Modular Textiles: The Gathered Cloths Experiment
Embracing Impermanence in Sustainable Fashion
It’s been really heartwarming to see how the “Gathered Cloths” project is received during fashion showcases this year. Transitioning its presentation from a more strictly educational tool to raise textile awareness to public fashion shows is a great move to engage a larger audience in more meaningful conversations.
But one thing remains seemingly elusive to grasp: each iteration of Gathered Cloths is temporary, yielding impermanent garments or objects that only exist for a limited time before they are being deconstructed and transformed into something else. In this issue, I’d like to drive down the point of object impermanence, and show how one textile art project can be so modular and versatile as time goes on.
A few months ago, I received an email from an International Art Fair representative. They would like to invite me to showcase my creations, including the 6th iteration of Gathered Cloths.
The problem is the 6th iteration no longer exists. The tattered cloak with trailing train and big hood was no more. It was deconstructed a few weeks after the picture above was taken, and slowly reassembled alongside newly created pieces of Gathered Cloths to form the 7th iteration.
Even this arguably more grotesque construction, inspired by tree bark and hurricane-swept palm trees was only a temporary physical existence. After just one week, it was completely disassembled and partially reassembled in a different form during The Climate Gallery launch party.
The 6th and 7th iterations of Gathered Cloths may no longer exist in physical reality, but they are “immortal” as 3D objects in GLB / GLTF format, ready to be deployed in any virtual reality environment as I see fit. Their digital 3D constructions are results of photogrammetry, involving me taking tens to hundreds of pictures of their finished physical construction, dropping them into an app for 3D photo stitch, and editing them further with Blender.
Amongst all iterations of Gathered Cloths, only 6th and 7th iterations are available as 3D objects. No other physical construction before or after is immortalized further through photogrammetry.
Despite my initial desire to continue doing photogrammetry documentations of Gathered Cloths, I found myself unable to pragmatically do so within my pool of priorities, especially after Mozilla Hubs (now exists as Hubs, an open-source VR platform) shut down.
Back to Basics
So with that in mind, let’s go back to the core process of the Gathered Cloths, an infinitely circular process of creating ruffled cloths and temporarily constructing them into objects. As long as textile waste remains an increasingly global challenge, the project is only bound to continue expanding.
To this day, just like the International Art The first five iterations in 2021 were faster because they involved fewer ruffled cloths. Constructing and deconstructing garments with 7 to fewer than 50 ruffled cloths in various, irregular sizes is like playtime sessions.
Speaking of play, temporarily constructing objects (they don’t even have to be garments to wear!) with Gathered Cloths is like playing with Lego pieces. The ruffled cloths are the building blocks, and you “stack them up” using safety pins.
Even though they are temporarily assembled, I want to maintain a sense of overall tidiness. In this 8th iteration with 100 ruffled cloths, you could barely see any safety pins.
Modular, Ruffled Fashion
Until the 8th iteration, I was focused on creating ONE garment using all available ruffled cloths. However, in April 2024, that began to change when I conducted a “Fashioning Textile Waste” workshop session with Hamlin School K-8 students in San Francisco.
Out of 120 cloths I have, I divided them into three equal parts and gave each student group (28 - 31 people) to construct an outfit for their teacher in 30 - 40 minutes. At the end of the day, 4-5 teachers donned Gathered Cloths in varying degree. Some were decked in students’ Gathered Cloths construction from head to toe, some were donning only modular sleeves or a crossbody bag.
Two ruffled cloths went missing that day, however it’s only a matter of time before more ruffled pieces of Gathered Cloths are made. In my preparation for Remake Bay Area’s “Walk Your Values” fashion show in November, I replaced the two missing pieces, repaired 24 existing cloths, and added 8 new ruffled cloths.
In total, there were 128 ruffled cloths used to curate Gathered-Cloths-infused upcycled looks for Remake Bay Area “Walk Your Values” fashion show. You can check out Remake Walk Your Values lookbook; Fafafoom Studio’s Gathered Cloths are featured in Look #8 to #15.
Here are my favorite captures from the lookbook photoshoot!
I am really grateful that these 8 looks closed the show during the Remake fashion show. As the sole representative upcycling designer, this is a great honor and I would cherish this event for a long time.
After Remake
Perhaps you would think that I would keep these modular garments as-is until the end of this year, at least. And I thought so, too. I wanted to enjoy them for a little bit longer.
However, less than two weeks later, I already deconstructed at least half of them - partly or fully - to prepare for the next photoshoot. Carmen’s shrug is no more, as is Paul’s wrap top and Lucy’s embellishments and Lucia’s bandannas. VV’s pants are altered to have slimmer tubes and open sides.
Porsha’s dress underwent some alterations, too. I redid the front part of the top with different ruffled cloths, and finished it with a V neckline.
During the photoshoot, the royal train was elongated even more. I added more loose ruffled pieces around the hemline on the set.
I cannot say much about the photoshoot for now, however I had a great time that day doing it. We had three models, two photographers, two makeup and hair artists, and both indoor and outdoor sets. Empress Vintage, who also participated in the Remake fashion show, lent me some vintage jewelries for the models to wear.
As of right now, these three modular Gathered Cloths garments are still intact. Because I like the coat so much (and I’m not the only one, apparently), I will keep it as-if for a while longer. As for the other two, they will be deconstructed soon!
What kind of modular garments are you looking forward to seeing next? Please let me know, I’m curious to know what newsletter readers think!
Thanks for reading; until next time,
Mira Musank
Read more about Gathered Cloths:
Gathered Cloths: How do you address the ever-growing global issue of textile waste?
Gathered Cloths: Textile Art Meets Climate Action (October 2024 issue)