The days when synthetic textiles were the poor cousin of natural fabrics are long gone. These days, designers choose fabrics according to how well they do the job – particularly in menswear, where design has always been about function rather than decoration. Meanwhile, science is increasing the range of artificial fabrics available to designers all the time – meaning that if it’s shiny, waterproof and makes a rustling sound when you walk, then it’s in favour.This isn’t exactly news to anyone with a wardrobe full of technical sportswear – that most specialized of specialist clothing categories, where every design decision is performance-led. Since the late 70s at least, technical casual clothing has been a subject of male obsession – not least because it allows men to talk about fashion in more masculine terms, letting them play Top Trumps with spec sheets as opposed to chat about hemlines and celebs. And it has inspired a level of obsession at least as extreme and pathological as that enjoyed by Savile Row; talk about the tog rating of down and the superiority of de-veined feathers is not so different from debates over vent options and stitches per inch. Technical fabrics have an appeal to the obsessive nature of alot of men. It takes it away from being just ‘fashion’ and becomes something more permanent.
Such preoccupations have enjoyed a particularly devoted following in the North (maybe because clothes have to work that bit harder in a harsher climate). Here, men were seeking stylish protection in Massimo Osti’s Stone Island and CP Company, and hankering after other classic offerings from his short-lived Lefthand label, long before the South woke up to its practical, all-terrain appeal. And now a new generation of designers - most notably Aitor Throupe from Blackburn – is reevaluating this hi-tech casual tradition. Tokyo has also long admired technical fash and many of its most celebrated streetwear brands have collaborated with outdoor textile specialists. Visvim (read this), the Japanese label famed for its ‘FunBoy3’ shoes, is now venturing into outerwear, with Gore-Tex-treated peacoats and Harris Tweed jackets.
Technical wear’s influence on fashion is arguably most apparent in Y-3, the ongoing collaboration between fashion design (Yamamoto) and sports performance technology (Adidas). The label’s key piece for this season is a show-stopping metallic fishtail parka; it has a super-shiny outer shell made from nylon interwoven with polyethylene, creating a textile that’s water-repellent but lightweight enough to allow for the fluidity of movement required by athletes; the amount of scientific research that’s gone into it is reflected in the very high price tag.
The latest detail to get fashion’s tech-heads drooling is seam reinforcements. No matter how protective the textile, the seams are always a weak point in a garment : the tiny gaps between each stitch leave it vulnerable to the elements, in addition to the stitch miniholes themselves. This is why Visvim uses taped seams in many of its jackets – a design detail taken from mountaineering gear that keeps out wind and rain, and one that is also used by the new Nike Tech Pack range as well as Burton’s Idiom snowboarding jackets. Gore-Tex, a world leader in fabric technologies has gone one better and developed its own patented seamed seals. Stitching on jackets leak water and air, rendering the garment powerless against the elements, that’s why Gore-Tex only uses its own formulated tape which is then heat-sealed along all of the seams creating a watertight apparel. The great thing about sealed seams is that they are only visible on the inside of the garment, a subtle sign of superior quality to a new breed of casuals. Just as a flash of tartan lining of a Fred Perry jacket used to show where your label loyalties lay, so the new wave of technical sportswear, has its own function-led symbolic language. For while men may still talk about performance and function, it’s still how good a coat looks that ultimately decides whether it will become extremely iconic.
