Mansharey and its forerunner Seldom .
The old
way
For nearly 20 years Martin van Heusden`s Dutch company "Seldom"
designed and produced leather jackets for men with customers all over the world.
The actual production took place in Izmir, Turkey, where his factory worked with
the very expensive DOS based, Lectra System. Martin himself designed the
collection, a prototype was made and the patterns were printed in Holland and
sent by mail to Turkey, where they were produced in the old manual way. During
the nineties Martin bought two phone modems, one for his office in Holland and
one for the factory in Turkey, this helped the save in production costs, but in
the mid nineties amid decline in consumer spending in the world of fashion, Van
Heusden decided to close his company and started working as a
freelancer.
The OptiTex™ Solution at the touch of a
button
In 1996, Van Heusden met a vivid Israeli girl, Effie
Mansharey, who just graduated from the art academy in Rotterdam and immediately
went to open her own woman’s clothing design company operating out of her home
office. They bundled their creativity and started a new company: "Mansharey",
designing clothes for men and women. Through Martin, Effie Mansharey learned
more about the wonders of working with leather and after five years have also
started the design of handbags.
The Mansharey designer collection was produced entirely in
Holland but Van Heusden who due to the high costs was not satisfied with this
process, turned again to his former Turkish partner who was still working with
the old Lectra system. The system did not offer the user ways to visualize his
work with 3D. Van Heusden asked his Turkish partner to look for a better
solution. Soon they contacted OptiTex`s dealer in Turkey and Van Heusden decided
that the best solution for his factory was OptiTex PDS, Marker and Grading while
for his design offices he selected OptiTex PDS and 3D Runway Designer.
Today Van Heusden, who is now operating from Israel, says: "Even on vacation I can still work and send my designs with one touch of a button to the factory in Turkey". "OptiTex has increased our quality and productivity. You are not limited to specific hardware and you can buy separate programs. Today we cannot imagine designing without the OptiTex System."
Even though Mansharey still prefers to produce one prototype, so to satisfy the personal touch, the ‘OptiTex experience’ manages to save Mansharey about 60-70% of the total costs!
"It is so much easier to design clothes via the computer, less time
consuming, changes are made with one touch of a button, thus saving a lot of
money." "With more than 25 years of experience in the clothing industry behind
me," comments Van Heusden, "OptiTex™ gives me the flexibility I need to
design in one country and produce in another ".
Van Heusden adds,
"the possibilities you have with OptiTex 3D Runway Designer are endless, I
find it to be a great invention!".
"Even our factory in Turkey, who is only
equipped with OptiTex 3D Viewer is very impressed with OptiTex software as this
advanced technology improved their marketing positioning in the local
market". The whole process from design, to PDS, to 3D takes anywhere
between 2-12 hours depending on the simplicity or complexity of the pattern. In
the old days, it took Mansharey twice as long.
"OptiTex™ has definitely contributed a lot to our success," added
Effie Mansharey.
