Playing Dress Up
Transformations with Ema Milašauskyte
March 1st, 2023
A new era has officially dawned for transformable fashion - stepping off the runway and onto the bodies of the everyday eco-conscious and trendy - marking a move away from the role high fashion pieces have traditionally been expected to take on. Whether it be the metaphorical or literal canvas for a designer’s artistic expressions or a method to show off technical innovations, transformable fashion has been anything but practical, let alone wearable.
But with the rise of Gen Z-inspired aggressive layering and shabby couture, there is a growing body of modern references for transformational styling in action. And, as the eyes of the mainstream fashion-conscious begin to accustom themselves to the excessive stacking of layers and fabrics, with a bigger-than-ever emphasis on the reuse-reduce-recycle mantra, it seems there is a letting go of the need for perfection typically associated with the world of high fashion. Instead, the existing model is being made to be one’s own, and now, it’s time to just have fun with it.
Within this realm of innovation and fun comes designer Ema Milašauskytė with her brand Efukum - evolving from research on how garments can expand beyond their default functions. Efukum moves past simple wearability and pushes towards creativity, experimentation, and play - the essence of modern transformative fashion. Ema’s creative method is slow, relies heavily on research, and opposes the idea of mandatory, updated collection releases 4 to 5 times a year. Instead, through her practice, Ema encourages other small brands to use their unique advantages to captivate their audiences’ attention and not chase the mass growth typically expected of fashion labels hungry for profit.
In the essence of Efukum, we see an homage to the core values of modern transformable fashion, where beyond the aspects of straightforward sustainability, the levels of creativity and play that come into her transformative pieces - like Ema’s six-sleeved kimonos - repel boredom in its entirety and open doors to personal innovation. The fact that there is no “proper” way to wear the garments means that they can become anything one’s heart - and inspired mind - desires! Finally, we may have found garments that’ll manage to survive the everchanging trends of fashion, too.
Does interest in transformative and modular fashion come from the Gen Z generation and their mixed, layered & more experimental visual approach to styling, which has gained popularity and reach on platforms like Instagram?
It’s interesting because my audience is actually really wide. Maybe because Gen Z is introducing the style to their parents, but surprisingly, grown men and women are discovering and interacting with my brand, too. The main medium I use is Instagram, which generally has a younger audience, but if I brought my products out of the digital realm into the real world, I feel my brand could reach a more diverse audience at a new level.
My designs were born out of curiosity and research into what other innovative solutions could be created that could address issues surrounding climate change and circular and conscious fashion. I wasn’t thinking about the end client per se but more about how I could create a product that speaks to people... When designing, I tried to focus on making something transformative, but it’s up to the individual to create something with the product... I provide a means for self-expression with these pieces.
You could see this form of self-expression as play, and play saves us from boredom. And it’s essential today with the current textile crises and all it’s doing to the environment- we throw clothes away constantly because we get tired of them. We feel like we’ve worn them in all possible ways, and they suddenly become uninteresting. But when you start looking at the clothing from the perspective of play, you don’t see your sweater’s sleeves as created to only put your arms through - you can turn them into a scarf or put one arm in the sleeve and tie the other around you. You can renew the value of the garment more than you think!
Since there is more cognitive work involved in dressing oneself with transformative pieces, as in far more open-ended thinking rather than one single way to make use of the garment, have you considered whether folks might feel these pieces are too complicated to wear?
I’ve spent a lot of time analysing the world of transformative fashion and design, and I’d often see how transformative pieces were super well thought through; there’s obviously been maximum brain power put towards these projects, and as a result, the end product is so functional - it can do so many things and has so many purposes - that the piece can actually start repelling people… Folks like simple products without overthinking their function and concerning clothing, this is precisely what I spent time contemplating - the transformation(s) it could undergo had to be as simple as possible. So, I made the conscious decision to find the most straightforward ways to transform - by adding more sleeves or additional laces, and so on. I feel it becomes a tangible and wearable toy at the palm of their hand; I mean, you can tie those laces however you want to and wherever you want to - there are no rules. The absence of the “technically advanced” look you asked about definitely alleviates some of the pressure off of the user since the product is easy to comprehend and navigate and, of course, should be fun.
Is the aspect of transformation within Efukum based solely around sustainability, or is it a bonus to the ethical practices of circular economy and zero-waste fashion? And in your opinion, how do you think the consumer plays into the whole equation of sustainability in transformative fashion?
Overall, my whole brand circulates around sustainability; it was the starting point for it all. I was looking for ways to talk to people about it because, in my own experience, I saw that people would stop wearing pieces of clothing, and it wasn’t necessarily because of how they looked but because the pieces lost meaning - they started to feel outdated. So, I was looking for ways to make pieces that would create a sort of a connection between the person wearing it and the garment, making it infinitely harder to throw away, as it carried a particular value to it - a psychological connection.
I’m really only doing 50% of the job by creating the piece; the other 50% is done by the person wearing it. I think co-creation is a really important part of it as well. Sustainability comes from the autonomy to change the garment as one pleases. You receive one piece of clothing, but you can do whatever you want with it - wear it as a top, as a skirt, make a bag out of it, literally whatever works for you. I wanted to make the person feel more responsible for their personalization but also the sustainability of it since they’re a big part of the equation, too. Everything from production all the way down to consumption is important in this. We, as designers, are putting our efforts into making good quality clothes made to last, with multi-purpose use, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the individual to put into action how much use the piece will actually get.
‘I provide a means for self-expression with these pieces. You could see this form of self-expression as play, and play saves us from boredom. And it’s especially important today with the current textile crises and all it’s doing to the environment- we throw clothes away constantly because we get tired of them.’
Do you think it’s hard to sell pure sustainability? As in, Is that why the layers of play and transformation were added to the mix? Because Efukum isn’t being marketed as a sustainable brand first, it’s sold as an innovative, up-and-coming transformative fashion label.
At first, I spent a lot of time talking about sustainability, but as time passed, I realised that it’s a hard topic for people to digest… There’s so much guilt and responsibility put on the consumer, and it’s grim because, in some way, it’s misplaced. But for most people, clothes are still just clothes; you just wear them, and there’s not much more to it. You don’t typically walk around thinking about how you’re destroying the planet by getting dressed, or at least you choose not to think about it... And in part, for this reason, I brought the aspect of play into my take on clothing, with this idea that maybe that will seduce people into choosing the sustainable option without thinking about it too much. I suppose that’s why Efukum isn’t really about the materials we use - I’m looking for a fun angle, a way to make everything less serious for the consumer. I’m trying to push forward the concept in a positive light.
I guess, in part, it’s almost impossible to separate the two aspects you’ve mentioned. A young brand can’t ethically ignore issues around sustainability.
Exactly, the rules on how contemporary designers create have changed. Now, small designers need to focus on their uniqueness rather than mass production and the impractical mindset on how to make their product satisfy as many consumer’s needs as possible. The design should solve a problem, and in this case, a great example is excess textile waste and, hopefully, boredom.
But then I’m wondering, if we create a transformative product that could be used in a wide variety of ways, made from sustainable materials, that doesn’t go out of style, wouldn’t it be hard for the brand to survive? Clothing companies never strive to sell less, so for Efukum, is it the loyalty of the customers that brings in revenue and repeated purchases?
That’s what I was saying earlier about my audience - it’s extremely loyal. If my clients are happy with their purchase, I can see that they'll return and buy the same product in a different colour. Some have three kimonos, multiples of the same bag, etc.
And they’ll wear all three of them?
Yes, and then they’ll come back and give their input on how I can change them. I find a lot of meaning in this because I know my clients, and they trust in the process to come back to me to provide feedback - you feel a strong social meaning in what you do. But coming back to whether a small brand can survive, then absolutely is a way to go. Because before you start doing it, it can look like a small audience equals earning less. But in reality, those small audiences grow, change, and support you completely. If your design is unique, people follow you and wait for what else you have to show.
I don’t see the need to step out of the niche product category into mass production. In my research, I analyzed how a niche brand should live and function. A designer’s authenticity and small brand size are strengths if you concentrate on your audience. You have to use this opportunity and be niche the best you can. I don’t have aspirations for Efukum to become a mass brand; it is functioning great as it is. I have a base of only five products, but I change the colours, textures, and details. It is natural that when the products are heavily researched, new products are born rarely; if a new product appears, there has to be a strong reason for it to exist. We launched the kimono four years ago, and I don’t think I should stop making it. But I try to improve each time based on customer feedback. It’s important to educate the audience that 4-5 new collections per year are excessive and unnecessary. We as designers have to take the responsibility of making the consumer a part of the process where they are aware of how much time and effort it takes to create the product and if they really need something new quickly.
My issue with fashion often relates to sizing, and I know transformational fashion can manifest itself through size transformations, too. Efukum's kimono appears to be quite universal - was it an intentional decision to design it this way?
I was definitely thinking about sizing a lot. At this point, I don’t even know my size; I mostly shop at vintage stores or create things for myself. So when I started creating for a larger audience, I aimed to make the product universal, in that everyone could play with it and eliminate the part of shopping where you receive a product and it doesn’t fit you.
My kimono doesn’t have a size or a gender; you can put it on any body type, and it looks completely different every time. Eventually, I started to label it as a wearable toy, eliminating the word ‘clothing’ altogether. It was wild - when I did the first photo shoot for the brand, I had an open call set up, gave all of them the same garment regardless of their size, gender, or age, and asked them to put it on in a way they felt it suited them. There were a couple of times when someone asked me to tie the laces in the back, but I didn’t interfere with the process otherwise. It was in the hands of the client, and it wasn’t my job anymore. And it was so interesting to see how the same piece of clothing looked so different on each person. The creativity was there. We even had a woman who was nine months pregnant, and the kimono fit her perfectly!
On your website, I saw that you make use of the majority of the materials you have, and only about 1% is left to be used later. Do you find it tough to incorporate those leftovers into further designs?
I mean, for example, our tote bags have this hard handle made from upcycling small pieces of fabric. It takes a bit of time to make, but that is why my production process is slow. It’s part of the strategy - to incorporate everything I am working with., I filter sustainability through a multitude of layers, and construction is a part of it. Most of my garment construction pieces are made from squares and rectangles to minimise waste. When you create objects, you make models, you experiment, and you are left with a lot of waste that you can’t really put anywhere. So when I was conducting research for my Master’s thesis, I created a goal not to see anything as waste anymore - it’s still a material to be used. I eliminated the possibility of throwing something out, which forced me to find a place for those scraps to go!
So, concerning the tote bag handle, did it appear out of necessity, or was it designed first to make use of the ‘waste’?
It appeared solely for the zero waste strategy. I first designed this hard handle, and then I figured out how it could be incorporated into a tote bag. There are so many layers to my creations, so it’s so nice to talk about to other people and actually show them the behind-the-scenes of how much thought goes into the whole thing.
It’s fascinating to hear about your creative process, too!
In terms of the innovative, zero-waste design you were describing - do you sew everything yourself, or do you work with sewists? Is it hard to explain the whole process to someone else?
It’s actually the first year that I’m not doing everything myself, so I’ve started hiring sewists. It’s definitely a challenge to work with them because we have different visions and understandings of garments - they are used to simple constructions, and I created my construction method, so I have to include an instruction manual on how to put it all together. I cut the pieces myself so I can keep the scraps, add instructions, and then they sew it all together for me. For example, something like the totes are simple, but the handle that comes with it is made of complex upcycled material pieces I still have to make myself.
One last question about the materials - what is your view towards them? Do you think it’s better to choose natural or raw materials or stick to recycled materials, which may be more expensive?
I do both! I buy new materials and recycle old garments. In the past, I would collect textiles from people. They’d give various objects to me that they didn’t need anymore, and I would reuse them however I could. Recycled materials can be problematic for a small designer because they are too expensive… All those certified ecological materials cost a lot of money, and you typically have to buy them in really large quantities that you won’t necessarily use.
There are compromises, though - I try to use as natural material as possible, but if it’s natural, it doesn’t mean it will be long-lasting. The best option is to eliminate the need for new materials altogether because there are too many being produced globally already, and there is so much need to recycle them before pumping out more. But on the other hand, you have to try to solve these problems somehow, both for yourself and beyond yourself. Sometimes, you just have to buy the new material and produce a garment out of it since it solves some of the other issues you’re facing.
What are you thinking for the future, then? You’re so hands-on and stick close to your cause, and it seems you want to stay this way.
I think it’s for this exact reason that the brand will not aim to reach any mass level. I strive to only create the garment after the order is made to prevent any unsold stock from being left as waste. You only produce something when a person actually needs it and has purchased it. It’s uniquely theirs - a wearable toy. Something for them to play dress up with as creatively as they see fit!
MANY THANKS TO THE
ISSUE 2 CONTRIBUTORS
KOKO FIGURA
ANNIE
VANESSA TORPEY
YVES BARTLETT & DA-JIONG DONG
MANY THANKS TO THE
ISSUE 1 CONTRIBUTORS
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