But perhaps the times have forced fashion to become more practical. It’s a certainly a bleak vision for an industry that thrives on escaping reality. According to fashion designers, we either have to adapt to living in a Gucci green house or leave the earth behind entirely blow ourselves up, or admit that we’ve run out of ideas. And unfortunately for us, designers don’t seem to think that can be found, or not on earth anyway. It’s fashion’s function to reflect the times, but also to look forward at a better, chicer, more interesting future. It is not a coincidence that Space Age style is returning at a time when global politics are so unstable, from Brexit to the refugee crisis to Donald Trump being elected President of the United States. However, it also grew out of an underlying fear fueled by the ongoing Cold War, one that we can perhaps relate to today with Russian hackers influencing the election and talk of fake news. It truly felt new and exciting because the “future” everyone imagined of flying cars and men on the moon was still far off. In the ’60s, Space Age style revolved around the idea of exploration-of pushing boundaries further than ever before, whether that meant with materials or silhouettes. (Coincidentally, the NASA Jet Propulsion Lab is about an hour away from West’s headquarters in Calabasas, California.)Īs illustrator Marisa Marchetto outlined in her column, fashion is frankly obsessed with the subject of space in 2017. Plus, Kanye West’s next project is potentially space-related, as a mysterious website recently surfaced featuring a video called, “NASA Kanye West Project 10,” which is mostly static save for an image of an old NASA Jet Propulsion Lab logo. And fittingly, all roads lead to outer space at the moment, from Chanel’s rocket launch on the runway to Christopher Kane’s cosmic prints. (And Hadid too, of course.)Īs with the constellations, drawing lines between reoccurring trends can help make sense of where we come from, how we ended up here, and where we might be headed. Now, they’re back with the help of brands like Balenciaga. To boot, white go-go boots are back as well-a trend that similarly took off in the ’60s along with Space Age style, starting with André Courrèges and was later recycled during the Studio 54 era. Now, they can be found in Paris nightclubs on twentysomethings like Bella Hadid. In 2017, for example, we’re seeing the return of Paco Rabanne’s signature metallic chain-metal dresses, which first walked the runways in the 1960s, and were “in” again in the early-aughts during Paris Hilton’s heyday. Fashion is supposed to take us into the future, but wait long enough and yesterday’s trends will come back eventually, some returning faster than others. If Isaac Newton were alive today, he might have come up with a fourth law of motion just to deal with fashion trends, which seem to defy all existing rules by moving forwards and backwards at the same time.
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