Made to measure

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Manufacture of bespoke clothing in the 1950s

The term made- to- measure clothing is made up of the words measure (from measure ) and clothing (from the Latin confectio ) and describes the mass production of clothing for individual customers . The term MTM (“made to measure”) , which comes from English, is also in use.

background

Clothing was made individually until the 19th century. A tailor was hired for this or the desired items of clothing were produced in-house by the family.

With industrialization at the end of the 19th century, wage-intensive, manual production was displaced by industrial manufacturing techniques and machine-based clothing factories emerged that manufactured clothing in large numbers. To this day, dimension tables based on serial measurements of the population are used as the basis for the sectional drawings of the clothing factories , whereby the clothing tables are updated regularly, but the last actual measurements took place in the 1950s.

The product

The idea of ​​made-to-measure clothing is to bring the individual requirements of individual customers to a product in line with the claim to be able to offer this product at the price of mass production. The customer is integrated into the process of value creation in such a way that he can no longer be referred to as an anonymous recipient, but rather as a partner who is involved in the design of his garments.

For this purpose, providers of made-to-measure clothing specify certain variations in dimensions, fabrics and equipment from which the customer can choose. Depending on the manufacturer's system, the number of selection criteria varies widely. This approach requires intensive communication between the customer and the manufacturer during the provision of the service ( customer integration ) in order to fully understand the customer's wishes and also to identify possible discrepancies before the start of production.

The customer's requirements with regard to the desired product properties and dimensions are recorded by the bespoke manufacturer and used to create the individual CAD cross-section . The subsequent production process is similar to that of modern clothing companies and is based on a strong division of labor .

Made-to-measure clothing is sold in Germany by a few large, Germany-wide suppliers (such as Kuhn or Dolzer) and many small suppliers in different price and quality segments, although very few dealers have their own manufacturing companies. Most of the manufacturing companies are located in Europe, with some suppliers producing in Asia. While the market leaders in the lower price segment only offer customized clothing, various brands in the higher price segment offer bespoke clothing in addition to ready-made goods.

At Karstadt and C & A has begun to body measurements for a suit over a body scanner to detect. The effectiveness of this procedure is controversial, however, as comfort measurements such as sleeve length or back width have to be queried separately and an unnatural posture during the scanning process leads to an incorrect fit. Karstadt has already refrained from using this technology.

literature

  • Andreas Seidl, Stefan Mecheels , Gerd Wauer, Christof Bruder (eds.): Future made-to-measure clothing. Technology, market and management (textile marketing). German specialist publisher, Frankfurt / M. 2001, ISBN 3-87150-721-0 .
  • Frank Thomas Piller, Christof M. Stotko, (Eds.): Mass Customization and Customer Integration. New ways to innovative products . Symposion Publishing, Düsseldorf 2003, ISBN 3-936608-05-9 .
  • Nicole Kornacher, Christof M. Stotko: Mass customization in the clothing industry. Requirements, opportunities and challenges . Symposion Publishing, Düsseldorf 2003.
  • B. Joseph Pine: Mass cutomization. The new frontier in business competition . Harvard Business School Press, Harvard 1999, ISBN 0-87584-946-6 .
    • German: Tailor-made mass production. New dimensions in competition . Ueberreuter, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-901260-66-8 .
  • Oliver Wüntsch: Customized mass production. Mass customization in the clothing industry . Eul Verlag, Lohmar 2000, ISBN 3-89012-750-9 .