A Birmingham startup is set to turn the world of fashion on its head. Anna Blackaby finds out how.

Entrepreneur and computer science expert Eleanor Watson is a woman on a mission.

She wants to disrupt the fashion world in the same way the internet and downloads have disrupted the media and music markets.

Through her R&D startup Poikos, Ms Watson aims to bring the luxury of made-to-measure clothing to the mass market, by doing away with the tailor’s tape measure and capturing users’ vital statistics with nothing more complex than a webcam or smartphone.

Her Measurecam software converts a snapshot of the body into a series of measurements such as inside leg, neck, bust and waist, just like a tailor would take.

It potentially opens up doors to a brave new world of fashion retailing, where shoppers can get recommendations on which clothes suit their body size and shape – or even design their own made-to-measure garments which can then be manufactured using an automated process.

In August, Ms Watson successfully appealed for match funding to unlock a grant from the Technology Strategy Board.

Now it’s all systems go for the Birmingham Science Park-based firm.

Ms Watson said: “There’s going to be so much more personalisation and mass customisation of clothing.

“With our technology we know that it can unlock a new bespoke clothing market.

“There are so many small shops and factories which can produce made-to-measure clothing but the real problem for all of these companies is obtaining the measurements of the user.

“We can make that process very simple and it’s going to fundamentally change the whole fashion market.”

Measurecam is a clever bit of kit – using the user’s face as a starting point to work out the relative measurements of the rest of the body.

“It is all based upon certain details in the human face,” said Ms Watson.

“The user presents their face, it’s mapped and certain dimensions are taken.

“We then calibrate the device so other measurements can be taken.”

Ms Watson, who is currently studying for an MBA and a Masters in strategic business information systems, is still looking for further private sector funding to speed up her firm’s development.

The next stage is to launch Measurecam to selected users in beta mode in November, and plans are in place for a public launch in the new year.

Poikos is already talking with several potential partners to commercialise the technology.

One of the options is to work with online retailers, who can pay commission to get their clothes recommended to users of Measurecam.