Fashion in the 10th dimension

December 14, 2008 11:58 AM

German TV show Paris Aktuell's mesmerizing space-age futuristic fashion in 1970, in 1969 (2), and in 1968. [MLYT]

Forget a flying car, I want a body length thermal outfit with a waist-high zipper.

posted by cashman (16 comments total)

That was worth it just for the synthesizer version of "Lay Lady Lay."
posted by kittens for breakfast at 12:09 PM on December 14, 2008

Wow! That music is awesome. Lay Lady Lay was great. I wish I could download the tracks somewhere.
posted by flipyourwig at 12:26 PM on December 14, 2008

Flip: Ministry has a pretty cool version of it.

Also, plastic = futuristic.
posted by Brocktoon at 12:36 PM on December 14, 2008

cool music.
posted by vronsky at 12:40 PM on December 14, 2008

groovy
posted by seawallrunner at 12:45 PM on December 14, 2008

Is it just me, or was there something very Clockwork Orange about the 1969 link?
posted by Afroblanco at 1:03 PM on December 14, 2008

Preposterously cool.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:11 PM on December 14, 2008

Come down off the roof, ladies. The UV radiation of the future will age that pale skin. Why are you on the roof, anyway? Are you waiting for your flying taxis? Come down inside while you wait, we have uncomfortable furniture hanging from the ceiling for you. You can have a snack from the machine in the wall that goes bweee-oop, bweee-oop, booble-bweeee. Your boyfriends with the long sideburns and ass-hugging bellbottoms made from space-age stretchy stuff will bring you a drink with dry ice in it.
posted by longsleeves at 1:15 PM on December 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

Wish we'd figured out a thing or two by 1994, but alas.
posted by hermitosis at 1:19 PM on December 14, 2008 [1 favorite]

This is great. I particularly like the music, direction and editing. Some of the fashions are quite cool; others are enjoyably silly.

Thanks for sharing!
posted by defenestration at 1:43 PM on December 14, 2008

Far in the future, men will dress in baggy pants. The baggy pants will hug their waists loosely. And they will wear their baseball caps backwards. This is the future, my friend.
posted by twoleftfeet at 5:37 PM on December 14, 2008

I find it very amusing that the iconograhy of "super modern" hasn't changed much in 120 years. Modern is clean, Modern is shiny, Super-Modern is clean and bare and reflective. It was true of Whistler and the modernists and futurists.

I think it has to do with the need of visual icongraphy to be big, basic, and easy to understand. Ever since the Hygiene reforms, bare, plastic, shiny white has been shorthand for the Future, and spare simple forms the shortland for Modern. The idea is that the Future will always be cleaner, brighter, and simpler (or more pure) than now. It's an interesting, long-ranging cultural bias.

The French, for example, always seem to think that the future is going to be disturbingly weird and upsetting. And sexy.
posted by The Whelk at 5:51 PM on December 14, 2008 [3 favorites]

Very fun seeing the future of fashion way back when. The 60's were truly amazing in terms of design innovation.

In the 1960's I did a bit of modeling. Modeled Diana Dew's electric dresses in 1967 for the opening of The Electric Circus on St. Mark's Place here in NYC. The dresses had battery packs, lit up like Times Square neon, quite cool, made of vinyl/pvc very retro futuristic.
posted by nickyskye at 7:15 PM on December 14, 2008 [2 favorites]

If they're not wearing wigs like the ladies on moonbase in Gerry Anderson's UFO, it's
not THE FUTURE!
posted by wittgenstein at 7:59 PM on December 14, 2008

Hey Project Runway kids, come see how grandaddy Pierre's designs make your "fashion forward" crap look like something outta the softer side of Sears.
posted by memewit at 8:54 PM on December 14, 2008

Pierre Cardin was so original and creative in the 1960s. Later, he licensed his name to just about anything, including cigarettes, mattresses and bijoux sold at airports.
posted by iviken at 11:44 AM on December 15, 2008