Modern Materialism & Modular Design

Modern Materialism

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Introduction Background Effects on the consumer Effects on the environment Being ‘wealthy’ Being ‘poor’ Modular design Overview Examples Bibliography Conclusion

Contents

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Materialism is a deep-rooted concept, sculpted by centuries of belief in the idea that owning more things makes you wealthier. This prospect of wealth has become something people chase, ultimately until death. If people were simply more content with less and society as a whole was to not look down on them for it, we could become a far happier world. The mass production that’s harming the environment would slow and the planet would no longer be as much of a worry.

Introduction

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With the ever-more important role social media plays in our society, people can look on in envy at ‘influencers’ and the ‘super-rich’ as they lavish themselves with things. This chase of becoming as ‘rich’ as them one day, in that we have as many possessions as they do, is a never-ending uphill battle for 99% of us.

It may be nice to have lots of clothes to choose from in your wardrobe, or to often indulge in sweet treats but things like these have long-term effects, too; your room may become cluttered, and you may gain weight, causing stress and self-confidence issues.

While owning things to be financially wealthy may be true, it doesn’t mean that it makes you wealthy in any other ways.

Background

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The super-wealthy would go about in a new dress or suit every time they stepped out of their house, and this was looked upon in envy by those who had less. Fashion was also a way for people to conceal their class, as “everything from spinning to weaving to steam-molding corsets became industrialised, which meant fashions became readily available across the class spectrum”1; these material objects became masks for people to feel better about themselves.

While social media plays the heaviest hand in contributing to our materialistic society now, even before the internet was created was our society materialistic. The first major sign of it is in the Victorian era, when Christmas and other major holidays were created - celebrated by giving. Over time this has changed to material objects but this wasn’t always the case; during the late 1800s simply the family’s company was enough, and all that was expected.

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Through highly addictive content-consuming apps such as Instagram and TikTok, consumers receive targeted adverts constantly. As they walk down the street, they might see a billboard for the newest jacket from a brand they like, or a new recipe for their favourite meal at their favourite restaurant. They’re forced to learn of these new products, and through techniques such as planned obsolescence retain customers as their items are built to break or become obsolete in the short to mid-term5.

Materialism’s effects on the consumer

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The main side effect of materialism on the consumer is financial strain, but also potential insecurities and self-destructive feelings due to chasing the newest thing and feeling inadequate without it, or less valuable than another person who may have it. It’s hard to avoid this feeling as we see dozens of people with these highly sought-after or desired items every day on social media. It’s important for people to remember that they’re just as valuable as anyone else, no matter how much they own.

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In a wider context, materialism causes a lot of waste; micro-trends have become commonplace in the fashion industry, which force brands to rapidly design products for aesthetic purposes rather than functionality and designing things built to last. Products are churned out rapidly - often in excess - leading to a lot of waste material. The fashion industry produces nearly 92 millions tons of waste every year. Only 20% of textiles are collected for reuse or recycling globally.

Ensuring that products are kept for a longer time through modular design and encouragement of repairing, not replacing, would bring waste figures down drastically. However, it’s not just fast fashion.

The ‘fast’ concept applies to many practices; a single piece of fast furniture generates up to 47kg of carbon dioxide emissions.

Materialism’s effects on the environment

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Alternatively, we can simply reduce the number of material possessions we have. If everyone owns less on average, people will feel less inclined to buy more things when they don’t need them, and not feel as though owning more material things makes them happy.

Wealth always has been easiest to judge by number of material possessions. However, if we place less value on how other people view our wealth and more on how wealthy we feel through mental and physical health, we would all feel wealthier as a society and not be forced to work ourselves to death for things we don’t necessarily need, and that damage our environment.

Being ‘wealthy’

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Through modular design, we can make things easier to repair and customise, meaning we can own and replace less - thereby helping the environment and keeping costs down. As long as the base of each of these doesn’t out-price people with less, it would be beneficial all-round.

Meanwhile, a poor person is often seen as someone who owns little, and what little they own is seen as low in quality. However, these things often have sentimental value, and through repairing and care can last for a long time. We don’t need lots of things as long as the things we have are good quality and repairable.

Being ‘poor’

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If we take this principle and apply it to other things, such as fashion or interior design, we can achieve a society that isn’t so reliant on environmentally harmful practices such as fast fashion/furniture. It isn’t as good as a fix for fast fashion as it is for designer brands, as it relies on using at least good quality materials, but the basic principles of creating products that can be repaired easily remain relevant.

Overview Modular design is a design principle in which things are broken down and into smaller sections; these sections can be moved around, replaced and exchanged with modules from other things however one chooses2. It’s easiest to see in consumer products such as cars, phones, computers and TVs. However, the most common example is LEGO - all it’s bricks work with nearly all other bricks. If a brick is lost or damaged, it can be replaced with another relatively easily3.

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WGSN is a trend forecasting platform commonly used in the industry.

It calls out modular fashion as one of the top 5 trends for the next decade. Brands such as Buhndi are already creating pieces using this principle, with their ‘bases’ costing as low as £32 and their detachable sleeves costing a further £154. The base would last users a long time, and the detachable sleeves can be replaced at little financial cost for the consumer and material cost for the supplier.

Examples

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Biblography “5 Over-the-Top Fashion Trends From the Victorian Era”, History, Michelle Cyca, July 11 2023. [ONLINE] “What are the greatest advantages of modular design?”, Innovolo Group, Bradley Pallister, March 28 2023. [ONLINE] “What is modular design?”, U-Next, UNext editorial team, June 10 2023. [ONLINE] “To Zip or Not to Zip”, Buhndi, n/a, n/a. [ONLINE] “Planned obsolescence and its environmental impact”, Iberdrola, n/a, 2023. [ONLINE]

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Thank you.

& Modular Design