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I AM A HOPELESS FUTURIST. For all those hours spent delving into self-help books and Anthony Robbins seminars, learning to live in the present has never been my strong point; and I’m not alone. Wishing, worrying, planning or procrastinating, most of our time seems to be spent on envisaging what the future has in store for us, rather than being satisfied with what we already have.The world’s obsession with predicting and preserving the future has infiltrated our daily lives to a point where DNA-enhancing lip gloss, self-functioning home appliances and ‘intelligent’ dishwashing detergent are a natural part of our consumer vocabulary, while the rest struggle in the race to stay relevant and modern. Flying DeLorean’s, underground cities and domesticated robots are just some of the fanciful images we’ve conjured in our hope to create a better, more convenient future. In 1929 a German metallurgist predicted that the most fashionable clothing would be made of aluminium, and maybe he wasn’t too far off the mark. Many of this year’s top designer collections could have doubled as a Worlds’ Fair exhibition of futuristic fashion.
From the durability of Viktor and Rolf’s army of militaristic cyborgs, to Armani Prive’s aerodynamic ‘femme-bot-fatales’, and Givenchy’s black and white masks that seem to prepare us for impending nuclear warfare, the fashion we foresee is one of nihilism, intimidation and control – maybe the kind of clothes Darth Vadar would buy. Yet there is something powerful and genuinely appealing in all this stylish efficiency. It’s so easy o get caught up in the whirlwind of what we think is fresh, cutting-edge and technologically savvy. After all, what more could you want than a product that is sustainable, reliable and really cool to look at? We want the latest and greatest, and if that means the next generation iPad in our hands or Armani’s UFO shaped hat on our heads, so be it.
But for the rest of us technophobes and nostalgia junkies who identify with old-school simplicity, the future is a pretty scary place. It represents economic collapse, socially transmitted diseases, Armageddon and interplanetary migration - and as Elton John sings, “Mars ain’t the kind of place to raise your kids. In fact it’s cold as hell.” So, if we resist hard enough, couldn’t the world just go on as it always has? Or will our stylistic values eventually become as obsolete as the Typewriter or the Floppy Disc?
That's not to say that future of fashion is all doom and gloom. In fact, there’s much fun and excitement to be had in constructing a new identity, making a fresh start, accepting change rather than continuously resisting. How many times I looked in the mirror and longed to see a whole new me, to be completely transformed, inside and out. Well, in the year 2525 you won’t have much of a choice, so you better start looking forward to it. And there’s plenty to look forward to. Pedro Lourenco’s SS 2911 collection was all about geometrically functionality without sacrificing feminine form (think Jane Jetson meets Mary Quant). Similarly, Stella McCartney’s show of gold foil dresses burst out with energy and elegance, proving that women in the future can still look like real women.
Even though it may seem absurd to imagine a world where latex jumpsuits and holographic hats are the norm and anything else looks just too ‘old-fashioned’, it’s not impossible to imagine a world where eccentric trend-setters like Lady Gaga and Rihanna are forming the zeitgeist for a younger generation. Katy Perry recently channelled her inner-Alexander McQueen for her music video for ET. And now with high-street labels like Cue in collaboration with Dion Lee bringing the future to the people, it shows it’s not just a fanciful world invented by haute-couturists like Narcisso and Gareth, but a potential reality that won’t only be profitable, but completely wearable too – that is, for any woman who likes to push the boundaries and be ahead of her time. The last major wave of this kinds of future forecasting was back in the1950’s when so many visions and prospects for the future were created from a place of hope, optimism and prosperity. Perhaps that what these designers are trying to say - don’t worry, everything will turn out fine. It’s only fashion after all.
More than anything I see it as a call to live in the now. Like I mentioned, I’ve never been particularly good at that, but maybe I’ll try harder. I’ll stop letting my favourite clothes gather dusts because I’m afraid they’ll wear out, and actually start giving them a life, like a time capsule. It’s my first pair of purple Cons which I wore to shreds in high school, and the dress I wore on my first date which still has grass stains from lying in the park, and the vintage velvet gown I ruined in the bath before spending a fortune on repairs later. That’s really what makes clothes timeless. The memories you have of the life you lived in them. As a wise young man once said: “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
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