{"322441":{"#nid":"322441","#data":{"type":"news","title":"Alumni Spotlight: Aman Advani, IE 2007, Makes Business Attire for the Space Age","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EAfter graduating from Tech\u003Cstrong\u003E, \u003C\/strong\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAman Advani\u003C\/strong\u003E, IE 2007, went into consulting\u2014a careermove than involved a lot of long working days and a lot of air travel. Neither was good for keeping his professional clothes fresh. Advani noticed that his cotton dress shirts easily wilted and wrinkled, and they were unforgiving to perspiration.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdvani and some of his colleagues, however, noticed that the exercise clothing they\u2019d change into afterhours was far more comfortable. It was made from higher tech materials that were designed to react to temperature and moisture. \u201cWe all had similar stories,\u201d Advani says. \u201cHow can you take that comfort and bring it into the other 23 hours of the day?\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThey decided there was no reason their business clothes couldn\u2019t perform as well as their athletic gear. Advani joined Kit Hicken and Gihan Amarairaiwardena to found Ministry of Supply in 2011. The following year the company launched the finished products in its clothing line, which Ministry of Supply dubs \u201cPerformance Professional\u201d apparel.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdvani says their clothes are designed for fast-paced people who love what they do and keep a fuzzy line between work and life\u2014and want to look good doing it.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cWe get up at 7 a.m., get on a train, car, airplane.\u201dAdvani says. \u201cIt\u2019s hot outside, cold outside; we meet a friend for dinner; get a drink with a client. Everything is wrinklefree and moisture wicking. People don\u2019t have time to go to the dry cleaner. They don\u2019t want to have to go home and change.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdvani says Ministry of Supply designs its clothing by blending high-tech fabrics and manufacturing techniques with traditional fashion design. For example, one of the company\u2019s dress shirts is made using phase-change materials, which NASA uses in space suits to regulate body temperature. It stores heat when you\u2019re hot and releases it back to you when you\u2019re cold, Advani says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe company\u2019s designers also develop their own materials when there aren\u2019t existing products on the market that do what they\u2019d like. \u201cIn a lot of ways we think of ourselves more of a product design company then a fashion company,\u201d Advani says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdvani says another strategy they\u2019ve taken is working with manufacturers who don\u2019t typically produce dress clothes. \u201cOne of the challenges we didn\u2019t really anticipate is that most of these techniques exist\u2014they\u2019ve just never existed in this world,\u201d he says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EOne of these techniques is called thermal lamination, which Ministry of Supply uses to create a crisp, smooth collar on a dress shirt. Thermal lamination is more commonly used to make things like the bill on the hood of a high-end rain jacket.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cHalf the battle is invention and half the battle is application,\u201d Advani says. \u201cOne of the major challenges is you\u2019re either training someone who knows these techniques to make a great dress shirt, or teaching an Italian dress shirt manufacturer that\u2019s been around for 200 years to update its technology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHow do you get a dress shirt maker to buy a laser cutter? That\u2019s just not going to happen.\u201dAesthetics are also very important for the company. Early on, fashion designers were brought in to create a sharp, tailored look. \u201cThat\u2019s really the point of all this technology. To make a better garment that\u2019s more suited for your day and makes you feel better when you\u2019re wearing it,\u201d Advani says.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThis article first appeared in the Georgia Tech Alumni Magazine\u0026nbsp;Volume 90, No.3, 2014.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EAman Advani\u003C\/strong\u003E, IE 2007, and his company Ministry of Supply help design high-performance men\u2019s dress clothes that resist wrinkles, moisture and more.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Aman Advani, IE 2007, and his company Ministry of Supply help design high-performance men\u2019s dress clothes that resist wrinkles, moisture and more."}],"uid":"27868","created_gmt":"2014-09-08 08:52:02","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:17:04","author":"Lizzie 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