Just want to share a video that tells you everything you need to know about the Open Garments research project, where we are working on.

The Ralph Lauren Rugby brand launched  a “Make Your Own” iPhone application , by which consumers can create their own Rugby shirt directly from their iPhone, which  can now also be done through interactive store windows in select stores..

By using the application and the shop window, customers can customize a Rugby shirt  with patches and lettering,  buy it, email it, post it to Facebook or save it. But if you might wonder how you would look with that particular shirt, you can upload a photo and actually see how it fits you. And by shaking the application, you can change your skin tone ore later your haircut. Afterwards you can share it with others in a public gallery and even rate the creations of others.

On the interactive store windows, all of this can be done by touching the glass with your hand. This means you can customize a shirt at the store anytime day or night, without even going inside.

Source: PSFK, Ralph Lauren Rugby

Just 49 days until my birthday!! So if anyone wants to buy me the perfect birthday gift, check out the customization programme of Leica! I just customized my personal Leica M in just 9 steps and it looks like this …. unfortunately the price is also very impressive (4770 euros).

But as we all know: one has to pay for quality!!

I absolutely adore cashmere! It’s so soft ! So I was pretty exited when I found out about Trendy Workshop.

Trendy Workshop is a french fashion platform that allows users to design and buy their own clothing, but also share their designs with other users within the Trendy Workshop community.

Right now, it’s all about cashmere. So the clothes one creates are solely made out of cashmere. But according to co-founder, Tristan de Montebello, the offer will be broadened with cotton this spring. Besides the limitation of  the fabric, the clothes one can design are nowadays only restricted to those of the upper body (tops, sweaters, dresses). However it’s a very nice idea, that works around three major goals: create, buy and share! For the moment 100% French, so deliveries only in France.

Below are two videos in which co-founder Tristan de Montebello explains the concept of Trendy Workshop. Although the first one is in French,  you’d better listen carefully as he also gives some nice washing and ironing tips for cashmere clothing.

Source: Trendy Workshop X En Mode Fashion.com from enmodefashion on Vimeo.

In this second video, a nice quote from Tristan de Montebello, which stresses the need for user input and user research: “Listening to the community will get us to be the best!”

Source: Create your own clothes - Tristan de Montebello @ LeWeb from Tiburon Tv on YouTube

Yesterday I was looking more in detail at a mass customization site, more in particular Propercloth. They sell custom shirts for men and what I found really interesting is how people can choose their size.

So after creating your own custom shirt, you’ll need to indicate your size. And sometimes this is a problem! But in this case you have three options for choosing your size.

The first one is just choosing the standard size (small, medium, large, …), the type of fit and two shirt dimensions (collar around and sleeve lenght).

Another possibility is giving in your body measurements and the system will give you the most approriate size.

The last way is choosing the sizing of a particular brand. This is very interesting since people often refer to a brand as their standard or reference. For example a lot of people don’t fit the clothes in the H&M since they known from former experience that a H&M-medium is the right one for them.

According to Sara Clemence, who wrote on the subject for Portfolio.com, mass customisation is our future way of shopping.

“Bespoke products have always been available to anyone willing and able to pay the price, whether for an individually tailored suit or a customized car. In recent years, one of the big shifts in retail has been giving customers the ability to design their own versions of premium products—like wedding rings, pricey handbags, and Nikes—at prices that are comparable to the regular versions.

Now, without most of us realizing it, we’re on the cusp of another big change. Thanks to market demands and developments in technology, we’re going to be living in a user-generated world, where everything we use can (and will) be customizable. It’s already happening, in ways both obvious and not.”