Customization becomes more and more popular and influences the product development process in apparel industry. In addition to individualized products, the fit of garments is very important for the customization. Numerous tools are used to take the right measurements, to transport individual posture information and to implement these data correctly into a product pattern based on a predefined construction system. Unfortunately, in most cases the mass customization process takes place without a fitting session. Usually fit and design will be checked in the last process step, when the product is already manufactured. Virtual product development is a powerful tool to change this process getting an early fit and design check. By using a test population representing the target group, it is possible to check the sizing and to screen the fit of a product on individual bodies and postures in a short time. In a joint project between the Virtual Lab of Niederrhein University of Applied Sciences and Avalution GmbH, a practical approach for the implementation of a fitting session to a mass customization product development process was developed. The entire process has a three-level structure: First, the avatar population is built up using garment specific body measurements. Connected to a 3D simulation program, an automatic process of determining the made-to-measure (MtM) values, carrying out the MtM grading and the fitting on the selected avatar are initiated. In a special application, the digital try-ons are finally output as images in different physical aspects for evaluation.
Nowadays E-commerce and E-shopping become more and more popular, supported by the actual pandemic situation on one side but especially driven by technology and society transformation on the other. The product development process in clothing industry is in a state of constant change, implementing more and more digital, and especially virtual tools, within the past years. [1] Beside the product itself and physical as well as optical virtual fabrics and trimmings, especially the avatar plays an important role in this process -from the beginning in design and ending up in Ecommerce when presenting the products on matching avatars gains an attractive importance for the consumer. Companies developing their collections and products for target groups are aiming for fit and brand consistency. Anyway, within the product development process, there is a totally different understanding when it comes to design of avatars, visual expression on one side and technical and measurement reliable avatars on the other. [1, 2] Beside the question of individualization of customized avatars, the importance of avatar design at the beginning of the process becomes "cruelly" important again at the end when getting in "touch" with the customer and its individual and subjective feelings. [3,4] Though the complete product development process is lifted up to a cloud-based system -at the end of the day a valuable customer has to buy the products to make them "alive", and keep the company running.
Customization becomes more and more popular and influences the product development process in apparel industry. In addition to individualize products, the fit of garments is very important for the customization. Numerous tools are used to take the right measurements, to transport individual posture information and to implement these data correctly into a product pattern based on a predefined construction system. In most cases the mass customization process takes place without a fitting session. Usually fit and design will be checked in a very last process step: When the product is already manufactured. Garment simulation with human avatar-model integration have found its application fields in the fashion industry replacing real try-ons by virtual try-ons with respective savings potentials. Especially when systems become very complex, with high requirements of quality like in MtM scenarios, when there are dozens of technical parameters and decisions and rules defined that influence the pattern / fit of the clothing there is a high need to systematize the validation of the overall system. Virtual product development is a powerful tool to change this process getting an early fit and design check. Putting together the knowledge of the 3D shape of the human body with the distribution of bodymeasurements, interdependencies and proportions and feeding this consequently into the process chain consisting of fit prediction / CAD with garment simulation is therefore the basic idea behind the system to be presented. By using an avatar test population representing the target group aimed for it is possible to check the sizing and to screen the fit of a product on individual bodies and postures in a quite short time to validate the MtM grading. This paper presents a practical approach on the way to implement a virtual fitting session to a mass customization product development process chain.
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