Science Fiction Fashion
Aug. 1st, 2003 09:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mishalakOkay I was too busy to write anything today. I worked 12 hours and I'm going to bed as soon as possible. But I figured I should put up something more than me complaining about how much I work. So here is something I worked on for a while but didn't end up posting to RASFF.
One of the more disappointing aspects of science fiction on the big screen is the trouble with futuristic fashion. Things like futuristic weapons are far easier to fake since extrapolating what they could be like in the future is relatively straightforward and the props don't need to produce effects. On the other hand fashion is a boundary point between technology and society. Extrapolating what attitudes towards what is attractive and desirable is not an easy task in the first place.
Also unlike with, say, a fake raygun a prop item of clothing will often need to come much closer to the actual properties of the futuristic clothing. Most of the time. A notable example where this was not the case was the fremen stillsuits in Dune. They didn't serve to protect the actors against the heat on the sands or save water, but that was overcome by not showing the actors needing lots of breaks in the shade and lots of water.
But let's say the effect of the imagined garment is more obvious. Like a club tee that glows or even a coat covered in tiny LEDs to produce shifting patterns and shapes. That's might just be possible with computer graphics, but it is going to be a huge amount of work for something that might not be a big visual pay off. But I suspect that in the future (say ten years away) such things will be common club wear.
What is fashionable, what is worn in a given period is often very dependent upon new technology. The simple tee shirt needed a fabric with lots of give to it and so it didn't happen until light knit fabric became common. On today's dress shirts we often see a color shift made possible through new dyes and fabrics, could a movie from the 1960s have recreated this effect early? Doubtful.
What has worked out fairly well is taking old fashion and giving it modern twists. For example David Lynch's Dune where everyone was running around in Italian Renassance and 19th century military uniforms when they weren't in stillsuits. This gave the setting a fantastic feeling of reality in my opinion. Unlike the mess of Sci-Fi's Dune where the outfits managed to look very fake and not right for the setting at all. The hand crafted feel of the first worked much better in my opinion.
This also works out fairly well logically since looking at current human fashion there are frequent uses of older styles in new ways and not everything worn is totally cutting edge. Though it is interesting to note that formal and business fashion seem stuck right now. The black and business ties seem here to stay for a while. With variations.
This entry inspired by a posting in rec.arts.sf.fandom.
One of the more disappointing aspects of science fiction on the big screen is the trouble with futuristic fashion. Things like futuristic weapons are far easier to fake since extrapolating what they could be like in the future is relatively straightforward and the props don't need to produce effects. On the other hand fashion is a boundary point between technology and society. Extrapolating what attitudes towards what is attractive and desirable is not an easy task in the first place.
Also unlike with, say, a fake raygun a prop item of clothing will often need to come much closer to the actual properties of the futuristic clothing. Most of the time. A notable example where this was not the case was the fremen stillsuits in Dune. They didn't serve to protect the actors against the heat on the sands or save water, but that was overcome by not showing the actors needing lots of breaks in the shade and lots of water.
But let's say the effect of the imagined garment is more obvious. Like a club tee that glows or even a coat covered in tiny LEDs to produce shifting patterns and shapes. That's might just be possible with computer graphics, but it is going to be a huge amount of work for something that might not be a big visual pay off. But I suspect that in the future (say ten years away) such things will be common club wear.
What is fashionable, what is worn in a given period is often very dependent upon new technology. The simple tee shirt needed a fabric with lots of give to it and so it didn't happen until light knit fabric became common. On today's dress shirts we often see a color shift made possible through new dyes and fabrics, could a movie from the 1960s have recreated this effect early? Doubtful.
What has worked out fairly well is taking old fashion and giving it modern twists. For example David Lynch's Dune where everyone was running around in Italian Renassance and 19th century military uniforms when they weren't in stillsuits. This gave the setting a fantastic feeling of reality in my opinion. Unlike the mess of Sci-Fi's Dune where the outfits managed to look very fake and not right for the setting at all. The hand crafted feel of the first worked much better in my opinion.
This also works out fairly well logically since looking at current human fashion there are frequent uses of older styles in new ways and not everything worn is totally cutting edge. Though it is interesting to note that formal and business fashion seem stuck right now. The black and business ties seem here to stay for a while. With variations.
This entry inspired by a posting in rec.arts.sf.fandom.
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Date: 2003-08-02 07:24 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-02 02:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2003-08-02 07:12 pm (UTC)It's not cheap.
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Date: 2003-08-02 02:51 pm (UTC)~Andy
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Date: 2003-08-03 12:06 pm (UTC)