See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.

net/publication/281731134

How to integrate recent development in technology with Digital Prototype

textile and apparel applications

Article in International Journal of Advances in Engineering and Pure Sciences · September 2015
DOI: 10.7240/mufbed.96632

CITATIONS READS

12 8,771

All content following this page was uploaded by Evridiki - Eurydice Papachristou on 08 April 2016.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

Marmara Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences 2015, Special Issue-1: 32-39
DOI:10.7240/mufbed.96632

How to Integrate Recent Development in Technology with

Digital Prototype Textile and Apparel Applications
Evridiki PAPACHRISTOU, Nikolaos BILALIS
Technical University of Crete, Department of Production Engineering and Management, Crete, Greece

ABSTRACT
The textile and clothing industry is moving away from its traditional roots in an attempt to revive the fortunes of this mature industry,
through the adoption of novel technologies. Digital Prototypes are used as an essential tool in the modern design process. The integration
can speed up the design process and affect competition be-tween companies. Typical applications are digital textile and fashion design,
pattern generation to custom-design clothing, fitting evaluation, style editing, and virtual try-on. However, new product developments in
textiles and clothing have widened our views of the world and must also be covered. The ever-growing spectrum of smart textiles and
wearable technologies has the potential to take the textile industry in a completely new & sustainable direction, far beyond its traditional
roots. The integration of smart functionality into clothing and other textile products into the digital prototype is essential in order to alter
our relationship with them and the way we use them.
Keywords: Digital Prototype, apparel, virtual try-on, technology integration, new product development model.

I. INTRODUCTION principles to integrate them into clothing. As Quinn states

[3], interactive media is changing the way we live and relate
The global textile, clothing and fashion (TCF) industries are
to one another, but soon it will transform the way we use
one of the most competitive and skilled-labour dependent
our clothing.
industries with growing complexities and market dynamics
related to globalisation and competition. Moreover, In the fast-approaching future, the equity value of fashion
differentiation has become a key aspect in developing companies will be based, not on how many products they
competitive advantage for these TCF firms owing to greater sell, but on the quality of their software. The adoption of
market dynamics, rapid fluctuations in postmodern consumer novel technologies will attempt to revive the fortunes of this
behaviour, shortening of fashion product life-cycle, product mature industry moving it away from its traditional roots.
proliferation to mention a few [1].
Digital Prototypes are used as an essential tool in the
More recently, [2], mentioned that the traditional apparel modern design process. The integration can speed up the
product development process is a typical iterative design process and affect competition between companies.
‘optimisation’ process that involves trial-and-error. In order However, this technology will not replace the aesthetic
to confirm the design and achieve a satisfactory fit, a number appeal of great products, the magnetic attraction of great
of repeated cycles of sample preparation, trial fit-ting and brands, or the advantages of extended portfolio assets,
pattern alteration must be conducted. The process itself is because the fashion industry will continue to build great
time-consuming, costly, and dependent on the designer’s products, brands and businesses as it has done successfully
skills and experience. in the past. But technology will, indeed, replace products,
brands and financial strategies as the key source of value
An additional factor in TCF is that garments are beginning
creation [4].
to absorb communications technology, and IT systems are
becoming embedded in the clothing we wear. Technologists In this paper we present the technologies for the digital
use state-of-the-art materials to make computer parts prototyping in TCF, the recent trends in TCF in smart
lightweight and portable and the wearer feel revitalised materials and we discuss their integration in the digital
and refreshed, while fashion designers apply tailoring prototyping process.

Corresponding Author: Evridiki PAPACHRISTOU, Tel: +30 2821036250, E-mail: [email protected]

Submitted: 15 October 2014, Revised: 04 March 2015, Accepted: 01 July 2015
Recent Development in Technology Marmara J. Pure Appl. Sci. 2015, Special Issue-1:32-39

II. DIGITAL PROTOTYPING IN TEXTILE, industry has been around for many years, it has been only
CLOTHING & FASHION INDUSTRY in recent years that commercial systems have provided
integrated solutions linking all the parties involved in the
Digital or Virtual prototyping (VP) is a process used for
supply chain like designers, buyers and technologists. It has
shortening the time to market and reducing the product cost.
become possible to re-think the whole process of product
It allows designers to experiment easily with a variety of
development by specifying col-our digitally at the outset of
fabrics and patterns on a 3D virtual body before the actual
the product development process. According to [9], digital
garment is manufactured; it makes use of a digital model,
printing of textile materials can provide sample lengths of the
for testing and evaluating the specific characteristics of a
right colour (and visual texture) for proto-typing and photo
product and for simulating the manufacturing processes in
shoots. This offers the possibility of shortening lead times for
a computational environment [5]. The realistic simulation
product development and maintaining confidentiality about
of the mechanical behaviour of cloth was the first focus;
products until decisions to order bulk have been made. [10],
however virtual garment simulation soon evolved toward
in particular believes that digital technologies allow fabric
the simulation of virtual garments on synthetic characters.
print designers to work concurrently with apparel designers.
Although industries like computer graphics, entertainment
If a new fabric print can be simulated on screen in minutes
and electronic commerce reap the most obvious benefits
and in the design room in less than 24 hours, then the time-
from cloth simulation on animated virtual characters, virtual consuming task of developing samples is greatly reduced.
prototyping of garment models can be a real benefit for the
garment industry: visualizing a garment without actually 2.3. Pattern Generation to Custom-Design clothing
making it drastically simplifies the prototyping phase [6]. The TCF industry has been adopting digital 3D technologies
2.1 CAD/CAM applied to try-on stages by using body scanners and are now
foreseen fitting of tailor-made garments. According to [11],
As mentioned above, the clothing industry is the most skilled an essential key to the use of these enabling technologies
labour-dependent industry and any cost saving through new is the ability of Computer-Aided-Design (CAD) systems
computer-aided design (CAD) technologies has become a to integrate measurement information and make changes
requirement in gaining a competitive advantage. to patterns, as necessary, without permanently changing
Garment CAD technology is the use of computer as a tool the basic, original garment pattern (Figure 1). In 2008, [12]
to assist the design process of a garment product. It is given proposed an interactive co-evolutionary CAD system for
that CAD is a mainstream tool and companies that hope to GPD (ICE-GCAD) because they believed traditional CAD
compete in the fashion marketplace, especially at the mass (Computer-Aided Design) methods in garment pattern
level, cannot prosper without some level of CAD technology. design (GPD) fail to utilise the knowledge of experts for
Compared to other mechanical product, garment CAD has inexperienced designers.
to address some special issues:
• Instead of using rigid solid objects, fashion industry
deals with soft material with low bending stiffness
• The conventional assembly methods of other industries
do not apply to the product of a gar-ment where some
parts like collar, sleeve, are assembled together following
specific pattern-making rules [7].
• Garment industry, depends on 2D patterns for
manufacturing but the quality of fit is evaluated on 3D
human models. Based on these observations, garment
CAD is a unique research area that has attracted
considerable attentions.
2.2. Digital Textile and Fashion Design
Figure 1. Functionality model of Interactive Co
Although the management of digital colour in the TCF Evolutionary-GCAD, Source: [12]

33
Marmara J. Pure Appl. Sci. 2015, Special Issue-1:32-39 Recent Development in Technology

Moreover, the study of [13] aimed to reduce the time and editing, the edited results cannot be accurately reflected on
human resource costs involved in the process of garment 2D patterns, because distortion free flattening method is still
development and to pursue the objectives of fittingness of not yet available[17]. Proposed a novel method for 3D-based
clothing and the display of graceful figures by reversing editing allowing direct style editing for fit improvement
design procedures. They presented a knowledge-based in 3D space, and directly projecting results on the pattern
system with a flattening method for developing 2D basic alteration in 2D plane.
patterns from 3D designed garments.
2.4. Draping & Fitting Evaluation
Another critically important parameter in the application
of body scanning, mass customisation, computer-aided
design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM)
and automatic pat-tern making to clothing design and
manufacturing is drape modelling - drape and the dominant
role of fabric mechanical properties. In recent years, the
most significant developments have been the empirical
prediction and modelling of drape as well as the move
towards 3D design, simulation and virtual modelling (3D
virtual prototyping). Several 3D fashion design systems have
been developed with online interface that take several sizes
and re-drape them on a custom model to allow for trying
on clothes online. These interfaces enable the designer to Figure 2. V-Stitcher 3D Style editing
‘drape and validate’ their design onto a computer generated Source: http://www.browzwear.com/products/v-stitcher/ retrieved
manikin or one built off a body scan of a fit model, taking on 18 July 2014
into account technical information, fabric type, colour,
drape, tensile, shearing, bending as well as the effect of
seams [8]. [6] & [14] have proposed many deformable cloth 2.6. Virtual Try-on
models for efficient garment draping and animation with Fontana et al [18] presented a physics-based system for
which the customers can visualise the realism of virtual try- virtual cloth design and simulation expressly conceived for
on. In addition, fuzzy-logic systems have been developed design purposes. The integration of these models within
and used to help to improve a wearer’s perception of the CAD systems for garment design leads to highly accurate
fit of a garment and to achieve a balance between the style cloth shape results for virtual prototyping and quality
of garments and the comfort of the wearer [15]. However, evaluation tasks.
according to [16] such a balance is difficult to achieve using
existing pattern generation methods because these methods The fashion industry welcomes the concept of designing the
cannot provide suitable estimations. garment directly in 3D. The aim is to have more flexibility
in the way the samples and prototypes are begin made,
2.5. Style Editing
by reducing the prototyping cycle time and significantly
In the traditional fashion product development cycle, simplify the process that currently relies on physical samples
designers often adjust 2D patterns to produce clothing and fit sessions. However, the current garment development
with better fit for individual customers, who often do not process should not be changed completely, but instead
have ‘ideal’ body shape and possess a few ‘abnormalities’ embrace the new 3D practical tools and make them fit in the
in one or two areas of the body. In addition to 2D pat-tern existing development process. In some respects the new 3D
alteration, tools are developed for 3D based interactive style CAD systems are expected to mimic the physical process
editing. Users can drag the feature curve or boundary of the of prototyping and turn it to a digital process with all its
3D garment directly to alter the garment size. In most CAD benefits, including the successful control of communication,
application, freeform deformation is used for 3D garment final product and delivery schedule across global partners

34
Recent Development in Technology Marmara J. Pure Appl. Sci. 2015, Special Issue-1:32-39

[19]. Developed a collaborative virtual prototyping platform

linking 3D CAD to traditional 2D CAD and PDM (Product
Data Management) systems (Figure 3) [19].

Figure 3. Optitex 3D Virtual Product Development (2D to

3D approach)

Source: http://www.optitex.com/en/Virtual-Product-Development
retrieved on 18 July 2014

With this platform, they provide an on-line access to

specialised services, such as a fabrics library, an on-line cost Figure 4. Outline of interactive virtual try-on system.
estimation facility, and a real-time interactive animation
service (animated virtual try – on of different garment
sizes on different body sizes and shapes). Their objective III. RECENT DEVELOPMENT IN T&C
was to reduce ‘time to-design’, reduce proto-typing costs In the field of textiles, innovation has resulted in a wide range
and provide an efficient e-collaboration environment for of natural and synthetic fabrics that are lighter, smarter,
multiple actors involved in product development. multifunctional and with a wider range of engineered
properties [21]. Research on smart and intelligent textile
Although, as it was mentioned above, the fashion industry is
began at the end of the 20th century, and it has made a
slow to embrace the virtual modelling due to the challenging
quantum leap in the 21st century.
material of the fabric, many see the revolution coming. The
developers of Fashion 3D modelling systems offer new and Wearable technology involves integration of electronics into
clothing, watches and even bodies. The adoption of a new
more convenient tools and the effect of reality is becoming
generation of smart textiles and wearable technologies opens
more and more convincing. Although computer systems
up new possibilities for developers and gives the potential to
significantly facilitate the development of a product, the
enhance functions like heat regulation, impact protection,
knowledge and skill of the user are still very important. The
communication, antimicrobials, and fire protection etc. of
main problems are connected with defining the connectable a multipurpose garment layering system to suit the life-
layers, determination of tuck-up and roll-up parts of a style needs of the wearer [22]. Current day innovations
garment, characterisation of the multi-coloristic qualities of create significant demand and scope on creative capability
a fabric, the thickness of layers and the position of padding in the clothing industry, leading to functional clothing.
(Figure 4) [20]. These functional garments exhibit a marked difference in its

35
Marmara J. Pure Appl. Sci. 2015, Special Issue-1:32-39 Recent Development in Technology

performance & aesthetic appeal which has a massive impact It is expected that this integrated technology will proceed
on today’s fashion trends. As [23] points out, what makes from block-based technology to embedded technology, and
smart fabrics revolutionary is that they have the ability to accordingly to move technology from textile converting to
do many things that traditional fabrics cannot, including fibre level. Therefore, novel fibre materials such as ICPs
communicate, transform, conduct energy and even grow. and new technologies such as nanotechnology and electro
spinning will play an important role in the next-generation
Clothing and electronics have traditionally been separate
material/technology [27]. According to [28], advanced tools
industry sectors and the current need for cross-disciplinary
and materials are making the designer’s task even more
synergy between fields of fashion, design, and technology
complex. Designers need to consider the real need and ease
science, has caused problems [24]. Other researchers like of use in terms of functionality, positioning, compatibility,
[25] also mentioned that smart clothing is a combination of maintenance and aftercare, and the clarity of the interface
new fabric technology and digital technology, which means between the technology and the user. Therefore as a new
that the clothes are made with new signal-transfer fabric industrial revolution takes place, with technical textiles
technology with installed digital devices but they didn’t and electronics industries merging, training and support
focus on any roused problems. Instead they concluded is required in order to approach TCF from a more product
that this combination, meet all criteria of high-added value design user-driven perspective.
technology allowing transformation to a competitive high-
3.1. How to Integrate Them with Digital Prototype
tech industry: from resource-based towards knowledge-
based; from quantity to quality; from mass-produced single- Fashion trends and technology providers will lead in the
use products to manufactured-on-demand, multi-use and future the rapidly growing older TCF community. The
upgradable product-services; from “material and tangible” to cross-disciplinary product development team of the future
“intangible” value-added products, processes and services. needs to be consisted of a new breed of designers who share
According to [26] these clothing products will eventually be a new “common” language” to bridge traditional boundaries
essential to the near future lifestyle (Figure 5). between the cultures of technical textiles and clothing,
wearable electronics and ICT-based systems, social and
health sectors. This team will provide the market with smart
customised, value-added, usable and attractive products
(Figure 6).
Different users from pattern makers to garment
manufacturers can be a part of a promising real-time
collaborative product development environment for 3D
CAD data sharing and manipulation. In this environment,
multi-national manufacturing companies can develop, view,
manipulate, analyse, and integrate product designs on the
basis of supporting interactive collaborative design and
manufacturing activities [7].

Figure 5. Transformation of the TCF industry

They agree that smart clothing is the convergence of the

textile/clothing and digital industries. As the combination
between these two industries brings large opportunities and
benefit, many institutions, organisations, and enterprises
have paid great attention and planned significant investments.
However, the standardisation of smart clothing technology
has rarely been considered and little research has focused on Figure 6. Parallel activities/multidisciplinary collaboration
solving these problems. for smart clothing products

36
Recent Development in Technology Marmara J. Pure Appl. Sci. 2015, Special Issue-1:32-39

Some researchers in clothing and textile design have IV. CONCLUSION

asserted the importance of multidisciplinary collaboration,
Some researchers believe that the available technology
and suggested development processes for smart clothing
in the conceptual and design phases of fashion products
products [25, 27, 29, 30].
development is proving that digital prototype is feasible and
Until every part of technology can be made of textile material can be used for some specific goals and applications. Others
without any functional limitation, technical components state that unless the digital prototype integrates successfully
cannot be completely integrated into the clothes [31]. and elegantly in the entire product development cycle-from
Therefore, it should be simplified, invisible, attractive and design and development to marketing and sales applications,
fashionable [32], mentioned that the prototyping process the process cannot accelerate in an efficient and effective
consists of three parallel activities: electronics, garment way, ensuring a massive competitiveness in the market.
making and interaction design; those three activities are The product development process is a cycle which is related
strongly connected to each other. Thus, wearable technology to large group of people. Digital prototype in the textile and
projects are done in collaboration with different groups clothing industry enables technologies in the process of
from different fields of research (varying from fashion to product development where various operators are involved
engineering) in order to create balanced products in function in the different stages, with various skills and competencies,
and aesthetics (Figure 7) [27]. Suggested that a new product and different necessity of formalising and defining in a
design model is needed to enhance understanding about the deterministic way the result of their activities. Taking into
work and communication with collaborators. account the recent trends in TCF, the product development
cycle and the use of VP cannot be restricted in the “typical
cycle” but additional tools and skills are required to be
integrated taking into account these developments.

REFERENCES
[1] Pal, Rudrajeet, and Håkan Torstensson. “Aligning
critical success factors to organizational design: A
study of Swedish textile and clothing firms.” Business
Process Management Journal 17, no. 3 (2007): 403-436.
[2] Meng, Y, C Wang, and X Jin. “Flexible shape control
for automatic resizing of apparel prod-ucts.” Computer-
Aided Design 44, no. 1 (2012): 68-76.
[3] Quinn, Bradley. Fashion Futures. London: Merrell
Publishers, 2012.
[4] Beltramini, Enrico. “The Companies with the Best
Software Will Lead Fashion.” businessoffash-ion.
March 31, 2014. http://www.businessoffashion.
com/2014/03/op-ed-companies-best-software-will-
lead-fashion.html (accessed April 04, 2014).
[5] Raffaeli, Roberto, and Michele Germani. “Knowledge-
based approach to flexible part de-sign.” Journal of
Engineering Design 21, no. 1 (2010): 7-29.
[6] Volino, Pascal, Frederic Cordier, and Nadia Magnenat-
Thalmann. “From early virtual garment simulation to
Figure 7. The start of a process tree for examining the co- interactive fashion design.” Computer-Aided Design,
design area of smart clothing and wearable technology [22] 2005: 593-608.

37
Marmara J. Pure Appl. Sci. 2015, Special Issue-1:32-39 Recent Development in Technology

[7] Liu, yong-Jin, Dong-Liang Zhang, and Matthew Ming- [19] Walter, Lutz, George-Alexander Kartsounis, and
Fai Yuen. “A survey on CAD methods in 3D garment Stefano Carosio. Transforming Clothing Pro-duction
design.” Computers in Industry 67, no. 6 (2010): 576-593. into a Demand-Driven, Knowledge-Based, High-Tech
Industry. London : SpringerLink, 2009.
[8] Fairhurst, Catherine. Advances in apparel production.
Edited by The Textile Institute. Cam-bridge: Woodhead [20] Vilumsone, Ausma, and Inga Dabolina. “Virtual
Puvlishing Limited, 2008. Garment Creation.” In Applications of Virtual Reality,
by C S Lanyi, 49-67. 2012.
[9] Tyler, D J. “Digital Printing Technology for textiles
& apparel.” In Computer technology for tex-tiles & [21] Frumkin, S, S Bradley, and M Weiss. “Innovation and
apparel, by J Hu, 259-282. Cambridge: Woodhead new product development in textiles.” In New Product
Publishing, 2011. Development in Textiles - Innovation and production,
by Lena Horne, 3-21. Cam-bridge: Woodhead
[10] Wentzel, B. “Sampling the benefits of digital printing.”
Publishing, 2012.
Fashion Business International (Oct-Nov), 2002: 24-25.
[22] McCann, J. “The garment design process for smart
[11] Istook, Cynthia L. “Enabling mass customization:
clothing from fibre selection through to product
computer-driven alteration methods.” International
launch.” In Smart Clothes and Wearable Technology,
Journal of Clothing Science and Technology 14, no. 1
by J McCann and D Bryson, 70-94. Elsevier, 2009.
(2002): 61-76.
[23] Pailes-Friedman, Rebeccah. What Is The Future Of
[12] Hu, Zhi-Hua, Yong-Sheng Ding, Wen-Bin Zhang,
Fabric? These Smart Textiles Will Blow Your Mind.
and Qiao Yan. “An interactive co-evolutionary CAD Edited by Forbes. July 05, 2014. http://www.forbes.
system for garment pattern design.” Computer-Aided com/sites/forbesstylefile/2014/05/07/what-is-the-
Design 40 (2008): 1094-1104. future-of-fabric-these-smart-textiles-will-blow-your-
[13] Fang, Jing-Jing, and Yu Ding. “Expert-based mind/ (accessed July 18, 2014).
customized pattern-making automation:Part I. Basic [24] Hurford, R D. “Types of smart clothes and wearbale
patterns.” International Journal of Clothing Science technology.” In Smart clothes and Weara-ble
and Technology 20, no. 1 (2008): 26-40. Technology, by J McCann and D Bryson, 25-44.
[14] Volino, P, and N Magnenat-Thalmann. Virtual Elsevier, 2009.
Clothing: Theory and Practice,. Springer, 2000. [25] Van Langenhove, Lieva, and Carla Hertleer. “Smart
[15] Chen, Y, X Zeng, M Happiette, P Bruniaux, R Ng, and Clothing: a new life.” International Journal of Clothing
W Yu. “Optimisation of garment design using fuzzy Science and Technology 16, no. 1/2 (2004): 63-72.
logic and sensory evaluation techniques.” Engineering [26] Ji, Yong Gu, and Kwangil Lee. “Standardization for
Applications of Artificial Intel-ligence 22, no. 2 (2009): Smart Clothing Technology.” In Smart Clothing
272-282. Technology Applications, by Gilsoo Cho, 60-86. NY:
[16] Ngai, E.W.T., S Peng, Paul Alexander, and karen K.L. Taylor & Francis, 2010.
Moon. “Decision support and intelli-gent systems [27] Cho, Gilsoo, Seungsin Lee, and Jayoung Cho. “Review
in the textile and apparel supply chain: An academic and Reppraisal of Smart Clothing.” In Smart Clothing:
review of research arti-cles.” Expert Systems with Technology and Applications, edited by Gilsoo Cho,
Applications 41, no. 1 (2014): 81-91. 2-12. USA: Taylor and Fran-cis Group, 2010.
[17] Meng, Yuwei, P.Y. Mok, and Xiaogang Jin. “Computer [28] McCann, J. “End User based design of innovative smart
aided clothing pattern design with 3D editing and clothing.” In Smart Clothes and Weara-ble Technology,
pattern alteration.” Computer-Aided Design 44, no. 8 by J McCann and D Bryson, 45-66. North America:
(2012). Woodhead Publishing, 2009
[18] Fontana, Marzia, Caterina Rizzi, and Umberto Cugini. [29] Ariyatum, B, R Holland, D Harrison, and T Kaz.
“3D virtual apparel design for indus-trial applications.” “The future design direction of Smart Cloth-ing and
Computer-Aided Design 37 (2005): 609-622. development.” Journal of Textile Institute 96, no. 4

38
 Recent Development in Technology Marmara J. Pure Appl. Sci. 2015, Special Issue-1:32-39

(2005): 199-212.. Cassill. “Critical Review on Smart Clothing Product

[30] Sonderegger, A, and S Juergen. “The influence of Development.” Journal of Textile and Apparel,
design aesthetics in usability testing: Ef-fects on Technology and Management 6, no. 4 (2010): 1-18.
user performance and perceived usability.” Applied [32] Ugur, Secil. Wearing Embodied Emotions: A Practice
Ergonomics 41 (2010): 403-410. Based Design research on Wearable Technolo-gy.
[31] Suh, MinJoung, Katherine E Carroll, and Nancy L Milano: Springer Milan, 2013.

39

View publication stats