Anti-linearity The
AN ANTI-LINEAR SS22
Spring-Summer 2022 embarks upon a new season of creations in a unique context, where applicable, effective formulas are re-evaluated daily.
The season is adjusting to a new era wherein the whole notion of time has been profoundly transformed, where new links between the various fashion cycles are being forged. Approaches to time are more mindful, analyzing and taking into account each step of the chain, refashioning them in a freer way. Rather than righting or rebuilding existing systems, Spring Summer 22 boldly abandons time’s linearity and horizontality, to make the leap into the circular movement.
The vibrant energy of the circle, already well anchored in the eco-responsible arena, is now happily seeping into fashion products and organizations, to help the circular philosophy evolve in fresh new ways.
Recycling is a perfect example of circularity in terms of the product itself. Ancestral, nuanced and well thought-out, the recycling process is constantly being updated thanks to a tremendous technological input. Recycling is enhanced by a search for meaning and respect for the environment, to get the most out of each material.
Industrial processes are improving, and separating out composite materials is now possible thanks to innovative advances in all domains, from a product’s conception to its end-of-life. Recycling opens up tremendous prospects for getting past the constraints of pure compositions that have been so popular for so long, and which reduce developments to wan variations. Today, designs can be created with hybrid, entirely responsible products, combining, for example, recycled and/or organic compositions, allied to finishings with an extremely low chemical and/or water impact, for looks and behaviors at the very cutting edge of fashion.
This transformation of materials alters the very production and sourcing of raw materials as well as consumer habits. The ties between fabrication and final customers are much more closely interwoven, encouraging everyone to become actors of change, and part of this new chain. There are many new initiatives, creating a close involvement for everyone, so that returning used products, managing waste and transport impacts are emerging as sources of unfettered creativity. A slew of potential solutions is gaining momentum, involving circularity from design to product degradability. Researchers, industrialists and designers are striving for maximal optimization, to prevent even the tiniest bit of pollution from escaping and oversee the veracity and comprehension of each development. This is a meticulous task of education and communication involving the greater part of industry players to combat preconceptions, occasionally questionable marketing activities, and oversimplifications that sow doubt inside this complex universe. A community of thought and action which passionately links the idea of beginnings that become endings, and ends that serve as beginnings in a dizzying, joyful waltz.
Hybrid and multifaceted, recycling combines of course different industries. Recently the leather sector, the number one recycling industry, has shed light on a new market by joining forces with the fishing sector to use fish skins intended for the food industry. By pooling material resources and decompartmentalizing know-hows, the circular philosophy enables us to generate new materials while capitalizing on productions where “Nothing is wasted, everything is transformed.”
Products aren’t the only things that are changing – the design process and the way companies are organized are evolving too. Collection schedules and timetables are being fine-tuned to integrate new stages in a product’s design. Transforming materials and redistributing resources open up new fields, to integrate the new processes. Organization becomes multi-temporal, and reassesses collections with adjusted, sometimes overlapping timeframes.
Another element in this exercise is the matter of personalization, which adds a new challenge to the industry. One-off products, limited series and customization are all modifying heretofore linear production lines, offering an opportunity to concentrate the use of materials, refine cuts, specific dyes, etc. to successfully reverse the trend towards standardization.
In this flurry of positive changes, activities to heighten the awareness and segmentation of customer targets are also transcending traditional lines. Today’s brands target an increasingly multifaceted public that rejects categorization. Digital sales platforms draw on a mix of intellectual, visual and musical inspiration and blur existing codes, creating a new multiculturalism. Categories are multi-tagged, and customers no longer fit neatly into age or gender brackets, and are ready to fully engage and interact with the fashion cycle.
The principle of circularity stimulates creative opportunities. It drives transformations and synergy, proposing ways to expand, to take a curious interest in new ways to break down activity sectors and categories. It transforms finite temporalities into infinite possibilities for reconstruction, for new creative undertakings, for a more hybrid, richer and more beautiful world.