Mass Customization in Fashion



In the good old days, businesses implemented push-marketing strategies to make their products available to customers; however, for the educated and tech-savvy consumers of today, such models are just no longer appropriate. These days, consumers are willing to pay premiums for products tailored to their specific requirements. Fortunately, technology has enabled small businesses to offer bespoke products at low costs.

What is Mass Customization

Mass customization is the application of flexible computer-aided manufacturing processes to offer product specifically tailored to the requirements of individuals (Mass Customization). Mass customization can significantly aid a start-up business to differentiate itself from competitors as well as reduce some of its marketing and manufacturing costs. Businesses offering customized products hold lower inventory levels, and sell less finished products on sale (Rautenstrauch, Seelmann-Eggebert, and Turowski 8).
Especially for fashion startups, mass customization has great implications because it can substantially reduces the amounts of time and effort spent on predicting future demands, coming up with new designs, and gambling on whether they would be adopted by costumers or not. From the perspective of customers, it is an attractive option since they can freely engage in the design process and own unique products reflecting their creativity and originality at affordable prices. (Finding the Luxury in Mass Customization).

Continuum

Continuum is an example of a fashion start-up utilizing mass customization as a means of its differentiation strategy. Continuum is a hybrid design lab/fashion label founded by Mary Huang and Jenna Fizel, which allows users to interactively design their own garments based on their unique taste, and exact measurements.

Mary Huang and Jenna Fizel, the founders of Continuum, have backgrounds in architecture and interactive design, which enabled them to create a platform that made fashion mass customization a dream come true.
Instead of designing clothes, Mary Huang and Jenna Fizel developed a medium by which users can design their own clothes. Their fashion label does not contain any of their own designs, but it is an ongoing collection of outfits designed by their costumers (Continuum Fashion).

CONSTRVCT

CONSTRVCT is Continuum’s core fashion label, which is the world’s first label completely implementing crowd-sourcing. CONSTRVCT is a platform that enables the global audience to design outfits, which reflects their one of a kind taste with the help of the Internet and web applications.

The production process starts by users designing their garments taking a set of simple steps. Then, they would input their exact measurements, and their preferred pattern that they can choose, basically, from anywhere! After the user completes the design process, Continuum generates a 3D model, which then goes through a series of processes that generates a flat model of the garment. The patterns are printed on the fabrics with the help of inkjet-based digital textile printing. Then each garment is handmade to ensure optimal quality standards and finally shipped to the customer (Berry).