Custlr is bringing custom-to-wear to the masses

TAILORING IN MALAYSIA has just gotten just a bit more high-tech. A local app has been developed to improve the user experience of online retail consumers and help them discover a better-fitting garments without the extra costs.

The Custlr app will digitize the traditional garment buying experience: users can access an advanced fitting algorithm that will customize their measurements accurately and without a physical visit to a store. Custlr was designed with the intention to offer a couture-like experience to customers without couture-pricing.

“The problem with purchasing online is that often times, some part of the clothing doesn’t fit you as it should be. Good quality tailor-to-made apparel are generally expensive, especially if you purchase from high fashion brand retailers,” Custlr CEO and director Daniel Chua said in a statement

“With our in-house ready-to-patent algorithm, we eliminate this uncertainty, while offering you customizability to suit exactly what you want at an affordable price.” Chua said.

Through the app, consumers will be connected with a tailor who will produce the company’s products. Custlr “crowdsources” these skills from groups of unemployed individuals with the necessary skills, and housewives. These individuals will be given further training in not only measuring, but the actual work of tailoring.

By working through non-professional tailors, Custlr is able to pull down prices

According to the North American retailer, Sal Lauretta, custom dress shirts could typically run up to costs between US$150 to US$500. Those prices will likely be even higher in Asia, where these types of garments may be imported or factory-made fashion is more widely available. In comparison, a look at Custlr’s app indicated that shirts typically run at RM79.90 per shirt.

Chua said that he started developing the app when he realized that the option to buy ready-to-wear garments that fit well and didn’t cost the sun and moon were still missing from the marketplace.

The app works off various proprietary softwares and equations that are able to measure a customer’s precise measurements through their “A4 fit algorithm” – which works off photographs comparing customers’ bodies against a sheet of paper – or a “Custom Measurements” feature, into which customers will be prompted to input their details.

“With Custlr, we have developed a new ecosystem that offers convenience in purchasing fitting clothing,” Chua said.

“We saw an increasing demand and have decided to extend an opportunity to the community and personal tailors to become entrepreneurs and skilled tailors.”

The app represents one of the latest developments in fashion technology, where innovators are trying to disrupt how consumers access and experience retail. Fashion corporations have been exploring the boundaries of how garments can be produced and how value can be added for consumers.

Retailers have collaborated with celebrities, art museums and haute couture designers to produce new works, while also implementing store-side technologies such as virtual and augmented reality tech that can enhance consumers’ fitting experience.

Others have taken more innovative routes to enhancing the store experience such as Adidas, who launched an in-store project called “Knight for You” back in March this year. The project challenged the conventional wisdom of how the fashion supply chain works by allowing customers to buy custom sweaters made on an in-store machine.

Custlr could help challenge and transform the way consumers today shop by bringing them better fitting fashion for lower costs, and could potentially find an audience among established retailers who could include such services into their own businesses.

The app is currently available on Android operating systems, while iOS and web browser versions are in the works.

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