Continuum Fashion · 2012–2015
A browser-based 3D tool that let anyone design and order a one-of-a-kind printed dress — no fashion or software experience required.
Fashion as software
I designed the product so the hard parts stayed invisible and the creative part felt effortless.
Users could drop an image onto a dress, choose some different styles, and order their dress custom made. Behind the scenes, the order was exported into a print-ready pattern that was inkjet-printed onto fabric, then cut and sewn.
The detail that set us apart: artwork mapped seamlessly across every cut piece of a tailored dress, not just printed flat onto a t-shirt. Lining up the pattern across seams is conventionally extremely tedious and sometimes impossible. We achieved this by borrowing texture mapping techniques from animation to achieve a 360 wrap.
Printing on demand also meant zero inventory and infinite variety. And special delightful features. Customers loved getting their own name printed right into the dress label.
Outcome
12,000 people designed over 35,000 dresses — most of whom had never touched a design tool before.
Designed and built end-to-end
I designed and coded the full product in Ruby on Rails and Three.js — plus the logo, the photography, every garment and 3D model, and the core image-processing scripts that made the seamless prints possible. I also shipped orders and provided customer service.
Wearing every hat taught me how interaction design, manufacturing, and brand all have to resolve into one seamless experience for the customer.
The work earned a spot in Techstars Boston 2013 and press in The New York Times, Wired, the Creators Project, Huffington Post, Slate, and Mashable — driving organic growth with no paid marketing.
The eventual blocker was supply chain. The printable fabric we relied on was discontinued, and I wound the service down.
Highlights
CONSTRVCT software and a sample textile print were collected and exhibited by the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum in their inaugural show, "Beautiful Users."
Felicia Day wore a CONSTRVCT dress for the cover photo of her book. The print is a photo of an op-amp circuit.
A Boston paper did a photoshoot with one of our dresses and an MIT robot.