This is karun and in this blog lets talk about one of the important aspect of sustainable fashion design strategies that is Multifunctional garments

Clothing’s always had at least two main functions, particularly in modern societies, the protective function and the social function. The main purpose of clothing is to protect the human body against the environment, such as cold or heat. But not less important is the social function that clothing has in communicating one’s social status. This has become even more important in the last century with the growth of fashion. Nowadays the clothes we wear play an important role in the communication of our lifestyle and cultural group assuming this aspect that lead in functional importance.

Multifunctional fashion garments can be defined as clothing or clothing systems that allow different uses in different scenarios, such as adaptation (dynamic or not) to diverse social situations or weather conditions, or just clothing that has different characteristics in different body areas to have different functional features, such as different permeability characteristics and different flexural properties in specific areas of the garment, among others.

Multifuntional design” is a kind of design mode that not only made clothing more interesting, but also encourage the wearer participation in choices. It not only increase the possibility of clothing style, but also extend the service cycle of clothing. In this “fast fashion” run market, the multifuntional design idea can be a breakthrough point, help us to find the way to balance the low-carbon and environmentally-friendly requirements of fashion supply chain

Also consumers are looking for fashion pieces that last more than one season, so the idea of different options in the same style is an intelligent solution

To develop multifunctional fashion products there is a considerable number of key elements that need to be considered in the design process, such as:

• The textile materials and technologies, particularly of the emerging materials and technologies that may contribute for the development of products truly multifunctional

• The comfort in it’s a sense of total comfort

• The design research

• Concept test and evaluation

• The inclusive design approach

The value of multifunctional design incorpoate the three main features.

The first feature is diversity. The multifunctional design let the wearer involved in the process of choice and interchangability

The second feature is flexibility.Compared to the general form of clothing, multifuntional design of clothing has a high degree of flexibility in each stage of life cycle

The third feature is continuity across the period of use

In today’s fast fashion market, how to use multifunctional design to achieve the balance of environmental protection and fashion is still worth explored.

Source
AUTEX 2009 World Textile Conference J. Cunha, A. C. Broega University of Minho, School of Engineering, Department of Textile Engineering, Guimarães, Portugal
Journal of Arts & Humanities Meng-Mi Li1 , Ying Chen2 , Ye Wang1

Image source : wtvox.com / the Emami dress pinterest.com