The Future of Fashion?

[cbcb]

Article about the future of clothing:
http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/001555.html

Excerpt:

"...We may soon be in a world where wearable computers don't just show up on the cover of Wired, but also on the cover of Vogue...

Bruce Sterling wrote a brief essay for cyber-counterculture magazine Mondo 2000 entitled Computer As Furoshiki, which described a computing device in the form of a meter-square piece of cloth. Solar-powered, the fabric could serve as a display, was touch-sensitive, and could even fold itself with embedded artificial muscles fibers."

 

[cbcb]

... And there are already implants in clinical trials that create tans (by raising melanin), so how long until someone manipulates all that to provide colors other than tan? (To someone who for whatever reason might wanna be blue, or tie-dye?)

EpiTan (the tanning-implant folks http://www.epitan.com.au/irm/Company/ShowPage.aspx?CPID=1127

Excerpt: "EpiTan Limited today announced the release of final results of its Phase I/II dose escalation study (EP004)...The planned length of the trial was extended as a consequence of unexpected efficacy experienced in the first two cohorts when given MELANOTAN™ in sustained release implants. The trial was suspended for five months pending the receipt of new smaller implants containing a lower dose of the drug...."

 

[meme527]

i'd love to be certain shades of blue and purple....

 

[travolta]

how about glo in the dark?

 

[meme527]

only my hair!

 

[travolta]

meme, you have a very futuristic avatar..does that mean you're a soothsayer?

 

[cbcb]

Just another academic trying to impress the open-mouthed kids at college with how cool he is . Weren't we ready for this in the 50's, with all the formica furniture and silly futuristic architecture that was nothing more but a fantasy in bad taste?

True. And how.

My mom had saved an article from the 1950s Chicago Sun Times. It was on what life would be like in the 1980s or so. They predicted people would be popping protein pills and cars would self-drive and all sorts of horsecr*p. The only prediction of a long article that came true was *baby monitors* would exist... so you could hear your infant from the other room.

----
Edited to add: this thread adds a whole new spin to Mademoiselle's sig line:

"If you were born without wings, do nothing to prevent their growing-coco chanel"

 

[fashionyork]

imagine you could look how you want, will be the end of the top models, haha.
i doubt this will ever happen, or maybe my mind is to far behind ...

Thanks for the article Lena

 

[meme527]

meme, you have a very futuristic avatar..does that mean you're a soothsayer?

i hope that what i say soothes....

but all i can predict right now is that gas prices will go up!

truthfully, i am a big sky watcher and love the stars and astronomy, so that explains my avatar. if you're interested www.rednova.com is an interesting site, as is the Fourmilab site: look under Science - Astronomy and Space.

(that site also has great diet/nutrition info: i think i'll start a thread for that.)

travolta, i enjoy your posts immensely!

meme

 

[Lena]

i visit rednova, new scientist and more, love science/space sites

great input everyone, thanks for making this topic so intersting,
much welcome fashionyork

 

[tott]

At http://www.meta-library.net/gnr/index-frame.html you can hear Billy Joy speak about genomics, nanotechnology and robotics. It's interesting, if somewhat predictable. He's also not a very good speaker, but if you manage to focus, he does say some good stuff.

Anyway, nanotechnology in textiles is already here. I really don't think we'll be seeing "body enhancements" anytime soon. It takes time to make technology and synthetics workable in the real world.

Just look at nylon, it was the way of the future in the 50's and 60's. Great fibre: easy to wash, didn't need ironing and so on. Everyone wanted to use it, and did. But it wasn't mature, or rather, the technique of working with the fiber was not. There were all these sweaty clothes and people weren't happy once they realised how crappy it was.

"Good", breathable synthetic clothes weren't really made until the end of the 80's or the beginning of the 90's I think. For instance, we've had microfibers developed, and they're constantly evolving. I love my microfibre underwear!

As far as incorporating technology into clothes, I'm all for it! But I can't take a jacket which incorporates mp3-player, mobile phone and so on seriously unless it's included in the weave somehow and will connect to your stuff. If you need to wear this particular jacket in order to listen to music or make a phone call, it sucks. If the mp3-player and phone are removable and work on their own, what's the point of the jacket?

 

[meme527]

If you need to wear this particular jacket in order to listen to music or make a phone call, it sucks. If the mp3-player and phone are removable and work on their own, what's the point of the jacket?

probably it will be the techno equivalent of the hermes bag - just an impractical status symbol for those who can afford it. no doubt the jacket will have a prominent logo somewhere...

 

[travolta]

probably it will be the techno equivalent of the hermes bag - just an impractical status symbol for those who can afford it. no doubt the jacket will have a prominent logo somewhere...

thanks meme, i really love your posts too!
i wonder when logos will come back in? right now its all about assimilation..the piece speaking for itself. like nike without the swoosh...or kleenex. doesn't every company want to be so integrated into the public's subconscious that you don't even realize it??

 

[meme527]

thanks meme, i really love your posts too!
i wonder when logos will come back in? right now its all about assimilation..the piece speaking for itself. like nike without the swoosh...or kleenex. doesn't every company want to be so integrated into the public's subconscious that you don't even realize it??

can you dance, travolta?


is that happening? i hope so. in las vegas it is mighty hard to tell!! logos are everywhere. and mean t-shirts like "i don't care."

meme

 

[travolta]

can you dance, travolta?


is that happening? i hope so. in las vegas it is mighty hard to tell!! logos are everywhere. and mean t-shirts like "i don't care."

meme

i think every brand wants to achieve world domination ..aol time warner etc...(pretend i'm speaking like the guy inthe film Network, talk about a great piece of political satire and predicting the future!) they have definately carved out a place in our collective thought! anyways, enough politics..ahem. the only great flashy logos are the retro liquor store signs in MN...it's very space age. i say the center of the world does not revolve around ny or any other big city..but in the place you'd least except it..

btw. i'm a very good dancer.

 

[battles]

whatever the future of fashion will be, i strongly suggest not a 'retro' look, or the picture of future that were portrayed long before since the 50's, but the return of beauty and symbolism. apparently what we could decipher today is modern fashion might has reached a dead end.

the symptoms of which are the repetition of deja vu styles and futile stretches of imagination which lead to the twilight zone. namely, to ugliness and absurdity, to which we the consumers, are attempted to be accustomed, as the only offerable novelty. the idea of fashion and technology to go hand in hand is nothing but aiming to be practical, discardable and profitable. they are not necessarily becoming, differentiating or accentuating which is one of their main purposes. perhaps they do, in that way, represent the utter confusion, neutral mixture and culmination of future's times.

 

[travolta]

i agree the future of fashion cannot be retro. We are already weeding that out of our systems right now. It's basically cutting and pasting, and once we've exhausted ourselves w/ every combination of existing 'looks' what will we have next? i think one of the greatest things about all this interconnection, access to info--internet etc..is that is breaks down previous "truths"...and i think the western ideal of beauty, perfection, ration is gradually breaking down...which is a good thing. I think retro is an attempt to hold onto an ideal, but it is false, it's disregarding the now...so future style cannot be based on such shallowness. we'll look back on right now..w/ all this collaging and mixing of cultures, high/ low and think it was just as misguided as trying to wear corsets and unbreathable polyester. btw battles, i'm not quite sure what you mean by beauty and symbolism..i think we are probably thinking similar things...

 

[Lena]

whatever the future of fashion will be, i strongly suggest not a 'retro' look, or the picture of future that were portrayed long before since the 50's, but the return of beauty and symbolism. apparently what we could decipher today is modern fashion might has reached a dead end.

the symptoms of which are the repetition of deja vu styles and futile stretches of imagination which lead to the twilight zone. namely, to ugliness and absurdity, to which we the consumers, are attempted to be accustomed, as the only offerable novelty. the idea of fashion and technology to go hand in hand is nothing but aiming to be practical, discardable and profitable. they are not necessarily becoming, differentiating or accentuating which is one of their main purposes. perhaps they do, in that way, represent the utter confusion, neutral mixture and culmination of future's times.

thanks for sharing and welcome to tFS battles

nostalgia is a socio/economic side effect.
as long as the society creates the ground nostalgia will keep flourishing
but slowly nostalgia will be 'translated' through modern/experimental forms/materials
its all in the mix, the creative get together clash of esthetical diverse elements bbbzzn

 

[travolta]

but slowly nostalgia will be 'translated' through modern/experimental forms/materials

I agree..i think fashion..as is the world, moving further and further into abstraction or embracing otherwise seemingly illogical, radical thought...btw what to you think of comme des garcons? i keep thinking they are becoming a bigger player..esp. now with the guerilla stores..

 

[Lena]

to me, cdg was always more than just the collections.
in my book Rei has finally succeded in her dream, she changed the way we see fashion, more than any other designer in the last part of the 20th century, she's on the same level with Chanel.. and the guerilla concept just came as a cherry at the top.. best fashion concept she ever developed
for me, guerilla stores are the epitome of modern marketing, it's Rei getting finally down to earth, interacting with the non-commedesgarconians, she made it safe and she made it well. if only more fashion houses had cdg's vision of marketing, consumerism was going to be so much more interesting

ps. i find both Rei and Junya extremelly influenced by 'nostalgia' much more the 18th century kind