MIT Develops Refashion Software for Eco-Friendly, Modular Clothing Design

Tackling Textile Waste through Reconfigurable Fashion

The global fashion industry produces approximately 92 million tons of textile waste annually, driven largely by fast-changing trends and disposability of garments. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), in collaboration with Adobe, has developed Refashion, an innovative software tool designed to revolutionize clothing design by enabling garments to be modular, adaptable, and reconfigurable.

Refashion: A Visual, Modular Design System

Refashion allows users—both novice and experienced designers—to create adaptable garments by drawing and assembling modular clothing components visually on a grid-like interface called the “Pattern Editor.” Users outline and customize parts such as sleeves, hoods, or skirts, which can connect via practical fasteners including metal snaps, Velcro dots, or pins called brads.

This approach facilitates:

• Transforming pants into dresses
• Creating garments such as skirts convertible to dresses
• Designing maternity wear adaptable to different pregnancy stages
• Adding interchangeable elements like attachable hoods for weather versatility

The system generates a 2D blueprint and 3D model simulation to help visualize garment fit on various body types, enhancing inclusivity and customization.

Benefits and User Feedback

In preliminary studies, participants quickly prototyped versatile garments such as asymmetric tops extended into jumpsuits or formal dresses, often within 30 minutes, indicating Refashion’s potential to simplify the design process for sustainable fashion.

Rebecca Lin, lead author and MIT EECS PhD student, emphasizes that Refashion champions the creation of clothing from the outset with reuse in mind, allowing garments to be resized, repaired, or restyled instead of discarded.

Future Directions and Sustainable Impact

Currently focused on prototyping, the research team aims to:

• Support more durable fabrics
• Incorporate curved modular panels
• Optimize designs to minimize material waste
• Facilitate “remixing” of existing clothing into new styles
• Integrate color and texture personalization, and patchwork assembly techniques using recycled materials

MIT professor Erik Demaine highlights Refashion’s unique position at the intersection of computation, design, and sustainability—making custom fashion more accessible and environmentally responsible.

Expert Praise and Research Recognition

Senior researcher Adrien Bousseau from Inria Centre calls Refashion a compelling example of computer-aided design driving sustainable fashion by extending garment lifespans through reconfiguration.

The project, detailed in the paper “Refashion—Reconfigurable Garments via Modular Design,” was supported by MIT Morningside Academy for Design, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, and presented at the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.

References & Further Reading:

• Refashion Project Page – MIT CSAIL
• Lin, R., Lukáč, M., & Leake, M. (2025). Refashion—Reconfigurable Garments via Modular Design. ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology.
• MIT CSAIL News Release, October 17, 2025

This breakthrough software offers a promising pathway toward reducing fashion waste and promoting circular economy principles by empowering users to design and maintain adaptable, sustainable wardrobes.

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