Weaving sustainability with multi-functionality, Mode in Flux presents a vision for fashion鈥檚 future within an unstable environmental landscape.
鈥淢ore and more designers,鈥 White Lines Project curator of Mode in Flux, Fiona McKay, observes, 鈥渁re concerned with making fashion more sustainable and [with] slowing down consumption.鈥 McKay identifies sustainability as a key factor behind recent interest in 鈥渕aking fashion work harder鈥, an interest that runs through the work in Mode in Flux, at Roca London Gallery. Of course, designers represent only half of the equation 鈥 the other half being the consumers and their relationship with the garments. This is especially the case with interactive or 鈥渟mart鈥 garments: as co-curator, Xenia Capacete Caballero, points out, 鈥渨hen the consumer interacts in a different way with the garments, that鈥檚 adding to the experience 鈥 it changes the way we interpret fashion.鈥
Sustainability, interactivity, and, ultimately, the wellbeing of the wearer are three focal points of Mode in Flux. Ideas around sustainability and the potential to adapt to different lifestyles and environmental demands inform many of the works in the exhibition. Designers showcased reject the notion of producing a collection once a year: 鈥淚t鈥檚 quite ridiculous,鈥 McKay declares, adding, 鈥渋t鈥檚 causing nervous breakdowns in the best of designers鈥. Instead, they create long-lasting pieces from which the consumer will feel he or she is getting more value. This change of direction signals an increased level of empowerment for them, since they move into a position to call the shots: as Capacete Caballero points out, discussing Issey Miyaki鈥檚 Pleats Please Madam-T dress exhibited in Mode in Flux, 鈥淸i]t鈥檚 basically one single piece, but you can style it in different ways; so it鈥檚 the wearer that decides how it鈥檚 going to be worn, how it will be styled, how it鈥檚 going to be constructed.鈥 The inherent potential in the Madam-T dress to be multi-styled and therefore worn more also contributes to the slowing down of consumption.
McKay traces the origins of the concept of multi-functionality, of converting one function to another, back to the Second World War. Arguably, the demand for innovation and adaptability during the war was largely thanks to the Make Do and Mend ethos of a society grappling with enforced thrift and harsh rationing of all manner of materials. Nowadays, the post-recession landscape is largely defined by concerns about the future of the planet as well as a desire to make money go further in a nancially bleak climate and uncertainties after Brexit. Designers such as Massimo Osti 鈥 鈥渁 pioneer,鈥 as McKay observes, 鈥渋n the area of sustainability and fabric technology鈥 鈥 are in turn inspired by military and workwear technology to create durable garments that challenge the kind of transience represented by seasonal fashion collections. Even though, as Capacete Caballero admits, 鈥渢here [are] still not enough examples to make a real difference within the fashion industry,鈥 the shift is undeniable.
Encouraging an ethos of adaptability in fashion is not con ned to how garments are worn or how long they last. Visionary designers like Hussein Chalayan, whose work is included in the exhibition via a series of photographs by Chris Moore, continually push the boundaries of what it means for fashion to be sustainable, the functions it can step into and carry out. 鈥淸Chalayan]鈥檚 playing a lot with different types of product design and technology,鈥 McKay observes, 鈥渃hallenging the notion that clothes should stay within fashion.鈥 Chalayan鈥檚 more conceptual, interactive pieces range from living room furniture that morphs into dresses and skirts to paper dresses that can you can write on and fold into envelopes. This playfulness is intentional but it carries a serious theme: garments are the result of an action, a part of the story of one鈥檚 day-to-day life, whatever it may be.
The quality of the interactivity of garments, whether revealing or hinting at the wearer鈥檚 emotional state, or, conversely, responding to sensory stimuli picked up from their immediate environment is a common thread running through the work of several of the showcased artists. This notion of interaction and fluidity, captured in the exhibition鈥檚 title, is another way in which the exhibits challenge the rigidity of the fashion industry and redefine designers鈥 relationship with it on different levels, both in the conception and in the realisation of their pieces. Emergent designers THE UNSEEN, for example, bring together scientific principles, art, and design, and use the properties of their materials in order to create, as McKay remarks, 鈥渃onceptual piece[s] that [challenge] the way people think about what fashion can do.鈥
Mode in Flux includes THEUNSEENSWAROVSKI, a headpiece created with thousands of Swarovski black spinel stones, an element chosen for its ability to absorb energy loss from the wearer鈥檚 head. Throughout the day, the spinel changes colour from black to orange to red to green to blue to purple, thus providing a striking visual representation of brain activity 鈥 in a sense 鈥 thought. Through creations like THEUNSEENSWAROVSKI, the studio explores the function of fashion as a liminal space between the self and the world: garments and accessories are no longer superficial signifiers of socioeconomic background, but rather become the place of negotiation, the point where the internal landscape of the individual makes itself known. 鈥淭hese conceptual pieces can open up new possibilities,鈥 Capacete Caballero believes. 鈥淭his kind of headpiece can be used by people with impairments, [who] do not respond easily to different environments, to communicate. It might not become apparent within fashion itself, but they can inspire [ideas] in many other fields.鈥
Interactivity is also a key feature of designer Ying Gao鈥檚 creations: delicate, almost otherworldly garments that come to life when someone鈥檚 gaze rests on them, calling into question our understanding of presence and disappearance. In Mode in Flux, Gao exhibits her wonderfully playful (no)where (now)here dresses and premiers her Neutralite虂: Can鈥檛 and Won鈥檛 dresses. Made of photo luminescent thread and carrying eye-tracking technology, they glow and appear to move in response to external stimuli 鈥 namely when someone looks at the wearer 鈥 thereby implicitly encouraging interaction, even if by distance. By contrast, the Can鈥檛 and Won鈥檛 dresses, sculpted from super organza, cotton mesh, PVDF, and electronic devices, start reacting when looked at but stop doing so as soon as the onlooker begins to show an emotion. A garment that, according to the designer, 鈥渄emands a level of humility clearly out of sync with today鈥檚 over-the-top expressiveness鈥 inevitably raises questions about identity being dependent on a viewer who is outside the self: are we only there if we are seen? As long as someone is looking at us, can our presence ever be spontaneous, natural, genuine? 鈥淗ow we see ourselves, how we act in front of others, how we act in uncomfortable situations 鈥 Gao鈥檚 pieces are a way to visualize these notions in a physical manifestation,鈥 Capacete Caballero concludes.
Balancing desirability and functionality is an ever-present concern for designers. In a time when wearable technology is frequently plagued by a gimmicky sheen, (the type of thing, as McKay puts it, that 鈥減eople are going to look back on in 20 years鈥 time and laugh about鈥), designers need to tread carefully when developing responsive fashion: for smart garments to be fit for purpose, they have to meet consumer need, be practical, and be comfortable. Outlast, a company exhibiting in Mode in Flux, originally designed their pioneering Phase Change Materials for NASA. 鈥淲hen the heat increases,鈥 Capacete Caballero explains, 鈥渢he material changes from solid to liquid, absorbs the heat of the wearer and then, when the temperature of the wearer goes down, it releases the heat. So it鈥檚 very successful in sportswear production. It responds to a need and it鈥檚 practical.鈥
Recent trends in sci-fi filmmaking have seen the blockbuster success of films including The Martian, Gravity and Interstellar, to name but a few. It is not diffcult to identify the common themes running through these features: an isolated individual pitted against the vastness of space, being cut off from external help and having to fend for oneself, the fight for survival in a hostile environment. As well as revealing the current fascination with space and the possibility of humans inhabiting it, these works of popular culture also attest to people鈥檚 attendant feelings of dread at the concept of enforced isolation, their anxiety at the prospect of having to think on one鈥檚 feet and adapt in order to make it through. Multi-functionality is one of the ways in which designers in the Mode in Flux exhibition 鈥 and beyond 鈥 seek to respond to this kind of newly re-emergent desire for adaptability.
But a harsh environment is only one factor that might make the world hostile: the increasing feeling of isolation humans are experiencing is another. Lucy McRae鈥檚 work is particularly interesting in that it weaves both elements together, in unexpected ways. McRae describes herself as a 鈥渟cience fiction artist, director and self-proclaimed body architect, probing the frontiers of the body.鈥 Her experiential installation Future Day Spa puts controlled vacuum pressure on the participant, and uses wireless technology to gather biometric data to measure the effects of the treatment. It is a spa 鈥渋ntended,鈥 as Capacete Caballero points out, 鈥渇or the individual to adapt to an extreme environment.鈥 Whilst conducting a trial with over one hundred participants, McRae realised that one unintended application that her space preparation spa had was in addressing isolation: it encouraged participants to initiate physical contact.
Of all the artists showcased, Lucy McRae is possibly the artist whose work is the most attuned to the wellbeing of the individuals participating in the works. Her 鈥渃omplex future scenarios鈥 provide a tool with which to negotiate isolation and survival in the present day. McKay explains the thinking behind placing McRae鈥檚 work at the end of the exhibition: 鈥淧eople have walked around the show thinking about all those objects that have been designed to adapt to different changes, but the final question is: can our own bodies adapt to these environments, and be trained to adapt?鈥 At the end of the exhibition we realise this is only the beginning of the journey. Our garments are only a surface layer and making them adaptable and sustainable to our environment is only the first step. The way in which our bodies move through the world, the way they respond to, interact with, and adapt to our environment is in fact the ultimate destination.
Words Regina Papchilimitzou
Mode in Flux. Roca London Gallery. Until 27 August.
