Online retailers have been trying to figure out how to deliver customized clothing
effectively, and Land’s End last year went so far as to stake a flag in
the sand with its launch of Land’s End Custom, which lets web shoppers
order custom-made chinos and jeans. But technology that could one day equip
clothing retailers to compete with Land’s End Custom—and go it one
better by letting shoppers see the custom clothing on an online model that reflects
their individual body measurements—is already on the floor in an unlikely
place: fabric stores.
A Canadian technology company, Virtually Yours, debuted its Bodyskanner at
a Portland, Ore., fabric store last month. The Bodyskanner is a step-in device
that scans body measurements. It stores measurements in an electronic database
that interfaces with technology at Virtually Yours’ sister company, Unique
Patterns, a maker of custom patterns for the home seamstress. When customers
whose measurements have been scanned and stored order a garment pattern from
Unique Patterns, they’ll receive a custom pattern designed to fit their
specific measurements. The device’s immediate target is the home sewing
market, worth some $8.2 billion annually, according to the American Sewing Guild,
served by 3,000 fabric stores.
But Virtually Yours has its sites set higher: on retailers and manufacturers.
It has another product in development, The Virtual You, which it says can be
deployed on the web and on in-store kiosks. The Virtual You creates online,
photorealistic images representing an individual’s actual measurements,
as supplied by the Bodyskanner or by customers. Customers would be able to see
how garments look on their online model and then order the finished custom items.
Body scanning has a checkered past, however. While working with My Virtual
Model Inc. on its web site implementation of an online fitting model, Lands’
End experimented with scanning technology from ImageTwin. But the technology
proved cumbersome in retail locations, and some consumers complained the scanned
model didn’t accurately represent them.
Lands’ End has subsequently taken other steps to make its My Virtual Models
appear more lifelike online, but the models are approximations of body types
and don’t reflect a customer’s individual measurements. For now, Lands’
End is leaving the precise body measurement to another technology partner, Archetype.
Archetype uses customer input and algorithms rather than body scanning to generate
patterns for Lands’ End Custom.
Chief marketing officer Giles Crouch says Virtually Yours will seek retail
and manufacturer partners to market, manufacture and deliver the custom clothing
as measured by the Bodyskanner. But he says that application is still a year
or more off.
“We don’t think consumers are ready to adopt the technology. Manufacturers
are still trying to understand how they can cost-effectively manufacture custom
clothes at a price consumers will pay,” he says. “Retailers want to
see tried and true technology. By the time we’ve implemented it in the
home sewing industry, we hope to have proven the market segment and the validity
of the product.”
