Is it possible to scale customizable fashion?
Tags: Fashion, Scalability, Customer Experience, Customization, Fashiontech

Scale is the bedrock of mass production. Making lots of the same thing generally means each unit can be made more quickly and efficiently. Traditionally, this has required making lots of identical items rather than unique ones. But is it possible to scale production of unique items too?

This would have huge ramifications on the fashion industry. Currently, thousands of units might be produced of a single item, spanning just a few different standard sizes. That makes clothes shopping a frustrating experience for many of us. (Our own sizing data showed that more than 80% of H&M Yours customers fall between standard sizes.)

This lack of customer-centricity contributes to an unhealthy obsession with body image. It forces us to make compromises — demanding that we fit the clothes, rather than have the clothes fit us. And it costs the fashion industry billions in lost sales, waste, and returns.

What if we could make customizable fashion affordable by scaling its production?

The challenges facing customizable fashion production

There are three processes that have traditionally stood in the way of scaling the production of custom-sized fashion. They are:

1. Measuring

Working out a customer’s body measurements in order to make the item to their exact dimensions.

2. Pattern making

Creating a template from the customer’s measurements that will inform fabric cutting and assembly.

3. Sewing

Assembling a garment’s fabric components.

In the common standard-sizing model, a line of clothing can be produced without measuring because the standard measurements already exist. Making the pattern requires skill and labour, but only needs to be done once for each standard size. Sewing a large quantity of units can then be done at a low per-unit cost by having multiple sewists each focus on one area of the garment (e.g. sewing the cuff to the sleeve) and then handing the work-in-progress down the production line for the next sewist.

For traditional customization (tailoring), measurements must be taken for each customer, a new pattern is created for every article of clothing, and items are sewn together one at a time, rather than in large batches. That’s expensive.

How to make custom clothing scalable

Technology now makes it possible to automate the measuring and pattern making processes. As for sewing, the production line can be adapted to better accommodate a less predictable workflow, but must also be connected to the point of sale, in order to make the clothes as quickly as possible after they’ve been ordered.

Here’s how the three processes change:

1. Measuring

A customer feeds body data into an algorithm either via a questionnaire or a body scanner. (Here’s why we sided with the questionnaire approach.) The algorithm then converts that data into measurements of the customer’s body dimensions.

2. Pattern making

A base pattern already exists for the item. This pattern is programmed to be fully adaptable to every customer’s unique body measurements, essentially creating a new pattern when an order is placed. This is then sent directly to the manufacturer.

3. Sewing

This utilizes a process called “batch production”. It isn’t a world away from the traditional mass-production line, but relies on a smaller team of sewists, who each contribute to multiple tasks, rather than one each. For instance, one person cuts pieces from fabric based on a group of orders, one person bundles the pieces together by item (as opposed to bundles by piece-type), and two people sew bundles together into finished items.

The automation of measuring and pattern making reduces the cost of custom-sized clothing significantly. Batch production, on the other hand, doesn’t make the sewing process more economical, but it does strike a balance between efficiency and flexibility.

What next for customizable fashion?

Scaling up isn’t just a matter of reducing the cost of garments, but also the time it takes to make them. As far as delivery times go, we don’t know if custom-made clothing might one day compete with pre-produced items on a warehouse shelf waiting to be shipped. What we do know is delivery times will speed up significantly once production lines can begin counting on a steady stream of customized garment orders coming in. It’s not hard to imagine a future where production can begin the moment an order is placed and be sent directly to the consumer from dual production–distribution facilities.