With the advance in virtual reality applications, garment industry has strived for new developments. This paper reviews state-of-the-art CAD methods in 3D garment design. A large range of techniques are selected and organized into several key modules which form the core of a 3D garment design technology platform. In each module, basic techniques are presented first. Then advanced developments are systematically discussed and commented. The selected key modules – digital human modeling, 3D garment design and modification, numerical integration of draping, 2D pattern generation, geometric details modeling, parallel computation and GPU acceleration – are discussed in turn. Major challenges and solutions that have been addressed over the years are discussed. Finally, some of the ensuing challenges in 3D garment CAD technologies are outlined.