The heart of Marc Cain beats in Bodelshausen or rather: it hums and whirs. Here to the South of Tübingen, Germany, are the headquarters of the fashion brand. And it is here that 107 state-of-the-art knitting machines work busily around the clock knitting sweaters, cardigans and pants. Knitwear in all its forms and designs is programmed into the southern German fashion labels DNA. Even the summer collection regularly feature fine knitwear designs which feel soft and cool against the skin despite warmer temperatures.
The fashion brand has invested a lot in the future of its knitwear masterpieces: not only have its machines been brought up to the state of the art-the design process is based on modern design programmes, too. Many designs are sketched digitally before being converted to a three-dimensional model using special software. Textures, silhouettes and details can then be adjusted on the 3D model.
The fact that large parts of the production process at Marc Cain are now digital saves time and resources, and gives the designers maximum freedom to try out their ideas virtually before they are put into practice. Only when all the details are worked out is the knitting scheme programmed into the knitting machines.
The production facilities in Bodelshausen, where the designer's dreams become reality , is around 2000 square metres in size. Here, textile technicians, programmers and mechanics watch over the choreography of the spinning spools of thread, darting needles and whirring wheels. The result? Intricate, complex works of art, which are slowly brought to life by the flat kneading machines, one centimetre at a time. This is modern knitwear-knitted in Bodelshausen, Germany.