[HN Gopher] Garment Notation Language: Formal descriptive langua...
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Garment Notation Language: Formal descriptive language for clothing
construction
Author : prathyvsh
Score : 122 points
Date : 2026-02-18 15:53 UTC (7 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| Guestmodinfo wrote:
| Can we express the drapes and dresses worn in the animes. Because
| then it will be helpful for the cos players
| antidamage wrote:
| It looks like it has a 3d draping view, but it didn't seem very
| good yet. Check out Marvellous Designer, that's what anyone
| doing digital-first uses.
|
| Drapey clothing is probably the easiest to freehand without a
| pattern though. It's accurate fits that need more measuring,
| planning, temporary stitching, test garments, etc.
| Johnny_Bonk wrote:
| Thank you for this
| astrashe2 wrote:
| Were any people who work for the garment industry involved in
| GNL's creation, or is it something that's coming entirely from
| tech people?
| Edman274 wrote:
| Tech person - there's only one contributor, it's less than 48
| hours old, and appears to be primarily vibe coded with the
| assistance of Claude Code. No mentions of types of stitches
| even though it's crucial to understanding how a garment is
| made. I wonder too if this grammar can represent a glove made
| from a single strand of yarn.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| If I understand what you mean, that's more in the realm of
| knitting which does already have several rigorous notations
| in common use.
|
| This is for pattern drafting, which assumes knit or woven
| fabric as the raw material for the garment construction,
| along with the pattern.
|
| That said it still does not seem suitable for this task based
| on my experience sewing from and modifying patterns.
| AlotOfReading wrote:
| Stitches are load-bearing, so specifying a bartack or a
| flatlock seems pretty important to unambiguously specifying
| a garment. Along the same lines, I don't see a way to
| specify hardware that isn't for closures, e.g. the rivets
| used to reinforce denim pockets.
| giraffe_lady wrote:
| I know, I make clothes too. Probably unlike the creator
| of this thing.
|
| But the comment I was responding to seemed to be using
| "stitch" in the way knitters use it, not the way sewists
| use it. No pattern drafting system can represent the
| stitches necessary to create a panel of knit fabric,
| that's simply not the level of abstraction they work at.
|
| This thing isn't good but not for the reason of being
| unable to represent a one-strand mitten or whatever,
| which is what I think they were getting at.
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| Is this even able to specify patterns? Or is it just how
| to assemble the pieces of cut cloth?
| Edman274 wrote:
| Well, I actually had two interrelated thoughts and
| because of proximity I think I confused things. I guess
| what I was thinking was "garments are constructed not of
| "panels" but of threads of a given material which can be
| abstractly thought of as being panels when woven or
| knitted, but ..." and from there I thought of failure
| modes, like the fact that this doesn't have a way of
| specifying straight vs zigzag stitches, which doesn't
| have a way of specifying things that are _not_ joined
| together via stitching panels together, etc. Like, I don
| 't think this can specify a pair of jeans, because the
| hem of a jean requires a chain stitch at the bottom,
| which isn't unambiguously defined. This project feels
| like it devalues the complexity of something that is one
| of the defining features of civilization.
| antidamage wrote:
| It looks like it's missing so much that you'd need even to
| hand-sew a pattern at home. There's no mention of
| interfaces or bindings.
|
| This looks more like something for making clothing as
| digital content - e.g. Marvellous Designer. Possibly more
| straightforward even.
|
| Edit: found interfacing. It calls it "interlining".
| Animats wrote:
| It's nowhere near Marvelous Designer. Marvelous Designer
| is for making 3D clothing for games, animation, and such.
| It's a limited version of Clo[1] , which is for making
| real-world clothing. Clo lets you design clothing, put it
| on an avatar, and watch it move and drape with clothing
| physics. It looks real. When you see good clothing in a
| game, it was probably created with Marvelous Designer.
|
| Then Clo exports a file for fabric cutting compliant with
| the ASTM D6673-10 standard, Standard Practice for Sewn
| Pattern Data Interchange, which is used for the
| production of garment patterns. It's kind of clunky,
| being based on Autodesk DXF, AutoCAD's export format from
| the 1980s, but it's what the industry uses. You can bring
| such files into anything that reads DXF and view them. So
| a widely used formal descriptive language for fabric
| cutting already exists. You can send those files to a
| contract garment manufacturer and get garments back.
|
| Marvelous Designer is just Clo minus the cutting pattern
| export feature.
|
| [1] https://www.clo3d.com/en/
|
| [2] https://www.normsplash.com/Samples/ASTM/191361149/AST
| M-D6673...
| barbarr wrote:
| It's Claude Code slop
| Doohickey-d wrote:
| For another "clothing patterns as code" approach, see
| https://freesewing.dev/ - also with a more complete UI and
| editor.
| abetusk wrote:
| Also free as in freedom [0].
|
| [0]
| https://codeberg.org/freesewing/freesewing/src/branch/develo...
| pimlottc wrote:
| This looks interesting but I'm struggling to find any examples
| of what this actually entails/produces/looks like. Most of the
| guides are about setting up your environment, checking out
| code, etc.
| kurnikas wrote:
| So I've actually built patterns using their system. Basically
| you define a layout using JS and defining a series of points
| and offsets and lines. You can refer to variables such as
| body measurements or other dimensions for bags.
| https://freesewing.eu/ is their more "consumer" facing site
| where you can enter your measurements and then download
| sewing patterns sized for you specifically.
|
| One of the other nice things they do as part of the pattern
| design process is testing the pattern makes sense at many
| "scales" and so you can actually define a "body" the size of
| a doll and use this for defining dolls clothing, or make
| really size inclusive clothing, there are members of the
| community with varying disabilities such as forms of dwarfism
| who otherwise struggle to find appropriately sized clothes.
| AreShoesFeet000 wrote:
| I should just read Wittgenstein.
| infogulch wrote:
| Does GNL support pleats, tucks, and darts? These sewn features
| help make flat cloth conform to curves in the body. The terms
| don't seem to be mentioned explicitly in the repo, though maybe
| they can be implemented with the existing notation.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pleat |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuck_(sewing) |
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dart_(sewing)
| owlstuffing wrote:
| Read the docs
|
| eg. Darts: https://github.com/khalildh/garment-
| notation/blob/main/garme...
| infogulch wrote:
| Github doesn't do plurality folding which trips up my
| searches sometimes. Thanks.
| vatsachak wrote:
| "Dance has Labanotation. Music has staff notation. Architecture
| has plan/section/elevation conventions. GNL brings the same rigor
| to garments -- a generative descriptive language where a valid
| expression is sufficient to construct a garment without
| ambiguity."
|
| AI lmao
| SJMG wrote:
| The 3D view is broken on Safari and Chrome.
| kenjackson wrote:
| The 3D view works on Edge, but the shirt doesn't fit properly
| and there's only one sleeve and that sleeve doesn't actually
| have the arm go in the middle of it.
| ceroxylon wrote:
| It is not working on Firefox 147.0.4 either.
| OrionNox wrote:
| We already have marvelous designer and Clo3d...
| arcsincosin wrote:
| In the examples, there is discrepancy between the source, the
| diagram, the pieces diagram, and the 3D test each. As someone who
| is professionally and personally interested in grammars and
| textiles, I appreciate the fantasy and the vibe of the project
| but it does not seem to be a functioning demo of anything
| coherent.
| buggymcbugfix wrote:
| +1. This is 100% hallucinated. Creds: My first programming
| language was GRAFIS CAD Fachsprache, a parametric pattern
| drafting software for garments, which incidentally powers our
| business (https:/liepelt.design--the website and intranet of
| which we are developing in ur/web btw just to clarify the geek
| factor!)
| throwaway198846 wrote:
| Is there a service I can upload a file and get one made and
| shipped to me? Not necessarily this grament language but others.
| I have an old and unusual garment I want in an adult size.
| Animats wrote:
| Yes, but it's a service for the garment trade, not
| individuals.[1] They're going to want patterns in an industry
| standard format. If you need help with the design, that's
| available, but not cheap.
|
| There's a reverse-engineering process for garments, involving
| laying them out on a light table and taking pictures. That's
| how you make knockoffs.
|
| If the goal is a one-off, not volume production, just find a
| good custom tailor or costumer. It's going to cost.
|
| [1] https://www.hongyuapparel.com/clothing-prototype-
| manufacture...
| CrzyLngPwd wrote:
| This is how a robot thinks of clothing.
|
| And humans.
| meindnoch wrote:
| This is just slop. Pretty sure this person has no experience in
| clothes manufacturing.
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(page generated 2026-02-18 23:00 UTC)