La Dernier Cri: Fashion of the future

The fashion world is inherently fast-moving and trendy. It changes almost daily; trends are born and reborn, and new ideas are communicated all the time. The industry also takes cues from what is going on in the world.\nIn the past few seasons, futuristic technology has started to play a very large role in fashion. Designers are starting to use more elements of science and technology in their clothing, runway shows and accessories. As Apple has been releasing a new version of the iPod every month, it’s hard to not be at least a little bit fascinated with technology. Even Justin Timberlake and 50 Cent did a song about it.\nDesigners are embracing technology in almost every aspect of their collections and runway shows. The fabric designers are using require a lot of time and care to be produced. Garments are made of laser-cut fabrics. Dying techniques are also getting more rigorous and technologically oriented.\nFor example, in Balenciaga’s Spring/Summer 2007 collections, Nicolas Ghesquiere sent a pair of leggings made of gold and bronze metal plates down the runway. The leggings, clearly very pricey, are only made by special order. While the Spring 2007 collections were largely futuristic and technologically inspired, Ghesquiere took the theme above and beyond, skyrocketing technology into the fashion world.\nThe runway details and amount of production that go into a show are also getting flashy. In his Spring/Summer 2008 runway show, Karl Lagerfeld sent his models down a runway splashed with rainbow neon lights. The lights, which were under the runway, also created a backdrop. Lagerfeld has always been a revolutionary, but when I saw this runway back in October, I was a bit surprised by the level of effort in the production.\nThis fascination with everything futuristic doesn’t end at the runway. Fashion houses have started using highly stylized and science fiction-like advertising as well. Dolce and Gabbana is a prime example, especially because of their ads from a few seasons ago. The ads showed flawlessly futuristic models poised to perform surgery on one another, in a futile attempt to make each other even more beautiful. \nTechnology and fashion will continue to have an almost symbiotic relationship as long as each needs the other. Without technology there would be no moving fashion forward these days; and without fashion, who would even bother to imagine a future in which leggings are made out of tiny plates of gold? Fashion and technology need one another, and that, earthlings, is one fact that cannot be denied.