PATTERN ROOM | by Sample Room

A new tech product by a small Australian business is providing fashion and clothing producers across the globe a solution to reduce their environmental impact, and to reduce costs.

AFC Member Julia Van Der Sommen, Director of Sample room is a 25-year industry veteran. Noticing a shift to greater awareness of the provenance of clothes through her Melbourne-based ethically-accredited business, Sample Room. Ms Van Der Sommen has created a new tech product with her team that she believes will change the way designers and manufacturers approach development.

The global clothing industry is regularly singled-out for its impact on the environment and use of low-cost labour in developing countries.

Pattern Room was launched in June this year with an ambitious goal to make a significant difference to the environmental and ethical impact of the development and production of clothing, not just fashion.

Pattern Room is an on-line catalogue of commercially-ready clothing patterns that provide the opportunity to both reduce the development time and cost of clothing and also to help enhance the fit of the clothing, poor fit being a significant contributor to clothing waste.

Ms Van Der Sommen said the new website was a seven-year project that will change the way designers and manufacturers approach development by:

-        Giving access to tens of thousands of pre-tested, ready-fitted commercial patterns

-        Reducing waste and cost by streamlining development of many clothing items

-        Improve fit across the range which will improve sales and reduce ‘end of season’ waste

With more than 42,000 patterns available at launch, Ms Van Der Sommen and her team are working on more designs to make available and has estimated that the number of ready-to-go patterns will climb to more than six million in the years ahead.

Ms Van Der Sommen is confident that users of Pattern Room will be able to significantly reduce development costs and increase their sales through improved fit across their ranges.

Want More?

If you’d like to learn more about Pattern Room get in touch with the team at info@patternroom.com or visit their website below. You can also follow Pattern Room on Instagram and Facebook for inspo and updates!