Would you wear a coat that talks back?
Guardian Unlimited
Saturday, October 21, 2000
To meet the demands of a hectic urban lifestyle, it might be just what you need. Dominic Murphy opens the wardrobe of tomorrow, where hi-tech fabrics meet all manner of gadgets and gizmos.
Imagine—it is a cold, sunny day but the train into work will be cramped and stuffy. How much should you put on? What if the weather turns nasty all of a sudden: a heavy shower when it was such a promising start? Will it mean sitting all morning in the office with the uncomfortable feeling of your skirt or trousers drying against your skin?
Urban workers, who spend their lives partly in conditions of artificial heating and air-conditioning, partly subject to the whim of the weather, will pass through several environments in one day. Each time, they will want different things from their clothing—that’s before they they even consider the gym at lunchtime or what to wear for a social date after work. In the city context, the traditional rules of spring, summer, autumn and winter are becoming less important. In their place is a fifth season of the controlled urban environment, where the old climate rules no longer apply.
Let no one say that fashion is all fluff and nonsense, never responding to the consumer’s needs. On the evidence of a new exhibition organised jointly by the London College of Fashion and the Victoria & Albert Museum, designers—from Issey Miyake and Hussein Chalayan to relative unknowns—are increasingly focusing on the problems of dressing in the urban environment. The Supermodern Wardrobe, as the show is called, is more than a rundown of utility style; it looks ahead to what we might be wearing in the future. People move around more, need more from their clothing. Fashion needs not only to fulfil its traditional role of making us look good and incidentally protecting us from the elements, but also kitting us out for the environment created by the city. “Supermodern is a term borrowed from the French sociologist Marc Augé, who used it to describe the late capitalist condition,” says the curator Andrew Bolton. “It’s all about excessive information, urban spaces now being within a few hours of one another. A prime example is the internet. You’ve got so much to think about in your daily lives—these clothes are about simplifying choices.”
So, multipurpose garments are no longer an eccentric’s fantasy—or Heath Robinson for fashion victims—but an inspiring and possibly profitable new direction for designers. The versatility of this clothing increases options for the wearer’s appearance, but reduces the number of clothes needed. Issey Miyake devoted a substantial part of its autumn/winter 2000 collection to this theme, including Transformer jackets with bolt-on anoraks that can be worn over them, and Film Lining jackets that reverse to a waterproof option. Meanwhile, state-of-the-art fabrics have made their way out of the camping shop and into the collections of hip, small labels such as Vexed Generation; and accessorised clothing has moved on from the days of workwear trousers with a handy strap for your chisel, to jackets containing micro-computers—smart in every sense.
Recently, there was the launch of Levi’s ICD+, a collaboration between the clothing manufacturer, electronics giant Philips, and designer Maaimo Osti. “We needed to examine what people need from workwear today,” said Levi’s Peter Ingwersen. “We identified a group we call nomads, who are constantly on the move, always in taxis or airports and need to be wired.” The results are jackets with voice-recognition mobile phones and MP3 players, a microphone in the collar and earphones built into the hood; the jackets are machine washable, but the electronics click out before you put them in the machine.
Typical features of so-called “intelligent” clothing (or I-wear as it is dubbed in the industry) include hoods and pollution masks; colours tend to be blacks, greys and duns—camouflage for the alienating city street—and fabrics decidedly functional, often driven by military research. Vexed Generation has been exploring such themes since it began in 1994. Tucked away in a covered Soho alley, an open door leads you, unannounced, anonymous, up a spiral staircase to the first-floor showroom where a crowd of faceless mannequins display the company’s most recent work.
“When we started, we were on the dole and wanted to make London street wear,” says Adam Thorpe, one half of Vexed Generation. “We ride scooters and push bikes, we’re interested in going out … There was increasing surveillance, so we had hoods that hid your identity.” So they came up with their Parka, a menacing “parody of riot gear” into whose hood the wearer’s face would almost disappear. It was at the time that the Criminal Justice Act was being introduced, so the Parka highlighted issues of civil liberties and CCTV. Made from ballistic nylon originally developed for the Ministry of Defence, it is one of their signature pieces, a variation of which they continue to make.
Today, Thorpe and his partner Joe Hunter are “still on two-wheels but don’t want to be in full battledress all the time”. Their latest collection includes more tailored clothing such as the A4 Crombie, smart enough to wear to the office, but with a hood concealed in the collar. “It is not as in-your-face or confrontational as they used to be, but perhaps the times are not as in-your-face and confrontational. Whereas before you were definitely scaring old ladies in the street, now you have the option to scare old ladies in the street.”
It is Vexed’s use of hi-tech fabrics that really sets their clothes apart—at a glance some of the designs might not look that different from utility offerings on the high street. But talk to Thorpe and Hunter, and it is like having a chemistry lesson. They know as much about molecules and endothermic reactions as they do about pleats, lines and tucks. In their new collection, there are semi-tailored “suit/bike” jackets made of Corwool, a waterproof fabric that has the warm qualities and appearance of wool: not a hint of bulk, not a whisper of anorak; perfect for wearing in the office; excellent, with its concealed zip pockets to hold your files, for that scooter ride into work.
Or you could take that overheated train on a cold day. The real magic of this jacket is the “phase change” technology used in the lining, a textile originally developed for Nasa. This will keep you cool in the heat, and warm in the cold. “Previously, all heat retention was done by trapping air, so you’d have all this bulky, fleecy stuff,” says Thorpe. Here, the jacket acts as a kind of heat exchanger, taking away excess body heat, giving it back when it is needed. “The fabric is made of molecules that optimise body temperature—heat is stored in the fabric. Most people are not interested in how the thing works, but what we’re trying to do is make a garment that is pared down, modern, utilitarian without looking utilitarian. Can it keep you warm without you looking like the Michelin man?”
While this technology came from Nasa, Maharishi—a label that had a shaky start designing hemp clothing but now has a following that includes Madonna and Brad Pitt—has actually helped develop a new textile. The idea, explains founder and designer Hardy Blechman, was to make hemp, a traditional clothing fabric that is more environmentally friendly than cotton, work in modern times. Due to its associations with marijuana production, h
