Jamal Motlagh has never touched a sewing machine or taken a clothing design course but that’s not stopping him from attempting to revolutionize how you buy your next pair of jeans – with a 3D imaging machine. It all started last Fall when Motlagh, a Harvard Business School student, conducted a study about fashion and the results showed that consumers struggle to find jeans that fit right. He saw an opportunity in a marketplace that he’s always been interested in, especially with his own cool California style. After talking with other HBS buddies about how to help his friends get a good pair of jeans, it came to him, 3D body imaging for jeans. His mission is to create technologically advanced custom fitted clothing and provide a simpler and consumer friendlier shopping experience. Currently, the name of the company is Fitted Fashion.
Motlagh believes that through advanced technology and custom created jeans Fitted Fashion can satisfy many of the needs of jean shoppers, from fit issues to shopping experience. “Me Commerce,” the idea that through the internet consumers can get custom and personalized items, has exploded as a fashion trend – from shoe companies (Nike and Adidas) and custom made jewelry sites such as Gemvara, it has become common for consumers to empower their own sense of fashion and style through their own custom clothing.
In general, the jeans market is over $17 billion and is expected to grow 18% until 2012, so Motlagh wants to get in on some of the action. Motlagh plans on opening up his first store in North Carolina later this year, and partnering with other retail boutiques where customers can come in and get body imaged. The machine itself will run him anywhere from $15,000-$30,000.
After the body imaging, consumers will be able to browse display jeans (each with various materials and styles: boot cut to skinny and washes: distressed to raw) which can be custom created and fitted for their clients. The associate will take this opportunity to get personal data (email, address, etc) about clients so they can securely associate their body image with their data online. Customers can also shop and purchase from a small selection of accessories and clothing in stock at our stores. The whole shopping experience will take ten minutes. After the customer has placed their orders the jeans can be shipped either directly to them or they can pick them up in the store on average 2-3 weeks later. The best part is, Fitted Fashion will keep your measurements so you can order more jeans without coming back. Fitted Fashion has already created a few hundred prototypes of the jeans, and has also sold a few custom men’s dress suits and shirts.
Motlagh’s co-founder previously worked on the operational and production side of creating custom fitted jeans from body images and has perfected the software behind the technology. The two saw complimentary skills in one another and a shared vision. They decided to team up and create an easier and stylish way to buy jeans and purchase clothing online.
In case you are wondering, the body imaging machines are safe (using white light) and don’t capture naked images of you. To learn more and maybe order a pair of jeans email Jamal at fittedfashion@gmail.com.
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