From voyages to outer space to distant, timeless worlds...
Throughout history, science fiction has been imagining our future as a site for escapist adventures
and for filmmakers to speculate about things to come.
While many of cinema's predictions about technology have come true,
what exactly does it say about fashion?
"Powered laces. Alright."
Let's find out with Chuyện Bỏng Ngô,
what do the costumes of science fiction say about our perception of the world of tomorrow.
The early days of sci-fi, roughly from the silent masterpiece Metropolis until the 1960s,
set the standards for what we would consider a cliché for the future of clothes.
That is: flashy outfits with capes, shiny fabrics and strange accessories.
"You have a good memory, pretty pretty."
"Thank you."
At the time, science fiction as a genre held a quite optimistic outlook.
The exaggerated costume designs suggested an optimistic future
that the Western world believes was just around the corner.
But after a turbulent 1970s,
the audience grew cynical
and eventually science fiction embraced a darker tone.
Filmmakers grew less interested in distant utopias and more with of our impending near-future.
Naturally, the next trend in sci-fi fashion was more utilitarian and realistic
Blade Runner is one notable success of the trend for its darkly beautiful vision of 2019's LA and fashion.
Ridley Scott's timeless sartorial world is simultaneously of the future and of the contemporary.
As it anchored futuristic details with strong roots in the past,
pulling inspirations from 1940s Hollywood glamour
to film noir
and punk rock styles.
After Blade Runner, the 1980s was a successful decade for sci-fi
which propelled the genre into a new, more sophisticated era.
"Long live the fighters!"
With newfound popularity,
science fiction matured while its fashion took on many different styles in the next decades.
The futuristic dress code is now everything
from the flamboyant & ostentatious costumes in The Fifth Element
to the ragtag, post-apocalyptic ensembles in Snowpiercer
or Mad Max: Fury Road
However, since the beginning of the 21st century
one style has emerged as the new standard we have now come to expect the future to look like: the streamlined, minimalist style
coinciding perhaps with the current popularity in the real world of the Apple aesthetic.
One recent film above all, Spike Jonze's Her, stood out by its unique approach to the aesthetic.
Instead of adding things which would have been distracting, expected details from normal clothing were taken away.
Simply the absence of most belts and collars
plus the addition of retro high-waisted pants on the male characters
instantly creates a visually unique world that suggest a different time.
One so subtly done that the audience can't put their finger on why.
"I thought I told you to stay in here?"
In conclusion, it's obvious that filmmakers aren't prophets
and we shouldn't expect the world to dress like Back to The Future any time soon.
Nonetheless, costumes are essential tools for world building in sci-fi
as what we wear has always been a clear indicator of our times.
And the best imagined worlds, are ones that acknowledge that
fashion, unlike technology, does not always move forward.
Only by meditating futurism with fashion's present,
can science fiction films makes imagined futures more relatable, and ultimately more affecting to us viewers.
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