Garment Notation Language: Formal descriptive language for clothing construction

Sewing meets code as fans ask: cosplay tool or tech takeover

TLDR: A new “language” aims to write clothing like code so anyone can recreate the same garment, from tees to jackets. Commenters split between cosplay excitement, calls for real industry input, and shout-outs to rival tool FreeSewing—making this a lively clash over who gets to digitize fashion and how.

GNL (Garment Notation Language) promises “sheet music for shirts,” a code-like way to describe how clothes are made so anyone can build the same tee, skirt, or jacket without guesswork. The demo shows type-it-on-the-left, see-the-garment-on-the-right magic, with pattern pieces and even a converter for a research dataset. But the comments turned the runway into reality TV. Cosplayers showed up first: one excited fan asked if GNL can capture those dramatic anime drapes—because if yes, the cosplay crowd is in. Skeptics marched in right behind: another commenter pressed whether real garment pros had any say, or if this is a tech-only fantasy. Cue side-eye.

Then the turf war kicked off: a user dropped a link to rival pattern-coding project FreeSewing and suggested it has a fuller editor, sparking the classic “why reinvent the wheel?” debate. Meanwhile, a purist huffed, “What does this have to do with the post?”—and the thread instantly felt like a fitting room with too many opinions. Still, there’s wholesome energy too: a simple “Thank you” got unexpected love, as some folks just want better tools to make cool clothes. TL;DR: between cosplay dreams, industry gatekeeping, and open-source one‑upmanship, GNL’s debut stitched together hype, doubt, and delicious drama all at once.

Key Points

  • GNL is a formal, generative language for unambiguous garment construction anchored to body coordinates.
  • Core principles include body-anchored referencing, topological surfaces, constructive build order, and composability.
  • The language is defined as a PEG grammar targeting Peggy, generating a typed AST adapted at runtime.
  • A live viewer renders assembled garments and flat pattern pieces from GNL, showing stitch lines, grain, and dimensions.
  • A converter maps the Korosteleva NeurIPS 2021 dataset (JSON panels) into GNL; v0.2 draft adds grain, directional ease, EDGE, LAYER, USE/ATTACH.

Hottest takes

"Can we express the drapes and dresses worn in the animes" — Guestmodinfo
"Were any people who work for the garment industry involved" — astrashe2
"For another "clothing patterns as code" approach, see https://freesewing.dev/" — Doohickey-d
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