Fas.P.onsite

Acne is a swedish brand mainly operating in clothing area, even if fashion is only a part of a wider concept correctly explained by Acne’s founder themselves: “the initial idea was to build brands, their own as well as others’, within the fields of fashion, entertainment and technology. Although all members of the collective are independent entities acting in their own right in various fields of creativity, they all share the same vision and culture. This vision combines art and industry in equal measures, whether this is through clothing, film, printed matter or a global advertising campaign

The rsult is an alternative cultural system spreading from clothing to other fields like film-making, video art, photography and, most of all, editorial area: Acne Paper is in fact a review contributing to set the terms of a new lifestyle according to the social profile of an Acne customer:moreover, its issues are etirely available on the website and directly shareable on social networks.

The clothing field starts from denim concepts, to reach every kind of garment and every level of creation: some of current Acne collections are developed with Lanvin.  Diffusion is guaranteed by the online shop and the Studios (stores) placed in great cities of Europe and USA

Innovation stays in the socio-cultural features of the concept rather than in some technological application to new social needs or wills. Nowadays many brands shifted to the pursuit of a complete lifestyle trendsetting, but Acne was created in 1996 already considering this specific aim; Acne’s proper innovation can be found in integration of fashion with different disciplines.

Threadless is “a community-based tee shirt company with an ongoing, open call for design submissions - if your design is chosen, get paid $2500 + $500 per reprint”

Threadless is basically a website offering two possibilities: proposing t-shirt graphic designs and buying t-shirts. Both these paths can then be explored by using different keys.

For what concerns graphic design, the “Participate” area of the website allows users, after logging in, to: upload their own graphic proposals, or just submit them for a pre-upload critique; have a complete panorama of proposed designs and score them (0 up to 5) thus getting the most wanted designs printed on Threadless sold tees; access a blog where to get news about new collections or events proposed. Other areas in the website introduce instead to the sale tools.

Threadless innovation is both in the area of business and social-cultural behaviour, mainly focused on the idea of a continuous contest exciting the whole users-designers’ community: co-design is the real empowering engine of the concept.

Innovation can also be found in brand image strategies: the whole Threadless environment is featured with a low-profile attitude aiming to appeal a precise customer typology, such as young and “alternative” people.

In fact, the concept is creating a business by creating a community sharing a meaning of certain aspects of lifestyle and creativity.

The way to make this particular organization effective is a continuous simplifying of practices and techniques, and it is reached bythe simple setting of prexcise rules.

This case study is about one of the most important flagship store in the world: the Armani Tower in the fashion district of Ginza, Tokyo.Since it is not a store, but a flagship store, in the building (eleven storeys high + two underground levels), there is not only the selling areas with the entire Armani collection, but there are different services for the client.

It is not just a place to do shopping, but is a place where customers can try different experiences, like eating, drinking a cocktail or relaxing themselves in the SPA. In the tower there is, in addition, the headquarter of the Armani group.

To celebrate the 10th-anniversary of the famous bag called “baguette”, Fendi decided to product and sell a special version of this bag in coated canvas, totally white. In fact, the bag is sold in a box with ten Pantone markers and the client is the artist of his own bag: he can sketch, colour and draw directly on the bag, creating an unicum.This special bag was called DIY, Do It Yourself, to underline the high level of creativity and personalization. The innovative aspect is that for the first time the client could really personalize his bag and own a unicum, that no one, except for the shape, could have. The customer, in fact, can decide what to draw, can decide the colors to use, and has the total control over the image of his bag.This is different from the “standard” personalization that other fashion brands offer, where the client could in general add no more that the initials or choose and change some details.

Digital media represents new opportunities for people to actively engage in fashion. One example is “Scem Creations”.

This is a business based only on a MySpace profile and on the skills of a designer. It offers to customers the opportunity to order personalized plexiglass creations, simple necklaces for daily use. Clients decide everything: both color and form. They have to decide the subject, send an image to the designer and wait the delivery.

One of “Fas.P.onSite” project main point is just the idea that the client must be an active part of the design & productive process, in order to create a hyper personal and customized product. “Do-it-yourself” is an example of a customer who is a designer/stylist too, even if he has no active role in the production. This is possible thanks to an innovative textile or just simple buttons.

The “Colour-In Dress” is a simple dress with a black and white print, which is especially designed to fill with coloured textile markers.

The “Replacement Dresses” exists out of three dresses attached to each other by buttons. This makes it possible to combine the three different prints in a way the wearer prefers.

Modaris 3D Fit is an extension of Lectra’s tool Modaris, that enable fashion manufacturers to create and develop patterns for all kind of wear, from babies to women, from swimwear to uniforms, thanks to CAD simulator.

3D Fit allows virtual prototyping of the 2-dimensional patterns created, with a great saving of time and money for the fashion producer, up to 50% as advertised on Lectra’s website.

Combined with Modaris and PGS, two modeling solutions, 3D Fit can accomplished the request for faster designing and realization of seasonal collections, and users’ desire of customized clothes.

Modaris 3D Fit has some relevant benefits, compared with similar tools.

First of all, it reduced the number of samples required for the simulation. A library of 140 materials is available for the creation of the piece of garment, and the simulation is available also remotely. Then materials can be validated, as well as comfort distribution, proportions and balance lines.

What’s more, the 3D Fit provide new sizes for mannequins, a “plus size” from 58 to 66 for men, and form 44 to 52 for women, taking into account the fact that the oversize population is rapidly increasing.

Group A

OptiTex is a 2D and 3D Microsoft Based CAD software that can fulfill the needs of fashion manufacturers in term of digitizing models and designing fashion products. The stage of prototyping of a dress for example has always been very expensive and unsustainable, due to material and economical waste.

OptiTex can solve this problem with a modern idea of prototypes: a virtual simulation of the final dress could be created and displayed on a screen, highlighting design, colors and material properties before the “real creation”.

Basic 2D tools have also more efficient 3D versions, that can provide a more interesting visual output. Particular tools have the goal of transform into 2D pattern each 3D model, and to create a 3D view out of the 2D design of pieces.

Group A

Microsoft Surface is a multi-touchscreen display that has been developed for business purposes. It has had good feedbacks, it has been applied in different scenarios. I link you those esplicative videos to show you that it would be possible to use it in both design phase, to help the user giving him back a visive feedback, a preview of what he/she is producing, and also in the “waiting” phase due to the production time. http://www.microsoft.com/surface/Default.aspx?page=Videos#gid=demos&vid=harrahibar

Here’s the link to a youtube video showing one of the possible applications, in this example for a surfs store http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zxk_WywMTzc.

Wajima Kohsan Ltd. opened a “Factory Boutique Shima” in Wakayama, Japan at the end of 1995; this shop combines a production factory and a retail boutique, creating a revolutionary mash-up. This hybrid is possible thanks to Shima Seiki’s technology, which creates one-piece three-dimensional garments directly on the knitting machine. The customer is required to be in the boutique for 1 or 2
hours in order to select a certain style from a sample book, select color and yarn, be photographed in a studio and be provided with the composition which simulates the sweater design on him/her.
Prices range from 15,000 to 30,000 Japanese Yen (at present, 125 – 250$).
In this kind of shop there’s no technological tool such as the “magic mirror” or a computer-based 3D avatar used to design the garment: for such reason the Factory Boutique Shima is an innovative yet rudimental project compared to Fas.P.onSite.

Source web site

by Team A