Is made-to-measure the new black?

Last month high street fashion brand Superdry announced they would enter the made-to-measure market following the success of the NIKEiD marketing strategy. Made-to-measure is a major new area of the fashion industry.

Made-to-measure has been used for centuries as a means of producing garments. It is a mix of pret-a-porter and completely bespoke tailoring, offering a degree of customisation and producing beautiful clothes which are fit to your body and therefore much more personal. The only downside is the price: due to the uniqueness, it becomes expensive and almost exclusive to the wealthier classes.

Since the industrial revolution, standardised sizing has gained prominence, bringing affordable garments to many markets. But with growing populations comes diversity, the need for flexibility and the desire for better fitting clothes for all, not just those who can afford it.

In recent years, computer-aided design (CAD) has significantly helped make made-to-measure more accessible. CAD helps take a customer’s measurements and reproduce designs or patterns for many different garments quickly and accurately. It can also grade patterns for different sizes. There is more interesting information about this in the book Fashion Marketing by fashion guru Mike Easey.

This is why made-to-measure is becoming more affordable, as a growing number of high-street brands are using it as a strategic move to win more market share. Nike is a leading player in this trend, launching NIKEiD, a platform to customise your shoes and accessories from the ground up. Customers can easily select favourite colours, materials and performance options for their shoes. Nike led this trend with the line, “Whatever your sport or style, we’ve got you covered.”

It proved to be a fantastic success for Nike, both from financial and PR perspectives. From a customer’s point of view, I love this campaign! What more can I ask of a brand than being able to buy a personal and customisable product?

I shared this news with my fashion students at The School of Fashion Istituto Marangoni and asked for their opinions: after all, they are more the target customers than I am. The majority agreed that they favour the brand and would definitely visit the store on Regent Street to check it out. However, from a marketing angle some expressed their concerns and doubts towards this move.

I posted this article with my comments on LinkedIn and asked for opinions from marketing and branding professionals. One colleague wondered whether it is a strategic model that high street brands can sustain. Fashion is all about change and made-to-measure could prove to be a short-lived trend.

I have to agree with my colleague regarding this. Made-to measure has always been associated with the high-end designer market, so I do wonder whether it can fully become adaptable across high street brands.

This reminds me of a tailoring client on Savile Row we’ve been working with over the past five months. Made-to-measure is expensive because it requires highly trained staff to deliver the service. Our client invests a lot of money to hire the right people to measure, cut and make the suits. CAD can make things faster but at the same time there is a cost to set up and adapt to the technology. To invest money in something that might not be easy to sustain might be an issue that high street fashion brands need to consider.

Personally, I hope it will soon be a strategy adapted by a wider range of brands so we can all afford customised designer clothes. How about you? Do you think made-to-measure is the new black? Leave your comments below and let me know what you think!