Bobbin visited with three France-based firms earlier this year to learn more about their different approaches to fashion, and their use of CAD/CAM technologies. Here's an overview of what we learned during this Lectra Systèmes-sponsored tour of apparel manufacturer and retailer Weill, apparel retailer and manufacturer Bernard Zins and a fashion trend house, The Carlin Group.

Weill: Innovation through Technology
More than a century after the late Albert and Anna Weill founded their innovative fashion business in 1892, their pioneering legacy continues. The Weills got their start in Paris' garment district doing made-to-measure apparel, but later moved their company to the Montmartre section of Paris, and launched France's prêt-a-porter (ready-to-wear) fashion movement.
On a tour of the Weill headquarters, still located in the same seven-story white-brick building at the foot of Montmartre, Bobbin heard Jean-Pierre Weill, general manager and a fourth-generation member of the founding family, describe the company as a leader in fashion as well as in technology.
Targeting the classic women's market, Weill produces ready-to-wear apparel marketed to women age 50 to 60. The company exports 20 percent of its apparel, with the remaining 80 percent divided among 46 company-owned and franchised boutiques and 50 department store retailers in France.
To remain price competitive, 95 percent of the product line is manufactured in Eastern Europe (Poland, Hungary and Bulgaria) and the remaining 5 percent in the company's plant in Laon, France, which is equipped with an automatic cutting room. Most of the work done there is for small collections, first-of-series orders, recuts and reorders. Weill produces 500 styles twice annually per collection, with 300 to 4,000 garments produced per style for an approximate total of 350,000 garments per year. All of the fabric used in the garments comes exclusively from France and Italy.
The company also is striving to stay competitive through the adoption of CAD/CAM technologies. The firm has implemented Lectra Systèmes' ProStyle software for design, Modaris for grading and Diamino for automated marker making. In addition, on the day of Bobbin's visit, the firm also was implementing Lectra's OMS software, to replace Stylebinder, for product data management.
Weill emphasized that the firm's investment in technology has helped to streamline communication internally, and between its headquarters and its plant in Laon.
Weill's headquarters facility is equipped with 13 graphic workstations, each installed with CAD/CAM software, which is used in the design process from start to finish. (Interestingly, the workstations are nestled in strange juxtaposition to scads of paper patterns lining the rooms and the hallways. Despite their sophisticated technology, said Weill, the paper patterns have to be kept on hand to ship to the firm's international contractors, who do not have Lectra systems.)
A new design can instantly be tried out in several fabrics on screen, and Weill has a library of approximately 3,000 proprietary sketches stored in ProStyle that can be easily retrieved and modified on the computer. When the desired look is achieved, the grading software takes care of the sizing work ? Weill grades from European size 40 to size 52 ? and then the marker is calculated to minimize waste, stated Weill.

Bernard Zins: Making Mass Customization a Reality
To see mass customization in action, Bobbin went on-site at the Bernard Zins in-store shop at Galleries Lafayette, which specializes in men's trousers for the high-end market, but also produces women's pants and ensembles.
Bernard Zins manufactures for its own private label brand as well as for other high-profile brand names, including Pierre Cardin, Yves Saint Laurent, Givenchy and Hermes, to name a few. Moïse Mimoun, the firm's commerce director, Asian exports, explained that 40 percent of the products are exported to the United States, Belgium and Japan.
The store, displaying a wide selection of merchandise ? its collection includes 45 styles ? has been equipped with Lectra's FitNet made-to-measure system for the past two years. If customers don't find what they want in the store, either in size or style, they can order garments through FitNet ? right there in the store, noted Mimoun. Customers can specify size, fabric and style elements, such as pockets. In doing this, they may select from fabrics and apparel styles displayed in the shop or on screen, he added.
Once the customer has entered design and size specifications, the order is validated and sent automatically and immediately over the Internet to the company's manufacturing site, where a production line is dedicated to handling these Internet orders. "Our made-to-measure pants have a two- to three-week delivery time," said Mimoun.
All of the company's manufacturing is done in its plant in Lens, in northern France, which is equipped with an automatic marker making and cutting room. About 350 employees produce 400,000 pairs of pants per year at this facility, using Italian, French and Japanese fabrics.
"Made-to-measure gives the customer exactly what he or she wants, but additionally, it is a fashion trend in and of itself, and appeals to all ages," Mimoun said. The price differential between a made-to-measure pair of pants versus one off the rack is no more than 20 percent, he said, adding that approximately 2 percent to 3 percent of the company's sales are in made-to-measure garments.
The FitNet system has reduced Bernard Zins' cost for made-to-measure manufacturing, and increased business by streamlining the process and reducing the length of the production cycle, Mimoun concluded.
Speaking to the possibilities for the future, Pierre Zins, director of marketing and communications, stated: "I think the potential for growth in made to measure is unlimited. People want high tech and high touch. People still want to feel the fabric and see the clothing in person, but they also want a customized look and feel," he said.

Bureau de Style Carlin: Partnering by Design
With its finger on the global pulse of fashion, The Carlin Group (Bureau de Style Carlin) gathers and synthesizes information from around the world to make predictions about tomorrow's trends.
The company has two main divisions, style and communication, which, respectively, produce a publication called the Trendbook and create individual marketing packages for clients, said president Edith Keller.
Trendbook brings together the research of a worldwide network of agents to identify upcoming trends. Based on the study of major social, aesthetic, economic and artistic movements, the trend guides are basically a culmination of "everything going on around us" with specific emphasis on materials, colors, prints, silhouettes, technical details and innovations, said Keller.
"Trendbooks are prepared 18 months in advance of their appearance on the market," said Keller, and can be interpreted and adapted to any product line, regardless of distribution network. Eighty percent of the publications are sold outside of France, primarily to Italy, the United States and Japan.
On the other side of the business, Carlin's communications division brings its wealth of information to bear on creating collections and promotional campaigns for individual customers, explained Keller. These projects cover the gamut from retail to business-to-business communications. The firm helps clients develop special retail merchandising events, for instance, as well as trade fair exhibits and trend forums.
Designing products for both divisions has been greatly improved and sped up by Carlin's three-year partnership with Lectra, and the use of Lectra's ProStyle design software, said Keller. The technology has improved communications between design and marketing, she said, allowing design concepts such as colors, fabrics and garments to be quickly coordinated with promotional materials.
Where once sketching and coloring could take weeks, it can now be done within one day, Keller stated, adding that various style effects also can be created rapidly.

Jordan K. Speer is associate editor of special projects.