Made-to-measure clothes for all within reach, says top designer

Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato claimed Wednesday that he has cracked a digital technique which could revolutionize fashion with mass made-to-measure clothes.

“We can design every type and shape of garment to be a precise fit to the wearer’s figure,” he told AFP after showing his digitally created haute couture collection in Paris.

The 31-year-old wunderkind has been working for six months on a new 3D clothesmaking technique using traditional materials like cotton, nylon and wool.

He said that in the future clothes will be infinitely adaptable “and will grow with you” – easily expandable with the wearer’s waistline – and able to incorporate more wearable devices. “We want to create a world where everyone can have tailor-made garments,” said Nakazato, who was admitted as a guest member of the elite club of Paris haute couture designers last year.

Tailor-made clothes, particularly haute couture, are out of reach of all but the world’s richest people. But Nakazato argued that his technology could bring clothes that fit perfectly within reach of all.

“I think that in future mass customization is possible” because his team had removed the major constraint “of using needles and thread”.

Nakazato said the “unit constructed textile” technique he has developed in Japan with engineers, 3D designers and sculptors “can adjust a garment to be a precise fit to the wearer’s figure.”

“With this system we are now able to build all silhouettes imaginable. It is like creating a garment from a dress pattern but with even more flexibility,” he added.

Nakazato said that the nine designs he showed in Paris, which included evening dresses and a version of Dior’s classic Bar suit as well as jeans and a leather jacket, were built up with digitally cut squares of fabric.

Rather than a fitting, the wearer is first scanned, then numbered squares of digitally cut fabrics are riveted together to form a perfectly fitting piece.

He said his 1950s-themed show was a taster of what might be possible. During that decade “haute couture brought back elegance and luxury to the minds of people fatigued by the war, and mass-produced jeans became the world’s first truly universal attire,” he added.

Technology now offered the possibility of putting those two things together, he said, noting that the major breakthrough was finding a way to use everyday fabrics “which are difficult to control in digital fabrication. That was the most difficult part. But in the end we succeeded.”