But the aspect of emotional fit is often overlooked. “It’s one thing to be able to extract someone’s measurements. We spoke with Femke about how we could help each other and decided to team up for the Worth Partnership Project to do a virtual fitting experiment. It’s the most accurate remote measuring tool we have seen so far. We were attracted by the fact that the system combines the best of antropometrics and hand-measuring and that it is accurate up to 7 mm. It was part of her PhD research and she was starting SHAVATAR to turn the algorithm into a service for fashion brands, helping them reduce size-related returns and enabling on-demand production.Īt New Industrial Order we had identified avatar measuring as one of the tools we wanted to add to our Fashion on Demand Toolkit. Rosanne: “When we met in 2018, Femke had just invented a way to predict someone’s 3D body shape without a need for a 3D scanner. We decided to put The Girl and the Machine in the fridge until conditions would be more favourable and set up an initiative named New Industrial Order, to start building the new supply system.” An idea for a new industrial ordering system began to take shape.
But for a brand such as The Girl and the Machine to exist, some mayor changes were needed in the supply chain. By combining on demand manufacturing with a zero-waste production method such as 3D knitting, we are able to move closer to a zero waste fashion industry.Ĭo-founder Annelie joined early 2018, followed by students, young freelancers and more and more experienced professionals who started to contribute their skills to knitwear on demand. Fashion on demand reduces the number of garments produced and inspires consumers to buy less but better clothes. Since then I have been working on 3D knitwear, the concept of personalized knitwear and knitting on demand and the significance of all those ideas in the light of the much needed industry reform. With limited time and budget I started doing experiments, learning, improving, failing and succeeding and ultimately leading to the launch of my first personalized-knitwear brand The Girl and the Machine in 2016.
I saw a direction for a sustainable industry and a role for myself to play. Looking at this machine I saw a glimpse of the future.
No material is wasted, and what’s more: due to its seamless construction the garment can be unravelled. Yarn goes in, a seamless garment comes out. It was quietly knitting entire garments of the finest quality. I travelled to the exhibition of ITMA (International Textile Machinery Association) in Barcelona and in the middle of hammering looms and giant carpet machines I found a small machine. Inspired by the idea that technology can solve the great problems of mankind, I decided to look for solutions in high tech. Rosanne: “At the end of 2011, when I entered the fashion industry as a designer and patternmaker for a luxury brand, the industry’s lack of a vision for a sustainable future struck me.