About Andre West

Andre Julian West, a North Carolina State University professor, has been in the apparel business for over 30 years. After graduating from Huddersfield University, he was employed by one of England’s first trend forecasting companies, Dereck Healey International. Dereck Healey was a design consultant group for Monsanto, ICI, Ford, and Marubeni Tex. While employed at Deryck Healey, Andre developed his clothing line, which was presented at Central Saint Martins University. Following this, Andre sold his collection in many London boutiques. In 1984, he moved to the USA and worked as a product development manager for Hampshire Designers Group. Andre was later recruited to work for a knitwear house called Sweaters USA, based in Greensboro, North Carolina, producing garments for JCPenney and Walmart. Andre formed his own domestic manufacturing company, Knit Design Group, designing under the name Andre St. Romaine, and growing this business with a New York showroom and three retail stores. Seeing the trend toward manufacturing going offshore, he sold his company after a brief stint manufacturing in South America.

Andre started as a part-time instructor at the Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale, teaching product development. Within the year, he was promoted to department head. Over the 12 years at the Art Institute, Andre grew the department from 200 students to nearly 600 while developing three new programs: a bachelor’s degree in fashion design, a bachelor’s degree in Fashion Merchandising, and a diploma in Retail Management.

While managing the department, Andre completed his Master’s of Visual Arts at Miami International School of Art and Design with an MFA. Following this, he completed an Ed.D. in Organizational Leadership at Argosy University, graduating in 2012. Andre’s dissertation was on teaching fashion and textiles in an immersive virtual world.

In August 2013, Andre joined the Wilson College of Textiles faculty at North Carolina State University. He has taught computer-aided design, CAD patternmaking, workshop practices, and the history of fashion online. His current research uses textiles and fashion product development technology, including sublimation printing, 3-D virtual garment making, generative design, 3-D body scanning, and whole garment knitwear. He is currently working with a team of entomologists and comfort specialists on several grants involving the exclusion of vector insects without using pesticides and harmful chemicals from the Department of Defense, USDA, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He is part of the team that won the 2017 Chancellor Innovation Fund.