“Modularity isn’t just a design principle. Here in the UK, it’s a weather pattern. Rain nests itself inside sunshine, cold is threaded into wind, and storms arrive uninvited and wearing layers. One evening, as we sat in the Proper office watching the glass rattle under the weight of another bout of modular weather, we came to a realisation: if British weather insists on being interchangeable, why shouldn’t our clothing be the same? It felt like some kind of awakening – a million-pound idea. We then quickly remembered that TAION came to this very realisation ten years ago. 

The Japanese brand whose name literally translates to body temperature built its reputation on one clear idea: modular warmth, delivered simply and effectively. Lowkey garments that sit close to the body and subtly do their job. When the brand first launched in 2016, inner down was still viewed as an unglamorous under-layer, the sort of thing you’d wear beneath a jacket but never think of wearing as a standalone product. TAION changed that. They believed warmth shouldn’t be expensive, complicated, or reserved for mountaintops. It should just work every day, everywhere, and with everything. 

As we sat in the office, coming to terms with our idea not being as original as we once thought, we decided to do the next best thing. We asked TAION if we could shoot their collection as a way to celebrate their tenth anniversary. Their team promptly agreed with only one reservation: “Where specifically will this be?” 

In truth we didn’t actually know. Our first thought was to head to a region where the weather is at its most modular. Somewhere coastal. Somewhere that we were already familiar with. The only place that checked both of these boxes, was Morecambe. The jaded seaside town where Andrew (our photographer) grew up. With all of its arcades, closed shopfronts, and ravenous seagulls, surely Morecambe would be a hard-sell to our friends in Tokyo. As it turned out, apparently not. 

Just a week before we arrived, the neighbouring town of Silverdale experienced a 3.3-magnitude earthquake. A light shrug by Japanese standards, but an omen of the unpredictability we were heading into. When we pulled up on the morning of the shoot, expecting fallen down houses, we instead found old ladies clutching disintegrating umbrellas - the North West Coast’s version of a warm welcome. 

We hastily suited our models in TAION’s modular combinations: inner down vests beneath outer shells, reversible liners layered with jackets, lightweight pants pulled over base layers. You could sense the logic behind the brand in the way each piece interacted with the next. TAION’s founders always knew that warmth doesn’t require excess: using 800-fill power down - unusually high for such lightweight silhouettes - they keep insulation effective while reducing bulk. The 400T high-density fabric prevents feather leakage, but also gives each garment the crisp structure that lets them slide easily under or over other layers. Standing on Morecambe Bay as the wind arrived sideways, we suddenly appreciated the exactness of their decisions.