3-D body scanner makes the suit fit

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3-D body scanner makes the suit fit

PARIS - Can a tailored suit help clinch that tricky deal at work? Get the girl? Or simply put a spring in your step? Absolutely, if you believe a year-old Paris firm that is using a 3-D body scanner to bring made-to-measure suits to the masses.

“There is a whole psychological side to men’s suits,” said Francois Chambaud, co-founder of Paris store Les Nouveaux Ateliers. “Say you arrive at a meeting - or your wedding - in an ill-fitting suit, you just won’t feel right.”

“A person who feels well-dressed will sit forward and make their point, as opposed to slumping back in their chair,” said the 25-year-old. “It can give you a big confidence boost.”

Convinced there was a vast and untapped market of style-hungry men out there, Chambaud set out to capture it in February last year, using technology to slash the cost of customized clothes.

“We wanted to offer made-to-measure suits for the cost of ready-to-wear. And we wanted to make it fun, to break with the image of something a bit austere and elitist,” he said.

“Traditionally, the whole process of getting measured up and coming back for fittings, was quite drawn-out, it could take up to three months.”

Here, customers simply strip down to their undies, and step into a scanning cabin that snaps a 3-D image of their body, capturing 200 measurements in a second compared to 45 minutes by hand with a tape measure.

Clients fully customise their suits and shirts, picking the fabric, cut and every last detail from buttons to collar shape.

Their measurements and choices are fed into a computer-assisted design tool, creating a virtual body on which the clothes are modeled to produce a pattern, which is sent off for assembly in the firm’s workshop in Shanghai.

Three weeks later the suit is back in Paris, ready to slip into.

With 7,000 customers so far, a second Paris store open, profits already coming in and plans to expand in the provinces and abroad, the firm appears to have struck gold.

Who is the typical customer? “There is no typical customer. We have catered to men aged 18 to 94. We have clothed a dwarf and an NBA basketball player, 2.17 meters [7.1 feet] tall,” said Chambaud.

But on the whole the store attracts clients - whether students, young executives, corporate bosses or sportsmen - who are new to tailoring, and can’t find what they need in the ready-to-wear market.

Eddy Benarous, 21, is a rugbyman, built like a rugbyman - with broad shoulders, narrow hips, powerful thighs. And until recently he had yet to find a suit that fitted.

“I want something that lets me move my arms freely, but is fitted at the waist. It’s just impossible. They are always either too big or small,” the young Parisian told AFP.

“This is just right,” he said, patting the bag with the two brand new suits he just collected from the store. “I even got them to leave some extra room around the arms because I need to bulk out a bit.”

Final year law student Ilan Halimi readily admits he is on the picky side.

“I can’t find what I want in ready-to-wear, even in high-end brands, because I am very demanding.

“I like waisted suits and tailored shirts, not too long, not too short either. I like to pick the collar I want, to get exactly the shirt I want by customizing it myself.”

“It’s a fun experience,” he said. “And it’s over really fast. It’s also really cool to see your suit in 3-D on a screen. ”

The combination of time-saving scanner and pattern-making software enabled the firm to slash costs, with suits starting at 290 euros ($364), less than half the typical entry-level price in France for a made-to-measure suit. Prices rise to 890 euros for the highest-grade cloth, by the Italian Loro Piana.

Les Nouveaux Ateliers claims to be the only firm in Europe, if not the world, using a body scanner this way, and have patented their pattern-making software. AFP

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