2 minute read

Fashion Travels Through Time

Written by Gabriela Portugal Photographed by Elaine Tantra

Black leather blazers, slicked-back hair and oval sunglasses are making their way back into the closets of fashion-forward individuals. This sleek, modern look, reminiscent of “The Matrix”, is anything but new. Most of the styles seen on catwalks each season are recycled ideas from the past. Fashion historian, writer and professor at the Laboratory Institute of Merchandising, Amanda Hallay, shares where designers search for inspiration. “For the past thirty years or so, designers have looked more to the past than to the future for inspiration,” she explains. Hallay points out the importance of adding a modern touch to every look. “Designers make old styles look new by altering the silhouette (for example, a runway designer today may be inspired by the 1980s, but won’t put enormous shoulder pads in a jacket if he wants someone to wear it), and generally modifying past styles to correspond to a contemporary aesthetic,” she says. However, fashion is not completely retrospective. It can become futuristic and modern when designers find inspiration outside of the fashion world. Hallay tells us, “Fashion trends aren’t invented by designers; they are born of a million different factors that make up a fashion idea. Politics, economics, culture, science… all of it conspiring to make fashion happen the way that it does.” A genre popular among fashion designers is sci-fi. Alexander McQueen with Givenchy were responsible for the 1998 Fall/Winter collection reminiscent of 1982’s “Blade Runner.” The sleek yet swanky look came back on runways in Bottega Veneta’s Fall/Winter 2017 show and Raf Simmons’ Spring/Summer 2018 show. “Barbarella,” a 1968 sci-fi film starring Jane Fonda, was also a film of inspiration for designers. Taking place in the far future, “Barbarella” the space adventurer travels intergalactically to find and stop an evil scientist. “Barbarella” seems to have been a point of inspiration for Jeremy Scott’s Spring/ Summer 2016 collection. Not to mention Gucci’s Fall/Winter 2017 campaign, which included a full-blown Star Trek video homage, complete with looks in the notoriously retro-space style. Cristina Pérez-Arranz, a sci-fi literature professor at Emerson College, explains the basis of the genre. Perez-Arranz explains that sci-fi “is a genre from the 1920s, originally literary, that comments on science and technology in the future—or the advances of either of them.” The forward-thinking characteristic is helpful for fashion designers, who need to keep their creations new and fresh. Not only do designers attempt to keep the styles of their collections modern and futuristic, but they use different textiles to keep their designs forward-thinking, too. Hallay says, “Today, however, the ‘new’ and ‘futuristic’ isn’t to be found in cut or silhouette, but in technology applied to fibers. Clothing that ‘does stuff’ is the most exciting and futuristic element in fashion today. Clothing that changes its density depending on your own temperature, clothing that lights up, plays music, etc.” The functions of clothing eclipsed the need for style and basic needs. With all the new technologies incorporated into runway pieces and ready-to-wear garments, fashion has become the future.

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