This article was taken from the September 2014 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.

A bespoke wardrobe is a luxury -- having an affordable outfit made just for you is simply not profitable for most labels. But London design agency Searu has found a way around that. "We've designed a software platform that runs on the industrial knitting machines that big manufacturers use," says cofounder Ben Alun-Jones. "So people can design their own clothing from scratch."

Alun-Jones (right) and fellow cofounders Kirsty Emery (left) and Hal Watts (centre) met at the Royal College of Art and soon realised that the technology for programming knitting machines was possible, but complicated. "People talk about how useful 3D printing is, but it's actually pretty hard," he says. "I looked at an easier interface, where people didn't need advanced skills to be creative."

With Searu's system, you can define up to 36 colours, change details and remix or repeat patterns. Your instructions are decrypted by Searu's algorithm and sent to the machine, which produces one-off clothing at a similar price point as mass-produced high street clothes. "It's a totally new business model. Having the machine cuts out several layers of middlemen," Alun-Jones explains. "We can guarantee 30 per cent less wastage than current production standards, because we're responding to demand, not trying to predict it."

This autumn Searu will launch its own label, Knyttan, as a proof-of-concept. It then wants to sell its API to retailers who can integrate the service into their e-commerce sites. "As Brian Eno said, it's about becoming gardeners, not architects," he says. "We sow the seeds to grow new creations."

This article was originally published by WIRED UK