With the purpose of identifying clothing for persons with special needs one of new directions in Clothing and Textiles, this pater comparatively analyzed current curriculum and research trends related to this field between Korea and America. Questionaire was distributed to 25 Korean colleges with Clothing and Textiles department and 4 American colleges known for special clothing study. Questions regarded the name of course, level (grade), number of credit houre, prerequisits and supporting courses, subjects of lecture and projects, way of managing lecture and projects, evaluation system, other special characteristics. Resources for analyzing research trends are Thesis and Dissertations in Clothing and Textiles, Research Journal of Clothing & Textiles/Home Economics Association, College Professors' research reports collection, of both Korea and America. Years of publications are 1972∼1986 (America), 1978∼1988 (Korea). Findings are as follows; 1. Clothing for special needs can be classified into various groups; Clothing for physically handicapped, mentally retarded, elderly, unusual-sized, pregnant/nursing mothers, institutionalized, protective clothing, uniform/career apparel. 2. Management of coursework related to special clothing has several common characteristics specially in America; Building-up coursework, problem-solving orientation, cooperative team-preject, interdisciplinary approach, client-versus-designer preference, community involvement. In Korea, a few school only has special clothing coursework and its scope of study was very limited. 3. Majority of research reports done with the subjects of special clothing had made for physically handicapped people and the elderly. Protective clothing and uniform have recently been paid much interests. 4. Researchers had mainly concerned on Design and Construction Aspects and nextly on social-psychological aspects. However, in America, selection and care aspects and marketing aspects of special clothing have been very procuctive issues recently. 5. Study on clothing for special needs has several opportunities to be stressed and improvements to be strengthened. Opportunities included active participation to the welfare of community society, strong publicity of accurate professional image, share with business and industry, interdisciplinary approach and new job market. Improvements were discussed in terms of strengthening supporting courses/prerequistes, intensifying interdisciplinary cooperation, provoking strong community involvement and securing financial support and research funds.