At The PS Collective, we use Artificial Intelligence to personalize the way clothes are made to cater to every body. We’ve all tried to fit into that pair of jeans that was supposed to be “your'' size and turned out to be anything but. In the case you don’t believe us quite yet, we’ve done our research and we promise you’re not alone! Of the women we interviewed, 70% of them reported difficulties finding proper fitting apparel by designers. Still don’t trust us? Ask the experts in the industry: Mintel says the #1 problem in the Women’s Apparel Industry is sizing and Deloitte says fully customizable apparel could become mainstream by 2030. So yes, we’ve established fit is an issue. How do we fix it? Can technology actually aid in ending this cycle of frustration? 

After numerous hours of research, a deep dive into the latest technologies, many meetings at Le Pain Quotidien, and a ton of product iterations, we developed a novel solution based on a computer vision model that recognizes body shape. Time for a quick mini-lesson: computer vision works by extracting information from images that would otherwise require manual measurements or human vision. Our system extracts 24 measurements from just two photos uploaded on our platform. To refine the measurements extracted, we’re integrating this first step with an additional machine learning algorithm. We developed this second piece by leveraging data from thousands of women collected by a partner company and a leader in the body measurement space. This additional step acts as a check on the data points pulled from the images you send us. And voila! The final step is for your measurements to be sent to the designers once you find a piece that you love. 

So can technology aid in ending your shopping woes? Yes, yes it can but not on its own. It took a little bit of creativity and improvising to get to where we are now which we’d call version 1.0, but we aren’t stopping there. There’s an entire vision and a roadmap to a wholly reimagined shopping experience, but we want you [our customers] to be a part of that journey. Why? Because the best creativity and innovation come about when you bring others to the table. Let’s test and learn together for the advancement of fashion inclusivity and sustainability.