At its core, modular fashion refers to garments designed with interchangeable, detachable, or reconfigurable components. Unlike traditional fashion, where clothing is constructed as static, complete pieces, modular design embraces adaptability.

Components such as sleeves, hoods, panels, or pockets can be attached, removed, or swapped to create multiple styles from a single base garment.

Modularity enables a user to build multiple looks and functionalities from fewer pieces, blurring the lines between designer and wearer.

Though often framed as a contemporary innovation, modular fashion has its origins in the mid-20th century, when the pressures of modern life began to reshape how people dressed. As urbanization intensified and global travel became more accessible, the demand for garments that could transition across settings – professional, casual, or formal—grew rapidly. Clothing needed to be as mobile and flexible as the lives it accompanied.

Designers such as Rudi Gernreich and André Courrèges were among the first to experiment with modular elements: interchangeable sleeves, detachable panels, garments that could be worn in multiple configurations. These weren’t just stylistic novelties, they reflected a deeper shift toward minimalism, efficiency, and a rejection of excess.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, the rise of fast fashion temporarily overshadowed such ideas, promoting low-cost, disposable garments at the expense of quality and sustainability. But in response, modular fashion quietly reemerged, this time as a critique of overconsumption and as a practical solution for extending a garment’s life and versatility.

Innovations by designers like Issey Miyake, with his A-POC project, and more recent labels such as Byborre and Ides, show how modularity now intersects with technology, sustainability, and user empowerment, inviting interaction and customization.

So how is modularity physically built into clothing? A blend of hardware innovation and design foresight enables these dynamic transformations, such as

• Zippers and Invisible Zips: For detachable sleeves, hoods, and pant legs.

• Snaps and Magnetic Closures: Allow quick configuration without damaging fabric integrity.

• Loop Systems, Buttons, and Velcro: Used in tactical gear and children’s wear for intuitive reassembly.

• Custom Engineered Fasteners: As explored in the Agathon design journal, innovations like textile-based fasteners and modular seams are expanding the aesthetics and ease of use.

While these mechanisms may seem purely functional, they also contribute to the garment’s visual identity. Zippers and hardware are often integrated as stylistic accents, particularly in techwear and futurist fashion, creating garments that are as expressive as they are modular.

After decades in the fashion world, in 2018, we have created the Manteco Academy project, through which we  give webinars, in-person lessons and workshops on eco-design, circular economy and sustainability to numerous fashion schools, technical universities and brands worldwide. Thanks to this educative commitment and our heritage, we are often invited as guest speaker at events, panels, podcasts and conferences about sustainable fashion and circular economy.