Modular Clothing: A Proposition.
A possibly game-changing concept of today for the world of tomorrow.
One of the biggest pollutants in the modern world comes from clothing. Leftovers, unworn clothes, unusable clothes all ended up on wasteland and even our seas are polluted with them. That gives rise to sustainable fashion, a concept that’s good on paper but in my honest opinion an antithesis of what fashion stood for. However, there is one idea that might solve that issue and probably going to be the next big thing if it’s done right: Modular Clothing.
First, what is modularity? According to Oxford Dictionary, ‘Modular’ is something consisting of separate parts or units that can be joined together. The best example of this is Personal Computer (not a laptop). You can build your own from scratch with the desired specs from the motherboard, CPU, graphics card, and basically everything to make it truly your own. In a sense, you are in control to build what you really want or need at the moment with modular things.
The thing is, implementing the very concept of modularity to clothing is way easier said than done. With that in mind, there are few ways to approach this, but first, we are going to look at few examples.
One of my favorite implementation of this concept comes from Undercover’s Fall Winter 1998–1999 dubbed “SMALL PARTS,” in which almost everything from the collection’s clothes is removable and can be exchanged with other garments. For example, if you feel that the weather is too hot for a jacket, then you can remove the sleeves and you now have a vest. Don’t like the hood? It’s also removable. You want sweater sleeves instead of those of a blazer’s? You can exchange both of them seamlessly. Recently, Undercover revisited this concept with few jackets that feature similar properties albeit more refined. All the clothes regardless of the seasons that have interchangeable properties have special labels to them.
Another example while not really clothing per se is interchangeable modules on bags especially in techwear. One of the famous examples of this is Orbit Gear with their Mods that can be used as stand-alone wearables or can be integrated into their bag. This works seamlessly with most of their wearables, creating a whole ecosystem that can be customized to suit one’s unique needs whilst still maintaining consistency in their overall aesthetics.
The other poster boy for modularity especially in luxury fashion is no other than Matthew Williams with his eponymous label 1017 Alyx 9SM, specifically his footwear. Both his mainline and collaboration with Nike feature removable soles that transform the overall look of the shoes. The Vibram soles that were custom made for Alyx have this dark edgy-modern look that can be snapped into let’s say a pair of sleek derby shoes. This essentially gives you two shoes for the price of one. To me, that’s pretty exciting and a good value proposition.
Moving on to the next question, why modular clothing? As I mentioned earlier, modular clothing with interchangeable parts might be able to reduce waste that comes from unused clothing. According to an article published in Business Insider, people on average bought 60% more garments in 2014 compared to 2000 and it only keeps on rising even until now. In turn, it made up 10% of human carbon emission, which is no small number. Also, 85% of textiles went to the dump each year. That number can be attributed to the rise of fast fashion in the late 90s to mid-2000s, and it’s still growing exponentially every year with consumers craving for the next big thing and of course by not breaking their bank accounts. While modular clothing isn’t a fool-proof way to reduce this, it might be a good starting point and we’ll see where it’s going to take us next. Of course, excess consumption is the theme of the late-capitalism society of the 21st century, so sadly we couldn’t do much about the modern human consumptive patterns.
I’m going to break down few deciding factors that might make or break this concept into three parts: Style, Ease of Use, and System. Let’s start with the first and foremost:
- Style
One problem that plagues current sets of modular clothing: They always have this distinctive geeky look to them. While it does appeal to a small percentage of people, such a look doesn’t have that mass appeal (i.e: normal people who want normal-looking clothes). So far, only people who care about clothes enough to shell an exorbitant amount of money for clothing are intrigued with this concept. The others? Not so much.
In order for modular clothing to have mass appeal, it must be wearable by most people and without sacrificing the modular aspect of the clothing. This is no small feat since even in the computing world, the concept of modular laptops comes with the sacrifice of sleek design that regular ultrathin laptops offer nowadays.
2. Ease of Use
This is also another thing that comes to mind. While the current crop of modular clothing does offer an array of functionalities, they also tend to be overly complicated that even the basic functions can’t be explained in layman’s terms. Think of Acronym and its infamous ACRONYMJUTSU videos. While it does look cool and badass, it makes the clothes too intimidating for some with advanced functionalities and such.
I think Matthew Williams’ Alyx does this right with the footwear. This is the goldilocks spot of technicality without having to resort to being overly complicated. Just one snap and you have a derby/boots with an edgy twist. I really like it. The fact that Alyx has mainstream appeal also might help with the popularity of this concept. If there’s anyone that can convince the mass of the coolness of modular clothing, no doubt it is going to be Matthew Williams.
3. System
Lastly, in order for this to work, we need a coherent system between each clothes. Undercover did it right with the SMALL PARTS collection where each clothes can be interchangeable with each other, even the one that was produced in 1998 with the recent ones. This is the crucial advantage of modular clothing where if it’s done right it can work with old and new clothes altogether, hence your old clothing can be repurposed and combined with the new clothing to create new pieces. The possibilities are endless.
How are the clothes going to be connected? Zippers? Velcro? Laces? Or some sort of space-age self-healing seams that might be possible in near future? Who knows? Of course with our current materials, there are limitations of what can be done. Zippers might make the silhouette too stiff and might not work with others, Velcro adds bulk. Magnets need to be strong enough to hold a joint together, however, that might not be ideal as well.
If (and that is a big if) we managed to find a viable way for this to work with the mass appeal, we might have something really game-changing in our hands be it stylistically or ecologically. The fashion world (and everything else, really) has gone stagnant for these past few years. This kind of interesting concept and innovation is exactly what we needed to rejuvenate the already tired creative world of the late. But that is if this concept successfully reached maturity or else it’s just going to be another wasted potential that fades into niche obscurity.
I can’t wait for someone to finally tackle this challenge. Are you up for it?
