Exploring the factors influencing consumers’ virtual garment fit satisfactions

Purpose Virtual garment fit will be an important determinant for the online purchase decision of consumers in the near future. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to develop a conceptual model to explore the factors that might impact consumers’ virtual garment fit satisfactions (VFS). Design/methodology/approach Virtual body satisfaction (VBS), acceptance of the virtual try-on technology and virtual fabric properties were examined as factors that would potentially impact consumers’ VFS. Forty-five women, from 18 to 35 years old, were recruited for the study. Participants were scanned by using a 3D body scanner and their scans were used for virtual try-on. Seven circular skirts with different fabric properties were created by using a commercial 3D simulation software. Participants evaluated the fit of these virtual skirts on their own virtual bodies. Participants’ VFSs and their correlations with VBSs, acceptance of virtual try-on technology and virtual fabric properties were analyzed by Pearson’s correlation test. Findings Participants’ VBSs at hips were correlated fairly good with their VFSs (r = 0.50, N = 180, p < 0.01) and their acceptance of virtual try-on technology was weakly correlated to VFSs (r = 0.24, N = 180, p < 0.01). However, no significant correlation was found between virtual fabric properties and participants’ VFSs. Research limitations/implications This study did not examine the ideal beauty notion, which may affect consumers’ expectations about how the garments should fit on them. Another limitation was the use of a single skirt design as a stimulus. Originality/value Studies that explore virtual garment fit often measure the garment ease or the virtual fabric tension and ignore consumer perspective, which is essential for online purchase decision. This study is unique as it prioritizes consumers’ perspectives.

Methods to digitizing physical properties of fabric for virtual simulation

This investigation is undertaken based on the indicated improvements for fabric simulations. According to the expert opinions, there is no coherency between methods used to measure the fabric properties and the simulated results of the same fabric among the different software packages. In praxis, fashion brands use different 3D software packages and need to measure a fabric with different methods to obtain the same fabric properties. In addition to the time investment, the simulated results for the same fabric vary significantly between the different software packages. The experts indicated the lack of standardization in material measurements, the lack of correlation between the data of the different measurement systems, and the lack of correlation between the simulated results of the different software packages for the same material. This paper investigates, on the one hand, the suitability of the two measurement technologies for retrieving fabric parameters for precise virtual fabric and garment simulations. The focus is on the main properties required by the software packages - bending, shear, tensile and friction-aiming to identify and specify the most suitable methods to retrieve mechanical fabric properties and to start a standardization process for fabric measurements for virtual simulations.

Computer simulation and system realization of jacquard weft-knitted fabric

Jacquard weft-knitted fabric is a type of multilayer knitting fabric which has a stereoscopic surface with complex patterns. A computer simulation system was established, based on a virtual fabric Unity3D platform, to minimize the time required for computer simulation and to enhance the simulation results. The three-dimensional fabric data were unified and coordinate data were obtained to achieve the establishment. Three factors of simulation algorithm for jacquard weft-knitted fabric were used to establish and control the effect of a fabric model. By integrating three-dimensional model data, two-dimensional spatial data, and gray model, virtual simulation based on three-dimensional engine Unity3D platform was realized. Based on the real-fabric data, the final fabric patterns were predicted from macroscopic angle instead of two-dimensional and microscopic simulations. The system is proved to be more effective for the prediction and simulation of jacquard weft-knitted fabric and other fabrics having similar stereoscopic surfaces.

Comparative analysis of drape characteristics of actually and virtually draped fabrics

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to compare real fabric drape images and virtual fabric drape images created by a commercial software. To achieve an in-depth comparison, actual and virtual drape shape properties were considered under three categories: drape area, number of nodes and shape of folds. The results of this research are expected to be useful to improve the reality and accuracy of fabric and garment. Design/methodology/approach Five different fabrics were selected for this study. Fabrics’ mechanical properties were tested by fabric assurance for simple testing method, while drape properties were measured by a Cusick drape meter. A commercial garment simulation was used to generate virtual fabric drapes. Real fabric drape images and virtual fabric drape images were analyzed by an image analysis software and results were used to calculate drape properties. Regression analysis was performed to compare real fabric drape and virtual fabric drape properties. Findings Differences between real fabric drape and virtual fabric drape were stated clearly. Simulation software was found to be insufficient to reflect drape area. However, simulations were quite successful corresponding to the number of nodes. Only one simulation had +2 nodes than its actual counterpart. This study showed that area and node shape representations of simulation software should be improved while node numbers are sufficiently represented. Research limitations/implications There are alternative 3D garment simulation software available to the fashion business. All these companies are working on to improve their simulation reality and accuracy. Some of them are also offering various equipment to measure the fabric properties. In this study, Optitex 3D Suite was selected as the simulation software due to several reasons as explained in this paper. However, other simulation programs might also be employed to perform virtual fabric drapes. Furthermore, in this study, the drape images of five woven fabrics were compared. The fabric selection was done according to a pre-test and consequently similar fabrics were determined to be the subject of the study. However, the more the number of the fabrics, the better the comparison and eventually the better the assessment of simulation success. Therefore, it is prospected to test more fabrics with versatile fabric properties for further studies. Originality/value Drape shape was observed from three perspectives: drape area, node numbers, and node shapes. Dealing the problem from these perspectives provided an in-depth comparison of real and virtual drapes. In this study, standard deviation of peak angles was used to explain node distribution that is new to the literature to the authors’ knowledge.