An integrated approach to fashion flat sketches classification

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to study the problem of fashion flat sketches classification and proposed an integrated approach. It aims to propose a fast, reliable method to handle multi-class fashion flat sketches classification problems and lay the foundation for the garment style query in the next step.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed integrated approach adopts wavelet Fourier descriptor (WFD), linear discriminant analysis (LDA) and extreme learning machine (ELM). First, the discrete wavelet and Fourier transform are adopted to extract the shape features of fashion flat sketches. Then, LDA is employed for multi-class classification to reduce dimensionality. Finally, ELM is used as the classifier.

Findings

The experimental results show that the classification accuracy of the integrated approach is obtained at about 100 percent. Contrary to the traditional approaches, efficiency and accuracy are the advantages of the present approach.

Research limitations/implications

Fashion concept is conveyed often in the form of the fashion illustration or sketch. This type of sketch is useful to imply the style and overall feel of the design. However, this sketch gives no clue about the parts or sections that make up each garment. For this reason, this paper only studies the classification of flat sketches.

Originality/value

A new shape descriptor named WFD is proposed. The WFD acquires high classification accuracy comparing with Fourier descriptor (FD) and multiscale Fourier descriptor (MFD) without dimensionality reduction and nearly the same classification accuracy comparing with FD while MFD easily causes small sample size problem with dimensionality reduction using LDA. In addition, ELM is first used as the classifier in the textiles field related to the classification problem.

Citation

An, L. and Li, W. (2014), "An integrated approach to fashion flat sketches classification", International Journal of Clothing Science and Technology, Vol. 26 No. 5, pp. 346-366. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCST-05-2013-0054