Are you a tailor, a fashion designer, or a would-be retailer looking to get into the customized, made-to-measure clothing business?
Or maybe you’re a savvy fashionista who’d like to have some custom-quality pieces made - clothing that fits your personality and frame like the proverbial glove but won’t break the bank?
You ought to be checking out the ambitious, tech-enhanced clothing maker Kutetailor. This veteran clothing producer wants to be your own private label manufacturing partner, making clothes according to your carefully detailed specifications.
Yes, there are many clothing factories in the world, cranking out cookie-cutter goods by the dozens, hundreds, or thousands. What makes Kutetailor different is its courting of small-time startups – Joe’s Tailor Shop, Julia’s Fashion Boutique – and its ability to serve them with superior, made-to-measure garments – men’s and women’s suits, pants, skirts, coats, shirts and more – produced in quantities as small as one.
Tailoring App-titude
As fashion authority Dara Lamb testified at the maker’s recent New York showcase and fashion tech seminar, Kutetailor is at the forefront of a new “mass customization” movement in the clothing industry, which she sees as a healthy shift from the “fast fashion” craze.
Independent tailors and clothing boutiques that source garments from Kutetailor aren’t simply making orders for stock-sized goods. They are actively engaged in the fabrication process, fine-tuning the sizing and design features of each ordered piece. So, their end customers wind up with precisely what they want and never have to compromise or suffer buyer’s remorse.
While made-to-measure pieces do cost more, they are treasured and happily worn for years and even decades. The garments don’t wind up being stashed in the back of the closet or trashed after one or two wears. “There’s a landfill of unwanted fast fashion clothing in Chile that’s big enough to see from outer space.” Lamb lamented.
I have been in awe of made-to-measure clothing since childhood. My late father, a courtroom attorney, set a handsome impression in made-to-measure suits scored in person at Hong Kong clothing factories. Always crafted in discreetly dark blue British or Italian wool to avoid looking “flashy,” these custom-fitted garments did a great job of hiding Dad’s gut and proved incredibly durable.
Kutetailor’s global emphasis on serving startup businesses with made-to-order goods sets it apart from other manufacturers. It requires a radical rethinking at both points of sale (your tailoring shop or fashion boutique) and the factory.
The tailor or fashion designer sizes up the customer and builds a personal garment order with a staggeringly comprehensive measurement and ordering platform – an app that’s accessed and used on a tablet (or larger) computer. And, you don’t have to order huge quantities to get Kutetailor’s attention. New customers can sign up for a free “Jumpstart” account and order as little as one item from the maker.
First, you enter the body type and specifications of the customer (shoulder width, arm length, chest size, waist size, pant length, etc.) gathered with your trusty tape measure and doubly verified, if you so desire, with a front and side photo scan of the customer. These are tailoring basics that Kutetailor can help you master “in a couple of hours” with online materials or with a session at its New York showroom,” said sales representative David Wang.
Now comes the fun part: picking out and customizing your garment from a library of “at least 1,500 current designs” on the Kutetailor platform, then fine-tuning it with details. “We offer more than 300 different fabric options, hundreds of button choices,” Wang continued. And, as you then factor in all the tailoring choices for garment modification/customization, the options list reaches “literally a million.”
In fine-tuning the appearance of a suit jacket or coat, for example, a customer gets to decide the shape of the lapel, the way the shoulder will drape (no padding, softly “natural” shouldered, squared off), the number and location of pockets, the color of the stitching and the secret pleasure of a custom lining embroidered with the wearer’s name.
Besides the usual tailoring specs, made-to-measure sellers can also take their customers into “bespoke” territory with extra personal measurement details that are also entered into the app-based order. For instance, they can size up the customer’s biceps and wrists to enable the perfect sleeve shaping.
What’s Happening at the Factory?
The order processing and fulfillment at the Kutetailor factory are similarly sophisticated. “There’s a lot of automation there but still human beings executing, doing the tailoring,” noted Kaitlin Argiro, another fashion designer and educator speaking on the Kutetailor fashion tech panel. At the factory, each garment starts as a piece of fabric. Attached is a card with personalized instructions that direct the garment’s construction as it moves through the production process. As a result, Kutetailor manages to be both big and personal.
New orders are fulfilled within seven business days and then shipped overseas (direct to the end-use customers, if requested) in five. That’s a far cry from the three-month lead time this longtime (since 1995) clothing maker once needed, cited global business director Robert Zhang. But Kutetailor is no small-time operation. Upwards of 2,000 men’s and women’s suits – Kutetailor’s mainstay – are produced every workday.
Consumers interested in trying out the Kutetailor experience can visit the New York City midtown showroom at 241 West 37th Street, Suite 908 (call 201-526-5578 for an appointment). Kutetailor will also be on tour in Los Angeles from September 12 -14th at the Beverly Hills Marriott, Bel Air room (walk-ins welcome). Contact the NY Showroom for other Kutetailor partner locations near you.
[Image credit: Kutetailor]
