Republic Luna | yuanqingtian

title. Republic Luna: Parametric Design Method for Personalized Bras

date. May 2019

city. Atlanta

designer. Yuanqing Tian

Publications:

Tian, Y., & Ball, R. (2020). Parametric Design Method for Personalized Bras. In F. Rebelo & M. Soares (Eds.), Advances in Ergonomics in Design (pp. 145–151). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51038-1_21
Soares, M.M., Rebelo, F., & Ahram, T.Z. (2022). Handbook of Usability and User Experience: Research and Case Studies (1st ed.). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429343513

Republic Luna is a proposed start-up concept from my Master Thesis project. This project develops a parametric bra personalization algorithm along with a univariate self-measure approach, to provide better fit bras for all ranges of ladies and enhance the user experience on bra personalization service.

ABOUT.

Please watch the following commercial video for your quickly understanding.

< Back to Projects

ABSTRACT.

One of the important issues in the bra industry is the size fitting problem, which results in discomfort and dissatisfaction among women users. Studies have shown that over 80% of women wear wrong-sized bras, because the traditional way of bra sizing cannot serve the entire range of all women’s body shapes. An optimized custom sizing method could result in better-fitting bras and significantly enhance its wearer’s wellbeing and health. This study develops a parametric personalized bra design algorithm that can generate personalized bra by using self-measurements of women users. In this study, we investigate the bra industry to develop a new self-measuring approach and create a parametric modeling method to design personalized bras. To evaluate the capacity and the accuracy of this algorithm, we compare the measurements from 3D printed bra prototypes with the self-measurements of the women participants. The preliminary result of this study shows that the parametric personalized bra design algorithm can generate more accurate bra models for different types of body shapes.

PROBLEMS.

Currently used method of determining bra sizes is following the traditional way of band size and cup size measurements, and it appears to be unreliable in majority of the time – that 70% or more of women wear the wrong size bra is reported.

Specifically, this traditional method in which cup size is represented by a letter such as A, B, C, etc., and band size is determined by measuring the chest circumference below the breasts and around the torso. The band size interval is five inches while the difference between chest circumference and bust circumference indicates the cup size letter (Pechter, 1999). Such method essentially divides the numerous breast dimensions and rounds them into specific ranges, so that there are many ladies buy the bra with sizes that are defined discontinuously and are not specifically fit to their own measurements. Although the current bra sizing system has been kept setting into more and more elaborated ranges, as we can see more detailed cup sizes like DD and AA, it still cannot cover the outliers such as ladies who may have a gigantomastia – the breast weight is over 3% of her body weight (Castillo, 2015), not to say that everyone has an asymmetry problem on breasts more or less.

MOTIVATION.

The goal of this study is to develop a parametric bra design algorithm that can create a personalized bra design for individual woman by using their self-taken body measurements. This personalized algorithm requires acquiring accurate body measurement data, manipulating and analyzing the data, and morphing the CAD (Computer-Aided Design) bra model accordingly. With the algorithm, women wearers won’t need to sacrifice their comfort by wearing standard sizes. Instead, the algorithmic system will generate the bra model in exact sizes to fit women wearers. To accomplish the goal, we specifically focus on three tasks:

Construct a self-measuring approach which can collect adequate and accurate data on breast shape and size.
Establish a parametric algorithm for personalized bras.
Evaluate the algorithm by comparing the dimensions between the self-taken measurements and a 3D printed bra prototype.

EXPLORATION.

The tasks of this project require a fundamental knowledge of the women’s breast anthropometry, commercial bra design, and parametric design methods. A well-balanced synthesis of these elements will help us acquire accurate univariate self-measurement data from the subjects and integrate their data into the 3D parametric design algorithm.

ALGORITHM.

The parametric modeling is, essentially, an algorithmic function containing logical relationships between parameters and corresponding outcomes. The parameters can be viewed as core independent variables, while the outcome is the dependent variable. In Grasshopper, the outcome is normally a geometrical model that displayed on Rhino. Noteworthy, it is not that each parameter controls the outcome individually but instead the changing values of parameters coordinate together to construct the expected geometry outcome. Apparently in this project, the adjustable digital bra model is the outcome, whereas the measurements taken from users are served as the inputting values of parameters. These parameters are namely the arc length that the users need to measure, corresponding with the contour length on the mannequin model which compose the original bra model. Hence, it is very easy to understand the mechanism of this bra customizing system, that the measurements input will cause the bra model to change accordingly by following the geometrical algorithm within the system.

BRANDING.

After developing the parametric algorithm system, we began to complete the user experience in this project. We aim at the real B2C (Business to Consumers) journey for the bra customization, which includes the branding development, business model, visual effects and the user experience platform. We proposed that the customers can seamlessly work online easily and quickly to get their customized bras. Therefore, we chose website design to provide the service. In this phase, we accomplished the tasks of intruding the brand to customers, guiding them to input their measurements without pressure of scanning and being embarrassing in public and quickly get access to the bras.

EVALUATION.

In general, the measurement results of 3D printed bra prototypes turned out to be accurate compared to the collected data. In order to make the measuring convenient, we thickened all the bra model surface inwards by 3 mms, so that we were able to measure on the bra prototype surface with masking tape and wrote down the results as well.

The results of the user test using 3D print prototypes gave us a direct visualization on the algorithm performance in terms of the lengths and dimensions. There is still space for us to optimize the design, to improve the accuracy, include more necessary dimensions and design aspects

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.

I would like to express my deepest appreciation to all those who provided me the opportunity to complete this project.

A special gratitude I give to my advisor, Professor Roger Ball, whose excellent guidance throughout my works and encouragement on my design decision, helped me on coordinating my project especially in exploring the topic and research. I would also like to acknowledge with many thanks to the crucial roles of my Master’s committee members, Lisa Marks and Yaling Liu, who contributed their knowledge to help me with Grasshopper parametric methods and gave me highly support on bra pattern design. Without their devotions, I would have not completed this project with such accomplishment.

Furthermore, many thanks go to those lovely schoolmates who assisted me in finishing the tasks of user test study; Xiaoshen Wang as my friend and classmate who had always been discussing the parametric methods with me; And my dear boyfriend Mr. Fan Geng who intensely encourages me all the time. Finally, I appreciate my parents who were always having my back and gave me the warmest support and wise advice.