Santa Rosa business owner sews together love of fashion and engineering with 3D body scanning business

Santa Rosa business owner and engineer Giovonnae Anderson has been sewing for almost her entire life.

It was just something you did in our house, she said. Her mother was a home economics teacher and taught her how to hand sew and embroider at a young age.

She graduated up to a sewing machine when she was a little older and started sewing her own clothes when she was a teenager.

“One of my fond memories is that in the late summer, we would take a trip to New York and go shop at Macy’s to get material to make school clothes,” she said. “It was part of a summer ritual.”

Anderson combined her love of sewing with her 30-year career as an engineer for IBM and Hewlett Packard by opening her 3D body scanning business Software Tailoring in Santa Rosa in 2017.

Anderson helps clients find their precise measurements with the use of her SS14 body scanner that captures hundreds of measurement points in 30 seconds and processed in only a few minutes.

The scanner itself looks like a makeshift photo booth with dark curtains on all four sides, including a curtain to close for privacy. The computer where Anderson collects her measurements is to the right in her small office.

When a client is measured by Anderson’s scanner, she advises them to wear their everyday undergarments so as not to skew the measurements. The client steps into the booth and undresses to the level of their comfort and stands on floor markings with their arms slightly held out.

Anderson then corrects and adjusts the measured points to get the scan as exact as possible.

“I tell people that (the measurements) I give them, depending on your body type, is somewhere between 80% and 95% perfect,” Anderson said.

After the scan has been adjusted to perfectly reflect the client’s body, clients have a few options as to how they can use them.

Anderson can use these scans to create a master pattern, a two-dimensional layout used for measuring patterns for garments. She can also use digital programs to show how a clothing design will look on the client’s body, including how the fabric will fit and move after completion.

Clients also have the option to turn these scans into an accurate dress form made by the company Ditto Form, out of Detroit, so clients can make their own creations without having to alter or guess on a typical dress form.

“The most common things my clients do is make clothes for themselves,” Anderson said. “A lot of the customers that come to me already sew and they want something that they don’t have to keep modifying or tweaking.”

Anderson said finding clothes that properly fit is difficult because the fashion industry designs its clothes with one body type in mind.

One example of this is the crotch curve, or where the body “sits” in a pair of pants or shorts. Anderson said the fashion industry only has one crotch curve, which makes finding the right pair of bottoms difficult.

“Crotch curves are as individualized as fingerprints,” she said. “I tell my customers that the truth will set you free and when you get what you really look like, then you can design with it.”

Anderson earned a certificate in fashion at Santa Rosa Junior College where she took classes in pattern making and draping. While she was taking courses, she grew frustrated with how easy it was to insert errors into her projects.

“We were using knifes to carve stuff and it was so inaccurate and so time consuming,” she said. “I thought there has to be a better way.”

Anderson learned about body scanners in 2013 at a conference on the subject. At the time, these scanners were costly and it was time-consuming to get the reading. There were also so many different types of body scanners that required odd rotations or standing in one position for an extended amount of time.

“I figured my clientele might be older and not want to be rotating or stand still for too long,” Anderson said. “That’s why I chose the scanner and it’s been pretty useful.”

Anderson is a one-woman show at Software Tailoring. She only does one or two scans a month and the rest of her time is spent rigging digital clothing avatars and creating master patterns for her clients.

She’s worked with clients local to Sonoma County and from across the country looking for accurate measurements to find the right fit. She even helped fit the lead actress in the Santa Rosa Junior College live production of “The Sound of Music.”

Anderson said she wants her clients to know that finding the right fitting clothes never goes out of style.

“You can pay crappy money for crappy clothes and throw them away to buy more crappy clothes,” Anderson said. “Or you can pay good money for really good clothes and keep them for years.”

You can reach Staff Writer Sara Edwards at 707-521-5487 or sara.edwards@pressdemocrat. com. On Twitter @sedwards380.