Knowledge-based interactive design for men´s suit

In this paper, The design knowledge and sensory knowledge related to men´s suit were elicited and acquired from designers by interviewing, laddering and card sorting etc.. The former included design elements and design rules, and the latter referred to the sensory image and semantic space. Design elements of Men´s suit were discussed and divided into nine parts: silhouette, style line of collar, fall, break point, rever position, facing corner, bust pocket, waist pocket and decoration. The sensory image related to men´s suit was represented by four word-pairs: formal- casual, classical- modern, gorgeous- simple and elegant- masculine. The reflection between design elements space and image was obtained through rating concepts against the series of 7-point scales. Then a knowledge-based interactive design system for men´s suit was advanced which consisted of three modules (design recommendation module, interactive module and design evaluation module) and three kinds of knowledge DB (design elements DB, design rule base and semantic base). A model of fuzzy synthesis evaluation method is used in this system. When the sensory demands are input, the proper garment set can be output to customers for further choice and appraisal. The techniques and methods in this research can be extended to different garment kinds and other fields related to clothing design.