Development of a dress design knowledge base (DDKB) based on sensory evaluation and fuzzy logic

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to develop a dress design knowledge base (DDKB), which is expected to be further applied to a personalized dress recommendation system.Design/methodology/approachDress design knowledge can be expressed as the relationship between designer's fashion perceptions of different dress elements. In order to extract dress design knowledge, a dress shape ontology (DSO) is firstly developed, which can be further used to form a dress element matrix (DEM). A perceptual descriptive space of the dress (DPDS) is developed for the description of the designer's fashion perception of dress. Through a standard sensory evaluation procedure performed by experienced experts (designers), the expected relationship can be obtained. This relationship is then mathematically simulated by fuzzy logic tools for the expected DDKB.FindingsIn this paper, a DDKB has been developed. The established knowledge base has been validated, and it can be further applied to dress recommendation system for a specific consumer.Originality/valueThis study introduces the concept of knowledge base to the area of dress individualized design. The knowledge-based design process based on sensory evaluation and fuzzy logic can efficiently solve the individualization of dress design in traditional design processes, which can provide a novel way to dress design individualization.