Modular clothing designs for apparel reusability & longevity

Background & introduction

Increasing clothing waste is harmful not only to the environment in terms of GHG emissions, but also to the manufacturers in the form of poor economics and depletion of resources.

One of the ways to enhance clothing longevity and reusability is transformable or modular fashion, which refers to clothing items that have detachable pieces, so that one can easily alter the clothing item to suit changing needs and tastes over time.

What are the key sustainability benefits?

Modular fashion would enable consumers to buy fewer clothes given their versatility, less washing by detaching unclean pieces, and buying only damaged pieces, rather than replacing the entire garment. These would, in turn, minimize the associated environmental impact.

How does this work?

Modular design, or modularity in design, is a design principle that subdivides a system into smaller parts called modules (such as modular process skids), which can be independently created, modified, replaced, or exchanged with other modules or between different systems. 

According to different disassembly forms, modular design is categorized into three - the  component  modular  design where the  basic  clothing  form  is  retained,  the  geometric modular design where designs are separated  from  the  basic garment  shape and the  compounded modular design where both the above modules are adopted.