Original article

Textile Research Journal

2016, Vol. 86(16) 1710–1715

A garment design method based ! The Author(s) 2016

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on modularization DOI: 10.1177/0040517515595027
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Haimei Zhou, Yanni Xu, Lichuan Wang and Yan Chen

Abstract
With the rapid increase of personalized garment requirements, intelligent garment design has attracted more and more
attention. The study reported in this paper concentrates on the modularized design method of garments in order to
provide theoretical support for intelligent garment design. The proposed modularized design method consists of com-
position and transformation of garment parts as well as their configuration and connection. There are two categories of
garment parts: essential parts and non-essential parts, each of which is determined by their key design attributes. Rules of
transformation for garment parts were analyzed by classification of transformation rules. Binary decision variables were
introduced to decide if garment parts should be selected. A mathematical model was developed to analyze constraints of
garment parts connection.

Keywords
modularized design, product configuration, garment design, intelligent system, collaborative design

A rapid development in the area of computer-aided
intelligent systems has been seen in recent years, largely
as a consequence of the increasing emphasis on the
customization of goods. Modularized systems, stem-
ming from intelligent design research, have been
found to facilitate rapid response to market changes,
shortening the time required for both the product
design and manufacturing phases. The system can
also improve the product quality and reliability as
well as facilitate the disassembly and remanufacturing
of products.1
Many researchers have advocated modularized
design methods in order to facilitate design activities
in a variety of fields. Their research activities generally
targeted mechanical and electrical product design, and
they either chose a product family and mathematical
optimization model or constructed matrices to achieve
modularized design.2–5
Modularized design is a process of deconstruction
and reconfiguration. This method which can be applied
to garment design will make designing process easier.
With intensive study of modularized design and the
personalized requirement of clothing, the method of
modularized design has been adopted gradually in fash-
ion design industry. An interactive genetic algorithm
was applied to modularized garment design method in
order to enrich the diversity of garment design. 6,7
Dimension error and B-3 spine curve were used to
limit errors which might potentially occur in the process
by connecting different garment parts.8,9
The traditional process of fashion design is con-
ducted by designers who have professional knowledge
and unique understanding of fashion. During the
design process, they have to combine design knowledge
with that of customer demand, which is gathered from
market research. This is a time-consuming process,
while customer preference is ever-changing over time.
If clothing products cannot satisfy customer needs, a
large amount of apparel stock will be produced, which
is fatal for the sustainable development of apparel
enterprises. As a result, a system that can facilitate
College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow University, Suzhou,
China
Corresponding author:
Yan Chen, College of Textile and Clothing Engineering, Soochow
University, No. 178 Gan Jiang Dong Road, Northern campus, Letter
Box 106, 215021 Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, China.
Email: yanchen@suda.edu.cn
Zhou et al.
the garment design process is necessary to solve these
conflicts in the apparel industry.
In this paper, a modularized garment design method
is proposed to quickly and easily design clothing
through knowledge-based classification, transforma-
tion, and connection of garment parts. By identifying
the relevant attributes of garment parts concerned in
design, garment parts were classified into two cate-
gories, namely essential parts and non-essential parts.
Binary decision variables are introduced to decide if
garment parts should be selected or not according to
the specific garment type. A mathematical model is
developed to analyze the relationship between two dif-
ferent parts and the constraints on garment parts
connection.
Domain-specific knowledge is not needed to design
a garment through this modularized design method.
So, normal customers as well as designers are able to
design garments for their own preference. This will con-
tribute to the sustainable development of garment
enterprises.
Process of modularized garment design
Modularized garment design involves the division of a
garment into several parts based on functional analysis
of the different parts of a garment. Each part contains
many examples of different performances and specifica-
tions. Then, a customer’s requirement, preference, or
design goal can be achieved by assembling and mutat-
ing relevant garment parts.
Figure 1 illustrates the flow chart of modularized
design. According to customer’s preference or design
goal, the system searches for original costumed garment
parts from a garment parts database which is
Start
Customer requirement
Operaon of Garment parts database
Select
garment parts
Connect Constraints of connection
Mutate Display
Clothing engineering and
design knowledge
N Is customer satisfied
with the design?
Y role of decoration or other optional functions.
Final design
End
Figure 1. Flow chart of modularized garment design.
1711
formulated before the design process. In order to
achieve a complete garment design, these garment
parts should be combined together based on connection
constraints, which are summarized from clothing engi-
neering and design knowledge. If the garment design
outcomes satisfy the customer’s requirements, or
achieve design goals, then this modularized garment
design process will be finished. Otherwise, the process
of mutating and combining should be continued until
the goal is achieved.
A user can design customer-oriented garments
quickly and flexibly through this garment design
method. Adding one specific part will result in many
garment designs in increasing complexity of choice,
which will largely satisfy different requirements of cus-
tomers or designers. An archive of relationships
between requisite garment design outcomes and gar-
ment design solutions accepted by customers makes
possible the fast preparation of similar solutions for
future design tasks. This modularized garment design
method can apply to multiple situations as long as the
relevancy of requirements and parts are saved and
updated. Thus, modularized garment design can
become an important means for customers to realize
personalized requirements of garment.
Composition and transformation of
garment parts
All garment parts belong to either essential part or non-
essential part categories. Essential parts are those that
are basic and exist in every garment. In contrast to
essential parts, non-essential parts are optional in appa-
rel, which means they can be chosen or not in a design
process. So, the following rules should be obeyed
during the division process of garment parts:
1. Division of garment parts should be to a moderate
degree. Too many garment parts will lead to a more
complicated process of connection and design and
vice versa.
2. Essential parts should be decided based on
human body parts. The basic function of a garment
is to wrap the human body, and the human
body consists of several parts. So, essential parts
should be determined based on human body
components.
3. Non-essential parts should be decided according to
their function as most non-essential parts fulfil the
4. Division of garment parts should meet the require-
ments of clothing production. The final demand of
a customer is to obtain an item of clothing that can
be worn, so rules of clothing production are
suggested.
1712 Textile Research Journal 86(16)

Table 1. Composition of garment parts

Part type Coding Part name Key design attributes

Essential part S1 Collar Type, length, width

S2 Body Shape, length, bust, front fly, waistline, hem
S3 Sleeve Type, length, cuff
S4 Waist Waist level, waistline
S5 Hem Type, level, width
S6 Front pant Shape, length, crotch length, waist level
S7 Back pant Shape, length, crotch length, waist level
S8 Skirt body Shape, length, cut, dart and pleat
Non-essential part P1 Pocket Pocket level, type, size, number
P2 Color and pattern Level, type, size, number
P3 Decoration and accessory Level, type, size, number
P4 Decorative seam Level, type, size

Through following the above rules, we divide a gar-

ment into 12 parts, as shown in Table 1. Part details are
determined by their key design attributes, which are
changeable according to different customers’ preference
and evaluation.10 Once each controlled attribute has a
certain value, the part will have certain details. That is
to say, changing attributes value will lead to more gar-
ment design results. When all controlled attribute
values of a part are set as zero, this design will be a
part-less design. For example, in a collarless shirt
design all the key design attribute values of the collar
are zero.
Figure 2 provides an example of the key design attri-
butes of a garment body part. For a body part, the
key attributes are its type, length, bust, and front fly.
Figure 2 also shows the location of garment pattern
and its association with other garment parts, which
will be discussed below.
In some cases, key design attributes cannot satisfy
special customer requirements or achieve a design goal,
so transformation of parts is needed. Based on field-
specific knowledge, garment part transformation can
include segmentation and expanding, dart transferring,
adding pleats, special transformation, and integrated
transformation.
1. Segmentation and expanding. Segmentation is to
get more diversified clothing lines through cutting
and opening out garment pattern. Adding
extra width into the opened section is expanding,
which is finished by adjusting these lines to be
smooth.11
2. Dart transferring. Dart transferring is to close the
original dart and open the same angle as another
dart in preferred section.
3. Adding pleats. Adding pleats is to add more ease at
one connection part but not change the size of the
# Garment part:
S 2 - Body part-160/84A
# Key design attributes:
Type: H line
Length: 55cm
Bust: 84cm
Waistline: 80cm
Front fly: straight fly
# pattern file:
/…/part pattern/body part/H line/
# Associate garment parts:
S1, S3, S4,S5
Figure 2. Design attributes of a body part.
corresponding connecting part. As a result, this con-
nection part will show the fold effect.
4. Special transformation. Besides the above transfor-
mations, more exaggerated element can be used in
garment parts, for example sculpture elements and
geometrical elements. This special transformation
can result in special style garment.
5. Integrated transformation. Integrating several of the
above transformations can be called integrated
transformation, which will make garment design
more complicated and diversified.
Every part transformation is independent of
other parts that would lead to another design of this
part, which means another design of garment. As a
result, the garment designs will be enlarged greatly
in order to satisfy the diversified customers’
requirements.
Zhou et al. 1713

Configuration and connection of garment
parts
After dividing a garment into parts and determining the
key design attributes, the system has a garment part
database which enables garment design to become the
configuration and connection of garment parts based
on customer requirements.
Different kinds of garment have different essential
parts. So, in order to facilitate the recognition of
the configuration of garment parts, a binary decision
variable is used to decide which parts should be config-
ured, i.e.
0
ij ¼ 1 i ¼ s, p, j ¼ 1, 2, . . . n
where  ij ¼ 1 represents the case that the ij part is con-
figured, while for  ij ¼ 0 it is not configured. During the
design process, all the essential parts are present, but
each part has a binary decision variable value to deter-
mine if the part is configured or not. Non-essential
parts are in large quantity without a certain  ij
value, so we set that all non-essential parts are not
configured in the initial design. Thus, the default is
 ip ¼ 0. When customers want some kinds or variety
of decorative elements, the system changes the value
of a non-essential part binary decision variable with
setting  ip ¼ 1. This non-essential part will then be
configured.
Table 2 lists several common garment part
configurations. It can be seen from the table that dif-
ferent types of clothing have different configurations of
essential parts. The configuration process is influenced
by the covered part of the human body. Non-essential
parts can be both configured and not configured. But in
specific designs, the configuration of the non-
essential part is determined according to consumer
requirements.
After determining the configuration of parts, these
parts will also need to be linked up. Simple stitching
can connect different parts together in a design sketch.
But to connect parts in real production, the system will
need the support of a garment pattern. The definition of
the garment junction is as follows:
Rij ¼fid, M, T, V, Mug, i¼ 1, 2, . . . , n, j¼ 1, 2, . . . m
ð2Þ
where Rij is the j-th junction of the i part, id is the
identification of the connection site, M is the part
that the junction belongs to, T ¼ {t1, t2, . . ., tj} is a set
of attributes of the junction including the junction
shape, location, size, etc, V ¼ {v1, v2, . . ., vj} is the
value set of all the attributes above, and Mu ¼ {Mu1,
Mu2,. . ., Muj} is a set of parts which will connect to this
part.
ð1Þ Before the process of connection for garment parts,
the connecting relationship among the interconnected
parts should be determined. Each junction in one gar-
ment part has a unique corresponding junction in
another part connected to this one. This relation is
determined by the production knowledge of the gar-
ment. These connective relations need to be stored in
a computer.
If part M1 is connect with part M2 (Figure 3), there
exists a unique connection between id1 and Mu2 . When
part M2 has several junctions which need to connect
with a number of parts, each junction of part M2 has
a unique connection with other junction of other parts.
Part M1
Part M2
Figure 3. Linking rule of garment parts.

Table 2. Part configurations of different garments

Essential part Non-essential part

Garment S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 S7 S8 P1 P2 P3 P4

Top wear ˇ ˇ ˇ ˇ ˇ    * * * *
Pant    ˇ  ˇ ˇ  * * * *
Skirt    ˇ ˇ   ˇ * * * *
Dress ˇ ˇ ˇ ˇ ˇ   ˇ * * * *
Note: ˇ indicates that the part is configured,  indicates that the part is not configured, * indicates that the part is optional.
1714
Figure 4. A modularized design process for garment design.
After determining the connection between parts, the
implementation of this connection is needed. The size
or shape of garment pattern will be changed as a result
of this part transformation. Therefore, it should be
ensured that the shape and size of two parts are such
that they can become a pair. To facilitate the connec-
tion, all the darts, pleats, and other elements are set to
be completed or closed initially. So the constraint of
part connections is to maintain the value of junction
attribute variables consistent, as shown in the shaded
part of Figure 3:
( < sj ¼ 1,
ti ¼ tj
i ¼ 1, 2, . . . , , R, j ¼ 1, 2, . . . , , J
VAti ¼ VBtj
where ti and tj are the elements of sets TA, TB, R and J
are the total number of elements in the set, and ti ¼ tj
indicates that both describe the same attribute variable.
VAti ¼ VBtj means two attribute variable values are
equivalent or match, e.g. the junction sizes are equal
and the types and shapes match the others. In sum-
mary, by finding the connection relationship between
parts and then making sure of the consistency of the
connection attribute variables, we can complete the
connection between parts.
Textile Research Journal 86(16)
Application of modularized garment
design method
This design method can be applied to the process of
most garment design. Figure 4 indicates the modular-
ized design method applied to a female jacket design
process. The customer need is assumed to be a simple,
casual, and neutral female jacket. According to the gar-
ment type, the binary decision variables value of each
part can be obtained as follows:
8
> j ¼ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
sj ¼ 0, j ¼ 6, 7, 8
ð3Þ >
:
pj ¼ 1, j ¼ 1, 2, 3, 4
After input of these requirements, the modularized
design method will search for the most qualified gar-
ment parts from the garment parts database to combine
together into an initial design. Every garment part in
database has a unique identification. Figure 4 illustrates
an example of a lapel collar. To connect these parts
together into a garment design sketch, connection con-
straints of garment production should be followed.
All design results are visible to the user so that they
can have a direct influence on the design result. If the
Zhou et al.
customer is satisfied with this design, the design process
will finish. Otherwise, the customer should give some
comments on the initial design. In this application, the
sleeve is required to be looser. So transformation takes
place on the sleeve. To make sure the transformation is
viable, equation (3) is followed with tS21 ¼tS31 ,
tS22 ¼tS32 , where ts21 and ts31 are the length of armhole
and the length of sleeve top, respectively, and ts22 and
ts32 are the shape of armhole and sleeve top,
respectively.
According to the detailed requirement, the system
can mutate original garment parts and then display
the second design. The system should loop this process
until the satisfaction of the customer is reached.
Conclusion
In the modularized garment design process, garment
parts should be configured and transformed based on
costumer requirements or design goal, and then to
accomplish connection issues between the garment
parts. A garment is divided into eight essential parts
and four non-essential parts. Each part has several
internal key design attributes to determine the specific
form of the part, based on which a diversity of garment
design outcomes can be achieved through a variety of
transformations. In this paper, part transformation was
classified and binary decision variables were adopted to
determine the configuration of the various garment
parts.
In the aspect of garment part connection, we built a
part junction model. Mathematical symbols were used
to express descriptive attributes of garment parts,
including the name of the junctions, the identification
of parts, attributes of junctions, and so on. Based on
field-specific knowledge of garment production, the
system could accomplish the connections and finish a
customer- or designer-oriented garment design.
The system is expected to be applied in the garment
design, production, and marketing industries. The
design method also can be applied to other domains
to make the design process easier. One of the inherent
limitations is that the design result may not be success-
ful. This can be solved by many methods, such as dig-
ging out the relationship between garment part and
customer preference. However, because of the huge
number of garment parts, the task would be a huge
one which requires more study and research. So,
future research should focus on establishment of rela-
tionship between garment parts and customer
preference.
However, as people’s ideas on fashion vary year by
year, the knowledge concerned in garment design may
be changed. Also, the modularized design is only part
1715
of intelligent fashion design which involves a variety of
fashion design resources. In order to optimize the intel-
ligent fashion design method, future study should focus
on the expansion of garment design knowledge and
development of an efficient procedure for constructing
an expert knowledge base and automatic adaption of
the rules.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with
respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Funding
The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial sup-
port for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article: This work was supported by the Cooperative
Innovation Fund of Jiangsu Province (grant number
BY2012115).
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