Thinking Technologies To Support the Fashion Manufacturing Industry
17-10-2019
On Tuesday 15th October 2019, Fashion-Enter CEO Jenny Holloway was invited as a guest speaker at the EFI Optitex – ‘Connecting the Supply Chain with 3D’ half-day event. Jenny and the Fashion-Enter team are avid supporters of forward-thinking technologies that develop smarter and leaner foundations for the fashion manufacturing industry.
At the event Jenny is joined by Frazer Mead – Head of Global Sourcing, Shop Direct, Jackie Lewis – Senior Consultant, Alvanon, Dawn Brazier – Fit Development Manager, M&S and Altaf Ahmed – Business Support Manager (Funding), Leicester City Council, all speaking about how Optitex’s 3D tools improves efficiencies, profitability and growth.
So what is EFI Optitex? EFI Optitex provides cutting-edge 2D and 3D pattern design software that combines 2D design and 3D visualization in a single platform. The software allows you to easily draft patterns from scratch or import from other 2D pattern software. You can create or adapt avatars, generate a size set to check fit and check the fit in various positions. Every detail down to the last stitch can be checked on the avatar to ensure the pattern is prepared correctly. Fabric properties and stitch tension are also taken into consideration along with stretch, stitch details and trims. Colours and prints can be easily added using PNG files and the user can create realistic 360-degree views of the finished garment with customised lighting and shadows.
The EFI Optitex team commented:
“What a terrific seminar in Leicester! We were thrilled to host the event and bring together UK’s leading fashion brands, retailers and suppliers. Thanks to all who attended, and of course a special thanks to our speakers.
“Lots was learned about the transformative power of 3D tools for apparel design. We heard important statements coming from industry thought leaders, like Shop Direct, which stated that 70% of orders now come from mobile devices and predicted that 3D will replace the sensory relationship of hard samples; M&S believe in the power of 3D to future-proof businesses; Speakers from Alvanon explained a better consistent fit for industry was their ultimate goal and Fashion-Enter stressed the importance of forward-thinking technologies that develop industry smart foundations and announced the new Optitex 3D course starting at Fashion Technology Academy this month.
“EFI Optitex is proud to bring the fashion supply chain closer and encourage collaboration, innovation and partnerships with the latest digital tools and technologies.”
Fashion-Enter CEO Jenny Holloway addded:
“This was an inspiring event that really reflected how the retail industry is in an eye of disruptive storm but there are ways forward and it’s all about working leaner, smarter and certainly not harder.
“We are hoping that we can create a Micro Factory to show how print and cut work in today’s retail environment with EFI Optitex and also combine with Twine which is where you dye to match thread so there is no wastage of thread cones either.
“This is an exciting time to be in retail but it’s not for the faint hearted and retailers and manufacturers really do need to be joined at the hip! Preparing for the future we are proud to be offering Optitex classes. A huge thank-you to EFI Optitex for inviting me to speak to industry in Leicester.”
The first EFI Optitex credited Level 4 short course will be running at the Fashion Technology Academy from Wednesday 30th, Thursday 31st October and Friday 1st November – 9:00 – 17:00 – to find out more and book a place please contact Stephanie – stephanie@fashion-enter.com
Images courtesy of EFI Optitex
