,
reflecting some of their social behaviour (Lim et al. 2013).
However, there has been relatively little research on the combination of virtual reality technology and
digitization for traditional costumes held in archives and museum collections. The research in this field has mainly
focused on the study of augmented reality technology to strengthen virtual displays of costumes and their simulated
 application. This article takes a sample of Tibetan clothing to explore a new method by using virtual reality
technology to create a digital inheritance to protect traditional costume culture and to retain valuable design
elements. This project will help students gain a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese clothing by studying
details such as structure, pattern and colour. Virtual reality interactive teaching can further empower students to
discover the uniqueness and artistic value of traditional Chinese clothing by enabling them to access a 3D model.

2. MeThod ​In this article, the researchers used CLO 3D and 3ds Max software to build a Tibetan clothing model.
The CLO 3D design tool is usually used in animated films and video game development for 3D character design,
3D art and 3D models, and it has the potential to create a good simulation of the move- ment of fabric textures. The
3ds Max software was used to simulate the specific details of edging effects and metal buttons on the Tibetan
clothing. In addi- tion, because the appearance of traditional Tibetan clothing is aged and soiled, further work was
required than to simply re-create the fabric pattern and achieve good results from the photo collection; the
researchers therefore drew the fabric pattern in Photoshop following the original pattern ratio.
Based on the virtual reality technology, this research integrates computer graphics and sensor technologies,
combined with the knowledge of traditional cultural protection, human-computer interaction, graphics and
visualization to achieve the digital development of Tibetan clothing. The process follows three stages; first, the
making of a model of Tibetan clothing starting with its data measurement. This stage involves drawing
constructional pattern using Richpeace CAD software and exporting the format file DXF into CLO 3D software for
stitching, while adjusting the parameter of the fabric. The second stage is effect rendering and the detailed handling
of the clothing, modelled by 3ds Max software, while adjusting the number of model sides and fabric properties.
The third stage is to import the garment model from CLO 3D into Unity 3D, which requires the design of a display
system with an interaction function to improve the user experience.
After these computer technologies are combined, the design creativity of fashion students can be inspired by
analysing the characteristic of the tradi- tional costumes and use this knowledge to develop new designs. The
approach

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Guo Chen | Fenfen Ma | Yan Jiang | Ruipu Liu

promotes a new fashion design education teaching mode, that is, an ‘inter- active teaching mode of virtual reality’.
The interactive teaching presented in this article has an important practical significance because it enables fashion
students to conduct a comprehensive study of the classic stylistic features of traditional clothing.

​ he Ethnic Group Costume Museum at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology

2.1 Data collection T
(BIFT) has more than 10,000 precious traditional costumes of vari- ous ethnic groups, including not only
twenty-one Tibetan clothing collections but also some Tibetan boots, hats, jewellery and other accessories. The
collec- tion spans a wide range of regions, timescales and types of clothing. Valuable first-hand knowledge was
gained about the construction of Tibetan clothing by collecting, mapping and recovering information from selected
samples. The process provided important physical samples and data support for the estab- lishment of a Tibetan
clothing 3D model.
As the fabric of clothes was flexible, the clothes were spread and measured by tape measures. The sizes of the Tibetan robe
were recorded such as the length of front and back piece, sleeve length, side-seam length, collar length and sleeve
width, cuff width, neck width, fabric width, the width and so on. Then the direction of yarn for each part was
recorded as well. Data from each clothing collection were gathered from its fabric, lining, edging and patterns. The
holographic data require recording, construction recovery and analy- sis for the constructional pattern,
constructional pattern placement, pattern, fabric and craft of every part of the clothing; these parameters provide
suffi- cient information for the software to undertake the later digital processing. This article explains the working
 process of modelling in detail while briefly demonstrating its application, illustrated in an example of blue Tibetan
cloth- ing with a geometric rounded pattern (Figure 1).
This piece of Tibetan robe from the end of the Qing dynasty is typical of handed-down goods, collected in the Qinghai
Tibetan area. Due to the poor quality of the fabric, its many stains and damage, it is difficult to assess these old
Tibetan nobles’ robes, and so the use of digital processing can restore its original appearance. In this sample, only
the outer surface of double-layer

54 Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education

Figure 1: Blue Tibetan clothing with geometric rounded pattern. pattern of blue Tibetan clothing in CAD software.
Virtual reality interactive teaching for Chinese ...

fabric of the Tibetan is scientifically processed, rather than considering the construction and the establishment of
the robe as a model for research.

2.2 Constructional pattern drawing ​Constructional pattern is a shape used as a guide for cutting material
to make clothes. The factors affecting the virtual shape of clothing, in addition to shear force, drapability and other
fabric properties, are its construction espe- cially the structural line in the shoulder and other turning surfaces as
well (see Figure 2).
In order to recreate the effect of Tibetan clothing more realistically, this research retains the fifteen
constructional pattern (the one can be observed directly) on the basis of the original constructional pattern. In CLO
3D soft- ware, because the dividing line of the constructional pattern can produce the wrinkle effect, the existence
of the dividing line will influence the effect of clothing simulation to some extent. Thus it is necessary to ensure
that the dividing line of the dress matches the real clothing (Figure 3). After the researchers placed the
constructional patterns into a 3D-dimensional inter- face, real-time 3D views could be monitored so that a real
effect and also a pattern in the two-dimensional (2D) graphics window could modified at the same time.
Compared with 3D modelling software such as 3ds Max and Maya, CLO 3D can be more closely related to the
actual model of clothing based on the 2D structure of the garment structure. Also, compared with 3D garment
design software such as Optitex and DCSuite, CLO 3D makes pattern draw- ing easier, and the fitting function can
be completed in an interface which is easy to operate. It units the 3D digital human body, the 3D digital design and
the 3D digital sewing technology in one software. Moreover, the CLO 3D fabric simulation system is relatively
perfect and effective, while the system also has a powerful dynamic display and video recording function, making
the model effect more intuitive. Thus, this research chose CLO 3D as the main modelling tool.
 2.3 Virtual fabric making ​The simulation of fabric pattern is the main factor that affects the virtual visu-
alization effect of clothing. There are two ways to make virtual fabric: photos and PS drawing. In this study, the
fabric pattern of the blue Tibetan clothing is a geometric pattern shaded with a rounded pattern. In order to make
the original appearance of the fabric that is smudgy and broken, the method of virtual fabric production was used.
First the data information of the pattern was collected, and then Photoshop software was used to cut out the
geometric pattern of shading and rounded pattern in a group of circular patterns. The final stage was to complete
the shading drawing and arrange the rounded pattern according to the ratio and spacing. The completed virtual
fabric pattern is shown in Figure 4.

2.4 Virtual stitching ​In order for the clothing model to be better displayed in different platforms for real-time,
the standard practice is to usually divide a model into differ- ent modules according to different materials. Then the
model is merged so that the model that can be synthesized as far as possible; however, the overall

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Guo Chen | Fenfen Ma | Yan Jiang | Ruipu Liu

number of faces cannot be more than twenty thousand triangles. For exam- ple, the N-show smart 3D
somatosensory dressing platform usually requires a model number of faces between 2000 and 10,000. At the same
time, in order to ensure the fluency of user experience, the model size must be below 2M. As described in this
article, this method reduces the number of constructional patterns on the premise of ensuring the authenticity of the
clothing model and the size of clothing virtual fabric is compressed in order to achieve require- ments of the
software. Such a simplified process will not affect the authentic- ity of the display effect.
In CLO 3D, after the model size for virtual human is set already, the constructional patterns are placed as shown in Figure 5
and then stitched. Because the numbers of samples are reduced, the sewing process is conse- quently greatly
simplified. The physical property of the fabric can be set by simple parameters so that every fabric can be better
reflected. The fabric parameters such as tensile, shear properties, bending stiffness, damping, density and thickness
will be set according to the characteristics of the actual fabric; all kinds of cloth details can be simulated by the
application of CLO 3D. With this method, fabric parameters of the traditional Tibetan clothing are as follows:
tensile set to 32; shear properties set to 32; and bending set to 65.
56 Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education
Figure 3: Constructional pattern in CLO 3D. ght for the virtual fabric.

Figure 5: CLO 3D virtual stitching. Figure 6: CLO 3D virtual fitting effect.

Eventually it makes the virtual fabric closer to the real one. The virtual fitting effect is shown in Figure 6.
In order to improve the authenticity of virtual clothing, wrapping, buttons and other details are processed in the
3D max (Figure 7). The model was built with Unity 3D in matching Tibetan clothing and the researchers needed to
use animation software clothing to relate the model to the human. This produced a series of animated characters
wearing the robe on a human model.
The model made by CLO 3D was converted into another format by using the Unity 3D game engine to
combine the garment model files into u3d format and then the model was uploaded to the virtual fitting system
back-end database that required the u3d format. The display system can detect the data update and download the
clothing model in the database by the wireless network. In September 2017, this system was presented at ​The 13th
Science and Art Fashion Festival ​in Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, where thou- sands of visitors
experienced 54 sets of clothing using this system. Figure 8 shows the virtual fitting effect by one student.

3. ConCLusion ​In this article, traditional Tibetan clothing ​was ​taken as the object of study and virtual reality
technology was used to create a model for the digitization of clothing. The process was as follows: first,
information collection and record, including fabric texture, colour, design and some technical details; second,
constructional pattern adjusting, draw the constructional pattern of cloth- ing model using CAD software; third,
virtual fabric drawing, use photos and Photoshop software for fabric simulation; fourth, virtual stitching, complete
dressing effect display in the CLO 3D system; fifth, optimization details, use 3D max to optimize the details of
Tibetan clothing in order to make it closer to the real one; and sixth, display, imported the virtual Tibetan clothing
to the Unity 3D system for interaction.
This research method is instructive to fashion educators as it enables students to get close to and gain a deeper
understanding of the design and structure of traditional clothes. Old and worn fabrics are difficult to preserve
because they easily oxidize and break down. Digitization and the use of virtual reality can overcome problems of
handling and accessibility by design students, with access via 3D models of historic clothing. This article demon-
strates the design and implementation of an interactive multimedia system for Chinese traditional Tibetan clothing
by applying virtual reality technology,
Figure 7: 3ds Max model details of the deal. Figure 8: Interaction system display.
Virtual reality interactive teaching for Chinese ...
www.intellectbooks.com 57
Guo Chen | Fenfen Ma | Yan Jiang | Ruipu Liu

3D visualization technology and digital media technology. It is anticipated that more clothing design students and
other learners who are interested in the study of traditional costumes will be able to understand and learn from the
abundance of traditional costume culture. In addition, the virtual reality technology adopted in the system
implementation process can be applied in other similar disciplines to preserve cultural heritage.

ReFeRenCes ​Kang, Y., Wu, S., Ko, Y. A., Martin, K. and Ko, H. S. (2013), ‘Digital produc- tion of traditional
costumes’, ​Proceedings of the Digital Heritage International Congress (Digital Heritage),​ vol. 1, Marseille: IEEE,
pp. 239–42, http://ieeex- plore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6743742/. Accessed 11 October 2016. Lim, C. K., Cani,
M. P., Galvane, Q., Pettre, J. and Talib, A. Z. (2013), ‘Simulation of past life: Controlling agent behaviors from the
interactions between ethnic groups’, ​Proceedings of the Digital Heritage International Congress (Digital
Heritage)​, vol. 1, Marseille: IEEE, pp. 104–08, 589–96, http://ieeex- plore.ieee.org/abstract/document/6743800/.
Accessed 11 October 2016. Martin, K. and Ko, H. S. (2009), ‘Virtual historic costume across cultures and
disciplines’, ​Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Virtual Systems and Multimedia,​ Vienna: IEEE,
pp. 104–08, http://ieeexplore.ieee. org/document/5306024/. Accessed 11 October 2016. —— (2011), ‘Imagining
historic fashion: Digital tools for the examination of historic dress’, ​Proceedings of the Second International
Conference on Culture and Computing,​ Washington, DC: IEEE, pp. 51–56, http://ieeexplore.ieee.
org/document/6103209/. Accessed 11 October 2016. Martin, K. and Mauriello, D. (2013a), ‘3D simulation: A new
embodiment for historic fashion’, ​Proceedings of the International Conference on Culture and Computing​, Kyoto:
IEEE, pp. 62–67, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/docu- ment/6680332/. Accessed 8 October 2016. —— (2013b),
‘Motion and embodiment: 3D simulations for historic fashion’, ​Proceedings of the Digital Heritage International
Congress (Digital Heritage)​, vol. 2, Marseille: IEEE, pp. 329–32, http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/docu- ment/6744773/.
Accessed 12 October 2016. Wu, L., Hou, J., Wang, X., Xu, F. and Yu, X. (2010), ‘Costume design and anima- tion
synthesis for personalized avatars’, ​Proceedings of the International Conference on Computer Application and
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ment/5619182/. Accessed 13 October 2016.

suGGesTed CiTaTion ​Chen, G., Ma, F., Jiang, Y. and Liu, R. (2018), ‘Virtual reality interactive teaching for
Chinese traditional Tibetan clothing’, ​Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education, ​17:1, pp. 51–59, doi:
10.1386/adch.17.1.51_1

ConTRibuToR deTaiLs ​Guo Chen received her Ph.D. degree in design at the Beijing Institute of Fashion
Technology in China in 2017. Her main research interests lie in Chinese traditional costumes, structural pattern of
clothing and digitization of clothing.

Contact: Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China. E-mail: violin2009@foxmail.com

58 Art, Design & Communication in Higher Education

Virtual reality interactive teaching for Chinese ...

Fenfen Ma received her BS degree in clothing engineering at Wenzhou University in 2015. She is currently a
master graduate student in clothing engi- neering at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology. Her current
research interests are in virtual clothing.

Contact: Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China. E-mail:

mafenfen10@foxmail.com
Yan Jiang received her BS and MS degrees in control theory and control engi- neering at Northeast Dianli
University in 2000 and 2003, respectively, and her Ph.D. degree in textile material and textiles design at Tianjin
Polytechnic University in 2010. At present, she is an associate professor in the computer information centre at the
Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology in China. Her main research interests lie in cloth simulation, virtual reality
and digital media technology.

Contact: Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China. E-mail: jsjjy@bift.edu.cn

Ruipu Liu received his BS degree in arts and crafts at Tianjin Academy of Fine Arts in 1983. At present, he is a
professor in the college of fashion art and engineering at the Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology in China. His
main research interests lie in dress code, Chinese traditional costumes and struc- tural pattern of clothing.

Contact: Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology, Beijing 100029, China. E-mail: 13121072867@163.com

Guo Chen, Fenfen Ma, Yan Jiang and Ruipu Liu have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act, 1988, to be identified as the authors of this work in the format that was submitted to Intellect Ltd.

www.intellectbooks.com 59
 dia Review Editor ​Jose Blanco F. Dominican
versity
​takes a holistic approach examining innovative methods in health, body aesthetics,
d fashion branding in the areas of marketing, merchandising and promotions. In this
ovative products that men use and/or wear. Historically, most of these issues have
nsumption and purchasing decisions. However, recent scholarship challenges old
ow for us to really examine why men use these goods and consume them.

ers that examine using critical, ethnographic, individualistic, theoretical or interpretive

issues and how they are shaping the ways men practice fashion. For this issue, the
ustries and their lifestyle and branded marketing will be discussed to imply that
a key driving force that has changed and continues to change the entire men’s fashion

esign strategies for men’s health and lifestyles

randing influences fashion design, through such notions of integration and alignment in
d image and brand values 3. Why men are using various shopping channels will be
customization, DIY and omni-channel

ave generated new interests for men to purchase fashion

verbal symbols in fashion generating new cultural and aesthetic variations in

ISSN: 2050070X Online ISSN: 20500718 First on, lifestyles and health
published in 2014 2 issues per volume straight, gay and bisexual communities 8. Transgender men and how they will
on
Principal Editor ​Andrew Reilly University of Hawai`i,
Manoa ​areilly@hawaii.edu Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion
Associate Editors ​Ben Barry Ryerson University,
CA
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Call for Papers
Joseph H. Hancock, II, Drexel University, PA

Vicki Karaminas Massey University, NZ

Call for Papers ​Special Issue of ​Critical Studies in Men’s Fashion

‘Lifestyle, Health & Fashion Branding’, 2019
Guest Editors: Anne Peirson-Smith, The City University of Hong Kong Reuben Wouch, A.T.
Still University Joseph H. Hancock, II, Drexel University

Timeline: ​1 June 2018 ​Authors submit manuscripts for review to Joseph Hancock at ​jhh33@drexel.edu​.

Authors are invited to submit papers that examine:

 9. Examination of new hypermodern male constructs of individual fashion forms and styles that consumers are creating based
upon the idea of ‘personal branding’.

These, as well as any other topic related to branding and the practice of fashion are welcome.

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