Functional Fashion.

What is considered functional when it comes to fashion?

There's the cultural aspects of clothing, where fashion is considered as a mode of gender differentiation, social status, identities...

But on a physical level, clothes are meant to cover the body, which can also mean protect the body from external environments. They are also meant to be comfortable, because we live in our clothes, perform many different tasks, and in a way, successful clothing design is meant to make the wearer forget they're wearing any clothes at all; so their clothes become a part of them: a second skin.

I've been looking into performance wear for sports like windsurfing, sailing and para sailing to feed into my design work. One thing my tutor has told me to keep in mind is that we students are fashion designers, and not sportswear designers. Even though I've kept telling people I want to design a collection with a sportswear aesthetic, it's still fashion, and is not meant to function and perform exactly like e.g. a professional sailing suit.

However I think for menswear, function is still incredibly important. I remember a particular menswear challenge in one of the seasons of Project Runway America where a contestant made a pair of men's trousers with no pockets. Michael Kors thought it was laughable, because menswear is once again, all about functional details!

My tutor's also reminded me that it's also about being smart with these details. I had told him I was worried my designs weren't exploring enough shape; especially my pant designs. However after showing me examples from the most recent Dries Van Noten and Raf Simon collections, it's not always about creating shapes that we haven't already seen, or being NEW; because nothing is. It's about being innovative with what's already there, and using it in smart, innovative ways.


Some great detailing from the RAF SIMONS Fall 2010 collection
Images from GQ.com