Body Look Dusseldorf

I really feel bad I could not get to the International Trade Fair for Body, Beach and Legwear. It is always a fair where you can get the touch and feel of the German national and international labels, and see the latest collections, with the strongest trends. It remains to be Germany's only international trade fair for body, beach and leg wear that offers a lot of attractive themes.
I was invited to be a presenter and prepared a great "3D Virtual Body Wear " presentation, but could not get a proper flight, so I hope our great Gerber colleagues from Gerber took our presentation and did a good job. I actually am sure they did.
I wanted to talk about our notes and fixed camera position as it is ideal for lingerie and beachwear. Besides I felt it was the perfect place to show our new learn, plan and implement processes but anyway…there is always a next time!It could have been great to play some return on investment calculations with someone in the public, but again we will be able to present soon elsewhere.

IMB trade fair and Vstitcher

Last week I was at the IMB trade fair in Cologne, Germany – the world's leading clothing technology fair. In spite of the challenging economic situation some 20,000 visitors from 100 countries attended the fair -much less than in previous IMB's but still quite impressive for such times. 

Browzwear had a small table with chairs at the Leapfrog stand. Leapfrog organised a very successful showcase of project activities and results. Leapfrog's large 224m2 booth was a great eye-catcher in the centre of hall 7 and many interesting meetings and contacts occurred throughout the 4 days of the fair.

Even when the fair looked quiet, we had our tables full and people waiting for meetings - quite amazing and unexpected these days!

Many visitors at our stand were interested in hearing more about the Leapfrog platform but mainly understood the value that Vstitcher presents to the industry. Fashion and technology schools, potential customers and distributors were all fully aware that Vstitcher is the market leader of 3D prototyping product. It seems that both our large customers and PLM and body scanning partners recommended Browzwear as the leading 3D solution for fashion development, design and merchandizing. I was very excited to see this!

It is now clear that the fashion and textile world is ready for 3d prototyping. It was unambiguous to all visitors that virtual 3D prototyping ensures the quality of a garment and its look and fit, reduces the number of physical prototypes, and makes communication between product development sites clearer, easier and faster. As a result, both brands, and retailers understand that Browzwear's 

Vstitcher accelerates the collection development cycle and enables users to overcome the "Fast Fashion" challenges of an greater than ever number of collections and alternative products. We heard from Universities that they are now researching how much 3D virtual prototyping helps to reduce development costs and, as such, is a real competitive advantage for apparel companies. Vstitcher is obviously looked at as the most advanced solution in this field! 

For me it was a very energizing trade fair and made me believe even more in Browzwear's future opportunities! 

Learning from the past for the future

Very often these days I think of the past and what it taught me for the future.

When I started working for Tefron in the late 80's we were targeting the European market only. It was in my first days there that the USA was looked at as a potential good market for the future. In those days, the company was always hoping to have enough money to pay the employees each month, and was constantly looking for new opportunities. It was a big challenge.

Throughout the years we became the global leader in engineered seamless apparel. We integrated function and fashion. We created a sophisticated system integrating advanced knitting machines, innovative cut and sew procedures, and refined yarns. The result was a virtually unlimited range of fabrics and engineered seamless garments.

The Research and Development team continually pushed for cutting edge technologies - constantly one step ahead of the competition.

By using the most advanced machines available, we virtually eliminated human error, reduced waste and costs.

The technology constantly evolved with the development of new patents. All of this had turned us into a major global player and enabled us to extend our leadership position within the apparel industry.

Today after so many years, with the world in another crisis I am heading Browzwear. I am still with the same vision of being the world leader in the apparel industry, but now in the software technology needed to cut down costs and increase sales. That is the main reason I joined Browzwear: to develop and lead the virtual apparel prototyping market and "build" the 3D virtual fitting room of the future.

Browzwear is not only the pioneer of 3D virtual prototyping, and has not only developed Vstitcher, the market leading tool for 3D fashion designing and merchandizing, and has the largest install base, but it is looked at as the 3D specialist for the fashion industry.

Browzwear's VStitcher is the preferred tool in the industry even for customers using competitors' 2D tools.

In the past I always found it was excellent to have competition, especially when I knew I had a better product in hand. Every time competitors were closed or bought into other larger companies, or had any trouble I was worried. This is happening to me again these days. I hear of many difficulties and dangers in the market and I know that in order to sell I need to have competition – if not how can I show off what I have that others do not… a new challenge to cope with these days…

Fashion Design Software Helps You Become more Efficient in this Age of Economic Recession

It has been a long time since I have been on this blog and a lot is happening in the world. Due to this, I felt I had to change my way of working and to adjust my life and work accordingly.

Like at home where I have to be very cost conscious, at work I have to accommodate to give the best cost cutting and top line increasing solutions.
Today, I am sure we have the best virtual prototyping solutions on the apparel market, and that BROWZWEAR ensures companies maximum returns on sampling. Examples include:

• Speeding up and adding creativity to the development and design process
• Increasing customer arousal, interest and demand for products
• Reducing manual effort in creating or re-creating physical samples

Our customers increase revenue and reduce costs by replacing their traditional processes with new processes enabled by BROWZWEAR’s 3D virtual prototyping and visualization software and services.

We help and support our customers with the visual presentation of their product concepts from the concept phase all the way through to the design phase. During the sales and marketing phases we provide support for presenting product variations.

BROWZWEAR's virtual prototyping toolset provides innovative visualization solutions right from the initial development phases.

• We constantly strive to develop and optimize vstitcher as well as our solutions and range of services.
• We built a team of experts, that make sure you get the most out of the applications and are always on hand to offer tips and advice.
• We provide training in order to get the most out of using vstitcher
• We assist our customers to optimize their workflow

Our customers today have to mainly concentrate on their core business.

Today Browzwear can meet most fashion company’s requirements, offer advice and find a solution that optimally meets their needs.

Funnily enough I would be happy to get a similar solution which could cut my costs at home too….

Future Technologies

The overwhelming success of the Apple iPod has proved that technology can also be fashionable but can fashion be technological? With 3D visualization software consumers can get a lot more input into design. This type of software already allows for a more life like shopping experience and for manufacturers to communicate their ideas and designs more effectively, but the future holds much more in-store. A technology, so far in its infancy, has emerged. It is called rapid prototyping (RP) or 3D printing. The technology is based on printer-like machines firing computer guided laser beams at materials, such as nylon, heating the powder and fusing it layer by layer into complex, solid 3D shapes. (New Scientist, 30 September 2000, p 24).
The advancement of 3D visualization software such as ours combined with the fantastical prospects of 3D printing will create a new era in fashion. Imagine consumers designing their own garments, then printing them and wearing them! A future of fashion on demand… a future of mass customization of clothes at home…. We are not there yet and it would probably take a considerable amount of time but I just can’t wait!

A Masterpiece in Mass Production

The industrial revolution has brought the advantages of mass production to many industries. In high fashion the emphasis remained on creative designs and skilled craftsmanship. Ready-made garments started becoming popular and more accepted only when clothes-making machines advanced. However, the complete artistic freedom enabled by custom-made designs is still favored by many. I suppose that, I too, would love all my clothes to be masterpieces created by the spark of inspiration and perspiration exerted by a fashion designer at work, every stitch calculated for the achievement of a more perfect garment. Unfortunately, as I am no Hollywood Star or Real-estate billionaire, my choice of clothing is confined to those created by the miracles of mass production. The tools created at Browzwear are going to change all that. Designers that utilize 3D visualization tools are exceedingly librated to experiment, they are less bound to the rigidness of procedure dictated by the nature of mass production. They can communicate more efficiently with the manufacturer and make sure that the final product is a precise duplicate of their computer generated masterpiece.

Global Fashion in My Wardrobe

Last week I inadvertently noticed that my shirt was made in china. Not that this is a great surprise but I was curious to see what other far corners of the world my wardrobe gathered from. I opened my closet a few shirts traveled a long way from their native India, some have crossed oceans from their origins in the United States others came from fashion capitals in Europe, there was even a representative of the kingdom of Jordan.
How did they all get to my closet? This is the question I'll do my best to answer in this post.

The globalization in my wardrobe has much to do, I suppose, with a wider trend. In today's global village, retailers shop for their goods globally. Fashion retailers are no different. They shop for textiles and apparel products from all corners of the world hoping to acquire cost benefits and gain an edge on the competition. But this offshore sourcing trend is not as simple as it may sound. Managing the logistics and supply chain for textiles and apparel suppliers and retailers demands collaboration of the parties involved and has to be flexible enough to cope with the dynamic patterns of demand, especially for fashionable items. Good collaboration is developed almost like a piece of well woven fabric. There is a need for planning. The aim is to create continuity and sustainable value for everyone involved.

In the recent version of V-Stitcher, Browzwear's 3D fashion design and communication software we developed new tools, in an endeavor to encourage collaboration within the fashion supply chain. We found that our customers appreciate intuitive forms of communication such as customized camera angles, so the parties can all see the garment from the exact same angle. We also added "3D notes" so you can leave a note on the virtual garment for all to see. In a sense we are not just mimicking the design process as it is carried out in real life but improving it, fostering a more productive relationship between retailers, manufacturers and brands.