Designer software: system alters apparel process; company spurts from start-up to revenues of $6 million.

Designer software: System alters apparel process

Mixing high technology, high fashion and low-cost apparel production, a Los Angeles-based software company has gone from start-up to revenues estimated at $6 million in a single year.

"Response has been astronomical," said Linda Freedman, director of marketing for ModaCAD Inc. "We were overwhelmed by demand from Europe and Asia; we didn't expect such high demand there."

In its first year of selling its apparel industry-targeted computer software, ModaCAD Inc. expects to earn $6 million - then $24 million in 1990 and $80 million by 1993, said Freedman, who is the daughter of ModaCAD President Joyce Freedman and Executive Vice President of Finance Lee Freedman.

Leading to such demand is a product that automates and computerizes the apparel business from initial design to actually making the clothes. And it does it for a fraction of the cost of what larger, more complex computers can do for only a portion of the apparel process, Freeman noted.

Six modules costing from $5,000 to $10,000 are marketed to design textiles and apparel, make patterns, grade them - translating a pattern into multiple sizes - mark patterns, provide data management for estimated costs and specification requirements and provide a fashion-history library.

ModaCAD, which has 50 employees, offers the entire package for $30,000. The base price of a module and the Apple-brand computer needed to run the software starts at $20,000.

The low-cost technology has extended computerization to small- and medium-sized companies that previously couldn't afford it, Freeman said. Earlier computers which specialized in only one aspect of apparel design or manufacture cost over $100,000 each.

The ModaCAD's design module contains a feature the company has named Moda-SKETCH. It has more than 400 special effects and an array of 16.8 million colors. With high-resolution printers, the machine can produce camera-ready color art.

ModaDRAPE, also part of the design module, allows designers to drape fabric over a form automatically and simulate how a finished garment will look on a live model in three dimensions. The module also contains an extensive fashion history library which can access thousands of fashion looks at the press of a button.

Other modules provide additional capacity for apparel manufacturers and designers. The textile design module features onscreen weaving and textile design preparation, so designers can eliminate traditional layout preparation. Other modules can run manufacturing machines.

Interaction with such machines is one of the system's most valuable attributes: the ability to be integrated into already existing manufacturing technology, Freedman said.

"Other companies have proprietary hardware - they have computer systems which direct whatever aspect of the industry thy're in," she noted. "But small-and medium-sized companies need software systems they can afford and that will allow them to work in the particular system they're in. Small-and mid-sized companies can now do this."

Input into the system is possible by mouse, scanner, digitizer or video camera; output can be transferred to film recorders, printers or plotters.

System users already include Los Angeles-based Guess Jeans Inc., Los Alamitos-based PCH Inc., New York-based Cotton Inc., and Dallas-based Lorche Co.

"I think it's going to be really good," said Jo Anne Yamamoto, vice president of design at PCH Inc. "It saves me the hassle of going back and forth to whoever makes my colorwaves [combinations] and saves me time, if nothing else," said Tony Ha, data processing manager at Los Angeles-based California Ivy Inc.

ModaCAD was not born in a garage, but was born after six years of planning and development by Joyce Freedman and Maurizio Vecchione, the company's executive vice president and engineering chief.

Freedman, an architect, previously had written successful architectural software for the MacIntosh computer. She also had an apparel bent - her parents started the Hartfield Stores, a chain of West Coast women's shops in the 1940s and 1950s. They also founded the Zody's chain.

Vecchione, a scientist who headed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Voyager Spacecraft Imaging Group, is an expert in artificial intelligence and computer aided design. He and the team of 25 scientists he brought to the company provided the technology necessary to bring the product to market.

"The [fashion] industry was lagging five to 10 years behind other industries using computer-aided design products," Vecchione said. said.

The product was first released in May 1988 and has exceeded marketing projections by 400 percent to date, Freedman said. Part of the reason for the system's success has been that it can interact with computer systems already in place.

"We recommend that our clients shop around," Freedman said. "We let our customers know what they're buying and what's available.