Punch it, wear it, toss it

I just had a moment of sheer, complete, utter, total, mindblowing genius.

Someone should invent a personal machine that makes disposable clothes.

Imagine a machine sitting in your home that could make clothes on the spot, clothes that would be worn once then discarded. You would input your choice of material, design, size etc, and the machine would make the item on the spot. Finish using it, throw away. I'm not talking about those ridiculous paper clothes either. Real clothing that could be worn on the street without you feeling like a doll or something.

The advantages are plentiful and compelling. First, no more laundry! That's what started me on this line of thought anyway. Laundry is a massive chore. The washing, the drying, the ironing, the hanging. All eliminated from you life in one move. Tissues have rendered handkerchiefs almost obsolete, now it's time for the rest of the clothing family to follow suit.

Second, variety! You will no longer be restricted to your staid, boring wardrobe. You will now have the option of wearing a completely new item every day. Thinking of trying that pink dress, but figure you'll never wear it again after that first night? No worries, just make it, wear it, toss it. Brilliant huh? Never again will you have an excuse for a sad, sorry wardrobe. Everyone can look like Carrie Bradshaw or Pierce Brosnan all the time. In fact, the day after a tv show airs, half the people on the street will be wearing what some popular character was wearing.

Third, no longer will you experience the nightmare of buying a piece of clothing, then realising it's actually hideous or doesn't fit you, or isn't appropriate for anything. Sample as much as you want. After all, if it doesn't work, then toss it and punch up something new tomorrow.

Ok ok, what about the practicalities? Technology specifics, I'll leave to all those MIT and Caltech and whatnot grads, that's what they're there for. Materials? Think of it like gas in those places without piped gaslines. When the cotton, wool, dye, whatever is running out, just call the supply folks, and have them deliver a fresh batch. Quality? Hey, it's meant to be disposable, there's bound to be some decline in quality. If you don't want a substandard product, maybe I can include an option to up the quality for a certain price per item.

Ooh, how about a business model for the fashion houses? After all, the designers must still be paid if they're going to design stuff for us, right? So there can be downloads of particular items from particular brands. For example, you can purchase online a $50 Ralph Lauren Polo Shirt package. This package would then allow you to produce, say, 10 or 20 disposable Ralph Lauren polo shirts. Any colour you want. Each fashion house can set its own prices for each design. To prevent too much copying of logos by individuals on their machines, there obviously will have to be some sort of copy controls on the machines. No doubt there will be people who will hack in anyway, and certainly there will be cheong copies off kazaa, but then again, there are fake goods all over the place now anyway. The fashion houses will probably make less money, but that's not certain, as the costs of business will plummet. All that's required is the designer and a web staff.

And of course, my favourite bit is no more laundry, already mentioned above. Laundry has to be the evilest thing in the world. Eliminate it, I say! Ok, now all the maids in Singapore will try to murder me for attempting to take away their livelihood. Now it's the politically correct people who will hang me for being flippant about maids. Which reminds me about political correctness, which I think is a disease. But another time perhaps.