The next generation of tailoring is here. And this time you don’t have to stand awkwardly through a measuring session, just really, really still though.
Bodymetrics, in the middle of Selfridges department store, London, produces custom made Bespoke jeans using technology that seems to have come straight out of a sci-fi thriller.
All you have to do is to take your clothes off and walk into the futuristic-looking Bodymetrics ‘pod”. They ask you to stand over a few marks on the floor and grip two levers so that your arms are at 45-degree angles while a white light scans about 200,000 points all over your body that are converted into a “point cloud” of your shape from neck to ankle. In eight seconds, two hundred personal dimensions have been calculated, marking the conventional size system of waist and inseam.
Then a consultant helps you cheese from a menu of loose, regular and slim-fit styles in boot-cut, straight-leg, drainpipe and tapered silhouettes. There are the options of high, medium or low rises as well as a variety of denim fabrics, colors and washes that include raw, rinse, enzyme and stone wash. Pocket placements can be customized and special rivets also are available.
You will have to wait at least two weeks as the orders are made in the Far East or North America in special factories that manufacture garments one by one and can also do hand finishing.
Though kinda costly at £250, or $482, per pair, you end up with the most well-fitted pair of jeans that you are ever likely to wear in your life.
“Body shapes vary infinitely,” Suran Goonatilake, Bodymetric’s founder, says. “Classic measurements are merely body landmarks. One of the most crucial parts of getting any garment to fit right is shaping, how your body is curved. You can have two people with identical jeans measurements but the end result is a completely different fit.”
The first Bodymetrics boutique opened in Selfridges in 2004 which targeted a largely female clientele with private-label jeans and licenses with other denim brands. Last year, a second boutique opened in Harrods, expanding the service to include women’s tailoring for brands like Vivienne Westwood and Nick Holland.
Mass customization isn’t a new concept. Levi Strauss first introduced it in 1995 with “Personal Pair,” in which customers’ measurements were taken in the store and sent by computer to the factory floor.
Later, an early generation body scanner was introduced in Levi’s “Original Spin” range where the scans were used to match customers to ready-made jeans. The same kind of scanner was used by Brooks Brothers’s Digital Tailoring around the same time, but it offered only that brand’s merchandise.
Now that you have Bodymetrics by your side, you’ll never get all stressed out hunting for that one pair of jeans that fits just right.
