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Made-to-measure suits over the Internet Trouw 10 June
By: Jose
Teunissen
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"We do not want to hear the word store here" says Bas Possen. "This is a fashion room". Possen is the owner of WWW.POSSEN.COM; a company that sells made-to-measure suits over the Internet. The last pieces of the WWW.POSSEN.COM flagship store are put together in the van Bearlestreet in Amsterdam. I notice examples of suits and fabric samples, but the most important thing is that men can make a DigiTwin in a few seconds: a digital twin with their personal measurements. Once stored into the computer, the made-to-measure suits and shirts can be ordered directly over the Internet. Without having to try them on. "If someone gains or looses three kilo's, only then would he need to come back," Possen adds. Tailors, made-to-measure suits and the fast world of the Internet. That almost seems like two incompatible worlds. A tailor takes his time, measures a body accurately and kindly requests the customer to come back several times before the suit is finished. That obviously takes time, attention and precision. What remains of all that when a customer orders with five clicks over the Internet, a blue woolen suit with two side flaps? "The suit itself remains handicraft, it is put together by tailors," says Possen. "We gain our profit from the bodyscans that pass the data directly to the cutting machines. Instead of two or three months, the suit is ready in three or four weeks. If there is such a need, the suit can even be made within' five days", says Possen while walking towards the back of the fashion room. A two-dimensional scan stands next to an antique wooden sofa.
"Look, old next to new. That is our philosophy. We are still waiting for the three-dimensional DigiTwin, which registers body data in an even more accurate way." Possen explains: "This is fantastic, an infrared ray descends the body, just like Spock in the movie Startrek, and within' a few seconds you can see yourself on screen. You can make yourself tumble, spin, etc." Even though the suppliers have guaranteed that the DigiTwin works perfectly well, Possen has built in a collateral security margin. A rack with example suits and an experienced made-to-measure suits salesman checking the computer results. "I do not want to take the risk of getting unsatisfied customers. But for the time being that doesn't seem like it. In the trial phase - there was an informal grand opening and several curious persons came to visit our store - eighty suits have already been ordered.
"Of which twenty have already been delivered!" he proudly says. "They would all fit like a glove, eighteen people have immediately ordered a second suit." The man of 25 up to 45 years of age is as yet Possen's target group. "I want to offer a better alternative for those men who would normally pay a thousand guilders for a made-to-measure suit. A made-to-measure suit not only fits better; the advantage is that the person can build a suit like he wishes. He chooses the material, determines the amount of buttons, the revers, the pockets and can even request a embroidered monogram for free." And all that from behind the computer at home or at work. When the customer has put together his ideal suit on his DigiTwin, but might like to know what the chosen fabric feels like, a click on the button is sufficient to have him delivered a sample of the fabric the very next day. "This is not about the fast money of e-commerce. We have worked more than ten months on this concept, there is a enormous logistic behind it all", says Possen.
Possen is a former register accountant who dealt with many of his own of IT-clients. He grew up in a family who owned several exclusive fashion stores for men. "The high margins of a traditional store, which are needed to finance stocks are no longer necessary. The client can benefit from that." The WWW.POSSEN.COM Website is now active, but will bring us more details from the second day of Pentecost. The first two fashion rooms in Amsterdam and Nuth will be running from July 1st. In the beginning of July a mobile store will be driving through the country with the DigiTwin aboard so that every interested person can start designing his very own personal made-to-measure suit on the Internet.
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