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Superman: Space Ageis a new limited series by Mark Russell and Michael Allred that places the Man of Steel smack dab in the middle of this pivotal decade. It was a difficult time for everybody, but what if they were Superman?
#1960S SPACE AGE TORRENT#
America experienced a Presidential assassination, the torrent of the civil rights movement, a high-stakes space race, and the always looming threat of nuclear war.
#1960S SPACE AGE TV#
While we thrilled to the music of the Beatles, TV shows like Star Trek and spy thrillers like the James Bond movies, outside the realm of entertainment, things were chaotic. Rather, we’ve got to treat planet like a great trend-don’t give up on it just yet.The 1960s were a turbulent time for our world. And moving to Canada, let alone Mars, is also not the best laid plan. But, at the end of the day, our imaginations can only transport us so far. This season, designers offered escapist fantasies for a world critically devoid of shimmer. The spectacle of Chanel’s fall 2017 show, which ended with a rocket “launching” through the glass ceiling of the Grand Palais, was the perfect metaphor for the direction fashion (and perhaps culture at large) is currently heading: Nowhere fast, despite appearances.
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So, designers are certainly taking the right steps towards a fashionably sustainable future, but are we doing enough to make the necessary giant leap? If there’s one thing that a brand cannot do, it’s be left behind.
#1960S SPACE AGE MOVIE#
Or rather, on a more optimistic note, if tech innovators like Elon Musk are making life on another planet seem less like a Hollywood movie and more like a possibility in the not-so-distant future, then fashion innovators like Karl Lagerfeld have to start thinking this way, too. If the end of the world is nigh, why not design a chic hazmat suit, like the young Chinese men’s wear designer Shangguan Zhe of Sankuanz did this season? 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.
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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.
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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.