Hyperfunction, is centered around the creation of a scalable, performance-based fashion system (inclusive of garments and a business model) that can deliver clothing that is born from the local context of Milan. It does so by embodying “local” in concept, material acquisition, manufacturing, and delivery. A several month long period of observation-based research was conducted on urban Milan to understand user needs. Along with an iterative prototyping process, the garments were born.
National
Italy
The metropolitan city of Milan, IT and textile manufacturers in Tuscany, IT
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
ERASMUS
The program was FTalliance: a "three-year Knowledge Alliance Project co-founded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union." I created this project, Hyperfunction, in 2022 through its mentorship program called the "Fashion-Tech Residency." More information can be found at the program's website https://fashiontechalliance.eu/en/
When I moved to Milan, Italy from California, I was having a drink in a piazza when a Milanese girl complimented my “Patagucci” backpack. Patagucci, the term used to describe the luxury, street-wear status of Patagonia, provoked questions in me on the role of performance and utility garments in the urban space.
To many Milanese, and urban dwellers at large, life in the city has become a journey akin to hiking, skiing, and fishing. The athleticism of street biking, scaling the metro steps, drinking in a cold piazza: these are small adventures that are taken through an ever changing terrain and urbanites need garments to accompany them on this journey. Thus, there exists a space here to create wearable products that use the language of function present in these performance garments, while also better adapting them to the diverse needs of the modern urban dweller.
This project, Hyperfunction, was born from this realization. The ultimate result of this project is a proposal for a performance, urban-centric fashion system that is almost entirely urban in its form and execution. In order to show a proof of concept, for the scope of the project seen here, a Hyperfunction jacket was created in Milan and Tuscany, It in collaboration with Pangaia Grado Zero, Politecnico di Milano, and the Fashion-Tech Alliance program. The research and development that went into the first prototype were presented as my master’s thesis work at Politecnico di Milano.
After a rigorous research path, the Hyperfunction jacket prototypes were created. It values performance textiles, internal and external pocket systems, forms suited for a body in motion, and modularity. To complement the urban-centric nature of this garment, this project also proposes a business plan for releasing this collection to the market through an atelier-like system. The garments will be produced on a made-to-order scale, prioritizing the use of textiles produced within Italy and labor sourced within Milan.
Urban
Performance
Fashion
Modular
Atelier
The Hyperfunction jacket used Milan and greater Italy, as a case study for a relocalized, reshored design and production model. The Hyperfunction garment was designed in Milan, its textiles were produced in Tuscany, IT and the garment was constructed both in Tuscany and Milan. This project thus looks to center its research and production in Milan and Italy, greatly reducing the environmental impact of logistics (shipping material and labor) traditionally associated with garment production.
Hyperfunction garments are made from performance materials like membrane-backed nylons and stretch fabrics - a family of textiles that are hard to produce in an environmentally friendly way. Therefore, in order to mitigate environmental impact, the garments in the Hyperfunction system look to be sourced and developed within their local context of Italy, reducing the distance product needs to travel. In the case of this jacket, the textiles were supplied by Umberto Lenzil, a performance textile manufacturer based in Tuscany, It.
Additionally, the garments’ production looks to return to an atelier type model of production: where garment makers and designers share a single space for research, development and production. This space is to be centered within Milan. By producing within Milan, the garment then doesn’t have to make another huge move from textile producer to manufacturer.
This reshoring has been successfully achieved by a number of European companies, showing the feasibility of this model. Additionally, with bringing the production as close to the point of research as possible, the garment gets imbued with an even higher degree of hyperlocality. The textiles and the garment’s form become a further symbol of the local context.
The city space is meant to have built itself around the modern human lifestyle: one that has no bushes to wack through, dirt trails to trudge over, mountains to scale. Yet, everyday pain points still arise for users. Pain points that are linked to their kinesiology, their proprioceptive relation to the environment, and the loads they must bring to from point A to point B via metro lines X, Y, and Z.
Therefore, even though the city is made for comfort, alas, discomfort still presents itself. So thus, the Hyperfunction garment arises by “[focusing] on what [the] clothing does before considering how it looks” (Watkins and Dunne, “Functional Clothing Design: From Sportswear to Spacesuits,” 2015). And what the garment does is provide functionality and protection to the city dweller. Thus, based on the research and prototyping, the Hyperfunction jacket was made with the following values at its core:
-Research Based Deliverables: Create according to observed human behavior within the local city. Looking at things like behavior on the metro, frequency of bike use, where and how people party are all important factors.
-Material Conscious: Not only is the aesthetic element important, but the material should protect the user from the environmental stressors while also being durable and long-lasting. Thus the use of abrasion resistant ripstops and water impermeable membranes and zippers were selected.
-Loose & Flexible: garments feature loose fitting forms and area for movement. This not only allows the user to layer underneath their garments, but allows for a wider range of motion within the garment.
-Carry Loads: there are hidden pockets all around the garment. It ensures that the user has their things close to them and organized in a logical way.
-Modular: Because there are so many different climates in a city, it’s important that the garment maintains the ability to be taken on and off or modulated in ways that allow for more comfort.
This project is inclusive in that it asks for a lot of local activation of labor and domestic involvement. It also asks for a radical shift towards transparency for the production of garments. The garment makers, designers, textile producers, and other staff need to be sourced within the country, as close to the researched city (Milan) as possible.
In the context of Milan, the city which gave rise to the Hyperfunction jacket, materials were sourced from Tuscany and the labor was sourced by me. In this model of production, Hyperfunction necessitates a reshoring of labor and production. Not only does it reduce the overall environmental impact of the product, but it also is a way of boosting the economy, upholding craft-based labor, and creating more modes of revenue for domestic production. In creating and maintaining these types of jobs, Hyperfunction creates financial support for labor that is increasingly being outsourced to overseas producers.
Having a brand that is so transparent about domestic production also acts as a way of showing the true cost of a garment. Not only does it shed a light on how comparatively little international laborers get paid, it also shows the reality of the wages for even some domestic workers. Even in Italy, in the recent past, the way that producers will contract out domestic laborers has come under scrutiny for its shockingly low wages (“Inside Italy’s Shadow Economy”, Paton and Lazazzera, 2018).
Thus, this project stands as a sort of patronage for Italian craft. By creating a fashion production system that necessitates being based in Milan, relying on transparent Italian design and manufacturing, Hyperfunction creates another anchor for the continued practice of fashion and garment creation within the country.
From a symbolic, more poetic viewpoint, the Hyperfunction jacket is a snapshot of the societal needs that exist in modern Milan. The Hyperfunction jacket was a result of literature reviews, market research, and observational research. The latter of which was done over a period of 9 months. From a series of over 200 pictures (a quarter of which were annotated with commentary, time, place and weather conditions) a greater image of how modern Milan moved through that period emerged.
The Hyperfunction jacket then takes this movement and condition and materializes a sort of relic of the time. In its pockets, structure, and closures, a garment emerges that captures the cultural zeitgeist of a very specific time and place.
From a more practical viewpoint, the Hyperfunction jacket, being manufactured with Italian textiles and Italian labor, stimulates the local economy. McKinsey, in its 2023 report “The State of Fashion 2023: Holding onto growth as global clouds gather” states that a trend will be to “future proof” manufacturing because of “continued disruptions in supply chains [that have become] a catalyst for a reconfiguration of global production.” It later suggests a solution in “nearshoring, and small-batch production, enabled by enhanced digitization.” By localizing the production, Hyperfunction creates a more reliable line to the consumer.
Ultimately, the strength of Hyperfunction lies in that the same community that inspired the garment and its structure are working to create it, imbuing the piece with an even deeper sense of local spirit.
This project was first supported by the Fashion-Tech Alliance (FTA) residency program, a professional laboratorial experience supported by the European project to support the innovation and employability of university students. I had sent in the initial proposal for the project in January of 2022 and was then given a living stipend and mentorship from Politecnico di Milano and the Pangaia Grado Zero (PGZ) Research and development center in Tuscany, IT.
Through the financial and mentorship support provided by Pangaia Grado Zero and FTA, I was able to source water proof textiles from Umberto Lenzi, a manufacturer in Tuscany, to construct the outer body of the garment. Enrico Cozzoni, the then head of research and development at PGZ, mentored me in fabric selection, garment construction, and material acquisition. He also provided a lot of counseling on circular and sustainable design methods for the fashion industry.
Through Politecnico di Milano, I received further counseling from my thesis advisor, Daria Casciani. She played a large role in guiding the ethnographic and literature-based research that went on to support the creation of the garment.
For the sake of creating the Hyperfunction jacket prototype, I provided the garment production labor (pattern making, cutting, Clo 3D models, and construction assembly). I benefited immensely from the peer-to-peer learning environment of FTA, receiving quite a bit of guidance from my fellow resident Shan Lu.
The jacket was brought to life through a combination of academic research, product design methodologies, and garment making techniques.
A series of ethnographic studies were done on the city of Milan over the course of 9 months to create the real-time image of how people in the city behaved. Then, a very use-centered approach was taken to looking at the ways in which we could source materials and create forms that would best support the body that wore the jacket. Looking at the kinesiology of city dwellers, a form for the jacket emerged. When treating a garment so strictly as an object of use, the development of the jacket looked to resemble more like the processes that go behind creating an industrial product than a traditional piece of dress.
As the product was developed, feature selection methodologies from Watkin and Dunne’s book, “Functional Clothing Design: From Sportswear to Spacesuits,” were deployed. In order to digitally realize how to best combine these features, my background in product design then allowed for the quick adaptation of Clo 3d, a 3D modeling and pattern making software.
Clo 3d, combined with traditional garment drafting techniques, were used to develop the patterns for the Hyperfunction jacket. Through an iterative process of prototyping, wearing, and redrafting, the Hyperfunction jacket took form. The jacket was sewn, worn, and resown to achieve the most appropriate garment for the envisioned use cases.
Ultimately, the intersection of 3D design tools, industrial design techniques, and traditional sartorial methods merged to create a dynamic, performance-centric jacket.
While the concept of urban-centric, performance-focused clothing design has been explored, this space needs radical modernization for how the cityscape has changed and continues to change. The behavioral patterns of urbanites need to be adapted to - garments that help them move through the city space in the same way that a carabiner helps a climber scale a mountain.
The Hyperfunction jacket - and the greater collection - addresses those needs with a performance garment that is functional, yet elegant. For the context of Milan, a nylon-lined, waterproof, modular jacket with large sleeves was created. Milan is one of the most Northern cities of Milan, yet the temperatures are not low enough for snow. The jacket protects the user from the dreary, rainy days - allowing for ample layering underneath the coat. The jacket also has many pockets for carrying the user's things through public transport.
The innovation is that this jacket is completely tailored to Milanese needs. It is meant to fit seamlessly into the lives of the people here. When the jacket comes to the market, users are able to buy something that was completely created with their environment in mind. Additionally, because the jacket was created from Italian textiles and Italian labor, the jacket stands as an even more complete picture of the landscape on which it will be worn.
While other companies like Stone Island and Acronym have sought to create this modern, urban take on performance gear, none have catered it so specifically to be an encapsulation of a given space and time. Hyperfunction exists to draw on the needs and talent of a specific time and place, while also delivering a much needed product to its consumer.
While the feasibility of Hyperfunction has been planned using Milan as a center of production, the expansion of the system to other prominent cities is excitingly anticipated.
The growth for this type of model is possible, albeit tricky. Bianchini and Maffei write in their 2013 paper “Microproduction everywhere. Social, local, open and connected manufacturing,” that, “the essential and binding condition for the development of the [Distributed Microproduction] system is that it must integrate with a more complex ecosystem, such as the urban one where the core of production today consists of services.” By establishing a strong Hyperfunction model, the collection and production has the potential for growth.
In order to be replicated, the Hyperfunction organizations within other major cities need to do the following:
-Locate sartorial & design talent within the city that can produce the garment. A team of garment producers will need to be assembled that can produce the garment in house. Additionally, local designers and design researchers need to be recruited to conduct the research and development for the local garment.
-Conduct observational research within the city. The real-time, on the ground observations are crucial for capturing the current zeitgeist. Additional site-specific literature and ethnographic research is recommended.
-Identify a performance textile supplier that has reasonable proximity to the city. Ideally, the textile producer lies within the same country as the city in question, but it is acknowledged that this is difficult. Thus, if the city can identify an intra-border partner (ex. For Paris, within the European Union. For New York City, within the continental United States), that will suffice. The store must be transparent about where the supplier is located and the relationship between the store and factory.
-Create cultural capital within the city through events and client relationships - in store and external.
Overseas production is a necessary logistical step for many companies. The way their finances and product structures work rely on cheap and fast overseas labor. Hyperfunction challenges this with a proposal for near-total localized production, reshoring the garment creation process. By creating a centralized, atelier-like home for production, this model provides more transparency to the garment production system. Further exploration of the value of reshoring and transparency are iterated in a previous response within this submission, in the inquiry regarding “key objectives of your concept in terms of inclusion.”
Major cities are a hotbed for culture and talent. The Hyperfunction garments simply capture those two energies and create a dressing system that embodies a certain time and place. In doing so, it addresses global challenges regarding ethical and sustainably produced fashion.
