Cynthia Istook

About

Dr. Cynthia L. Istook received her Bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising, Clothing, and Textiles from Texas Christian University. She worked for Sanger Harris, a Federated Department store, for nearly three years in the management training program as an assistant buyer and department group manager. She earned both her Master’s and Ph.D. degrees from Texas Woman’s University, with her master’s thesis focusing on the durability of Texcellana 80% Cotton-20% Wool fabric, and her dissertation research centered on Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) in the apparel industry. Dr. Istook has taught at Baylor University, the University of North Texas, and Texas Woman’s University before joining NC State University as an associate professor in the apparel management program in 1997. She was promoted to full professor in May 2010, becoming the first female to achieve this rank at the Wilson College of Textiles in its over 100-year history, and she holds the position of Cornelson Distinguished Professor of Textile and Apparel Design. Her research focuses on 3D Body Scanning, sizing systems, fit, mass customization, and rapid prototyping, aiming to help the industry meet consumer clothing needs. She actively participates in national committees to establish data integration standards and sizing standards for apparel products. Dr. Istook conducts workshops and seminars for industry leaders and educators on technologies such as 3D Body Scanning, Mass Customization, Rapid Prototyping, and…

Research topics

• Computer science
• Engineering
• Engineering drawing
• Mathematics
• Business

Selected publications

• Comparison of different body measurement techniques: 3D stationary scanner, 3D handheld scanner, and tape measurement

  Journal of the Textile Institute · 2018-12-26 · 39 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Body measurements play an import role in pattern generation and size determination. Traditionally, body measurements were captured with tape measures. The tape measure technique is often time-consuming. Nowadays, three-dimensional (3D) stationary whole-body scanners are widely used in the apparel industry to collect body measurements. The stationary scanner has good performance on efficiency, validity, and reliability. However, it is not suitable for home use due to its high cost. Occipital’s St…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A Method to Create Body Sizing Systems

  Clothing and Textiles Research Journal · 2017-06-15 · 23 citations

  articleSenior author

  Literature reviews show that consumers are not satisfied with the fit of garments sold in stores, primarily due to outdated sizing systems used by companies and the limited number of sizes being produced. The purpose of this article is to present a sizing system creation method, which can be applied on body measurement data to improve the overall fit of garments. Data from the SizeUSA study was used. The sizing system creation process included natural log-transformation, principle component anal…

  PublisherDOI

• Acquiring Accurate Body Measurements on a Smartphone from Supplied Colored Garments for Online Apparel Purchasing Platforms and E-Retailers

  2018-09-30 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Return rates for e-retail fashion companies are significantly higher than in-store sales. Twenty to fifty percent of online clothing sales are returned. Apparel retailers are haunted by returns based on sizing issues, with $62.4 billion in returns attributed to poor choices by the consumer in the USA. However, over the next ten years online sales are predicted to double, compounding the problem exponentially.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• A 2D image body measurement system developed with neural networks and a color-coded measurement garment

  International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology · 2022-08-12 · 8 citations

  articleOpen access

  Purpose Two-dimensional (2D) measurement technology has become more popular than before, thanks to the widespread availability of smartphones and smart devices. However, most existing 2D body measurement systems have background constraints and may raise privacy concerns. The purpose of this research was to test the idea of designing a 2D measurement system that works with a color-coded measurement garment for background removal and privacy protection. Clothing consumers can use the proposed syst…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Innovative method for creating fitted brassiere wire prototype based on transformation matrix algorithm

  Journal of the Textile Institute · 2017-05-09 · 7 citations

  article

  It has been difficult to obtain the fitted bra wire shape for women’s breasts, since the under breast root shape extracted from 3D bodyscan breast images is three dimensional. A detailed matrix algorithm for the geometric relation is firstly introduced and presented for transferring the 3D bra wire shape to one that is 2D to create a fitted bra underwire shape prototype. In this paper, the under breast root shape was extracted from a medium average avatar, then the curve line was exported as a p…

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Andre West

  North Carolina State University

  17 shared

• Sibei Xia

  Louisiana State University

  12 shared

• Uikyung Jung

  University of Central Oklahoma

  12 shared

• Jiayin Li

  Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence

  8 shared

• Su‐Jeong Hwang Shin

  Sungkyunkwan University

  7 shared

• Jiayin Li

  6 shared

• Ho-Sun Lim

  4 shared

• Keunyoung Oh

  University at Buffalo, State University of New York

  4 shared

Education

• BS Clothing and Textiles, Fashion

  Texas Christian University

• MS, Clothing & Textiles, Fashion & Textiles

  Texas Woman's University

• Ph.D. Clothing & Textiles, Fashion and Textiles

  Texas Woman's University

Awards & honors

• First female promoted to Full Professor at Wilson College of…
• Cornelson Distinguished Professor of Textile and Apparel Des…

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