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New: The e-Tailor
A Digial Fitting Room
Why spend hours in a fitting-room when choosing the perfect made-to-fit suit can now done within' ten seconds. You get undressed, step into the fitting-room and stand still for a few seconds. The salesman will digitally take your sizes from behind the computer. A few seconds later, your sizes will be printed out. All you need to do next is choose a fabric and there it is: the perfect made-to-fit suit
Het Parool
21 September 2000
By: Pam van der Veen
Photography: Serge Lightenberg |
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These are busy times for the entrepreneur Bas Possen. Busy yet exciting. This summer the businessman launched his DigitalTwin, a virtual fitting-room in which the sizes of a client are accurately measured. It seems to be a success already. Bas Possen travels from the Possen headquarters in Nuth (Limburg) to the made-to-fit suit manufacturer in Germany. He then moves on to his recently opened store in the Van Baerlestreet where he consults his web designers, programmers and e-commerce experts. He then finally makes his First Mobile Fashion Room ready to hit the road whilst answering all the questions from the press.
This last issue seems to be a problem, sometimes. He's an hour late at our appointment in the Van Baerlestreet. He disappears into the office that is located above the store to put on a suit and to get a shave. No matter how much stress the entrepreneurship causes, there is no way that we will photograph this e-tailor untidily. An impeccable appearance is a condition in this business, he might want to talk a little faster to catch up with the time we have lost.
"My family has always been involved in the fashion retail. Especially in the exclusive men's fashion, including made-to-fit clothing. I do have affinity with men's fashion," he tells us. "I have studied something completely different from what I am doing today, I studied business economics. I have worked as an accountant for PriceWaterhouseCoopers. I am specialized in telecom, media, e-commerce and market research. I was very much into hi-tech, I had the textile roots and I wanted to be my own boss." It happened that Possen quit his job to set up a new concept in the field of made-to-fit suits. "We are a service organization, production company and salesmen. A multichannel retailer; where clients matter most to us."
Possen's DigiTwin works as follows. The client gets undressed until standing in his underwear, he steps into the fitting-room and stands still for a few seconds. His actions are followed on the computer screen by an employee who takes digital photographs of the different poses. The client gets dressed ("Thank you Doctor") whilst his sizes are printed out. He then makes a choice out of 250 different fabrics from Zegna, Cerrutto, and Dormeuil to Loro Piana. Matters such as the length of a sleeve, trouser leg and arm opening, single row double-buttoned or single row three-buttoned, with or without pleated front, buttoned fly front, zipper and color of the lining are discussed. The client is given the opportunity to choose whether he wants to wear the trouser girdle under or around his belly. He might request an extra pocket for his cellular phone. Everything is discussed and carefully noted, the suit is ready within' three weeks. The perfect size - at the client's wishes.
That's not all. After the client has been scanned in the Van Bearlestreet he can logon to the Possen website. On his personal Internet page he can find his own tailor's dummy, he can choose a model, a fabric and a pattern. There are also different price categories. He can measure his own DigiTwin a new made-to-fit suit. If desired Possen will also send the client fabric samples - a client wants to feel after all - after one click on the button the follow-up is already being made.
It might come in convenient for many a man: buying a made-to-fit suit without getting up from your chair. But is this digital shop not a surplus? He does not believe it is "I have thought a lot before I opened the Internet store. I was convinced that people would not just buy a made-to-fit suit over the Internet. Look at on-line fashion shops such as Boo.com or Dressmart.com, they went bankrupt or have decided to open a traditional store after all. The see, feel try experience remains crucial." Although the Possen web site offers all the possibilities to digitally order a made-to-fit suit on-line, he still doesn't expect people to actually do so.
"What I do expect is them to think: "Possen has exactly what I want." I expect them to come by to make an appointment, being confident in finding what they want within' half an hour. People do not want to spend the entire Saturday shopping, they want to spend their free time doing fun things. E-commerce has not evolved yet, a client wants personal attention before he decides to buy a suit." His stylish flagship store in Amsterdam is one of the most important issues of his concept. New stores in Antwerp, Brussels en London are on the planning. "When I presented my business case last year, all investors were enthusiastic. But they were merely interested in the Internet and the brick and mortar part. They wanted me to cross out the real stores. I did not want that. I do not only want to build web sites and Internet shops. I want to actually open shops. I want to take the good from the old en new economy and integrate it in a useful way."
Although his shop in the Van Bearlestreet will be officially opened on September 1st, he has no complaints about the many a people that come to visit his shop. Many IT businessmen come to visit his shop. Beside these "consumption pioneers" many man that are in their fifties also come there. That is quite surprising. Shop manager Diederik de Flines believes he knows why. "It reminds them of the traditional tailor, but without the long try-on sessions. We can make their wishes come true, we offer more than the traditional confection business." De Flines, who comes from the traditional men's fashion world, is very enthusiastic about this new concept. "This is the future, we are selling individuality!" The way in which he handles the DigiTwin system is still a little uneasy ("He usually never touches it!") but after a few tries his demonstration body scan is printed out. Although he has to become familiar with this digital technique, his work has not really changed. He says, "I am here to make the client feel at ease, make him feel as if he just walked into a fashion store. I make sure there are fresh flowers on the table, I pour them a hot cup of coffee or a glass of wine. Taking a client's size takes about fifteen seconds, but I do not want the client to think that this is an assembly line business."
The costs of a virtual measured suit vary between 850 and 200 guilders. "Made-to-fit clothes at ready-to-wear prices," according to Possen. He is rushed: "I use the same materials, have the same high quality production process, but on taking someone sizes and cutting I gain two weeks time. That is the hourly wage I deduct from the cost price of a suit. This is thirty percent less than the real made-to-fit work. I compete with the confection industry. There is a lot of resistance, especially from the well-known fashion brands, the labels. According to Possen, his concept could have been carried out five years ago. The fashion companies throughout the entire world have sabotaged it. "We stood strong, although many a things that have been said to us, never should have been said." Possen still doesn't really understand why the competition sees him as a threat. "I am not the problem. The problem is that they do not see what the trends are. That individualizing is an actual, continuous trend. They are not up-to-date."
We cannot say that about Possen, that's for sure. His First Mobile Fashion Room, a truck that was transformed into a mobile fitting-room, has already had its world scoop and travels along fairs, companies and conventions to attract men to the scanner. At the end of this year, a 3D-bodyscan will be placed in Possen's shop, which provides women and men with made-to-fit clothing. The young entrepreneur is very confident: "If this trend goes on, as the Internet gurus predict, people will really start making purchases on-line. We will be ready for it!"
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