So today I'm going to be talking a little bit about space age fashion. Space age
fashion was a relatively short-lived trend. It's earlier swiss pers in high
fashion began in the late 1950s. It peaked about the mid 1960s and innovative
fashion had moved on by the early 70s. Despite its short lifespan, space age
fashion accomplished no less than codifying the aesthetics of the
futuristic. Its impact is still felt today. Even though the spectacular
fashion photography of the 1960s is clearly of that time, every person today
can recognize a vision of the future in these nearly 60 year-old images. The
space age couturières did not invent these futuristic aesthetics. They
were all at ready extent in the popular consciousness of the Western world by
the 1950s and their origins stretch back to at least the late 19th century.
Western literature is rife with conceptions of the future and space
technology. As Patricia mentioned this morning Jules Verne wrote "From the Earth
to the Moon" in 1865 followed by "Around the Moon" in 1870.
Although Verne makes no mention of space suits or futuristic fashion his
explorers wear their everyday garments inside a projectile shot to the moon
from an enormous cannon. He accurately predicts not only many of the logistics
and conditions of space travel but also that the United States would be a
dominant force in space exploration and that it would capture the entire world's
fascination. Two other visionary French writers G Le Faure and H De Graffigny
wrote "Extraordinary Adventures of a Russian Scientist" in 1888. In the first
volume the characters again traveled to the moon in earthly attire. Although they
also wore a helmet-like breathing apparatuses that the authors called
respirals. The illustrators of the characters show the odd juxtaposition of 19th century
fashion with the futuristic breathing apparatus which you can see on your left.
And this is particularly striking on Selina the scientist daughter who wears
her gas mask while fully corseted and flowing skirts. In the second installation
when the characters travel to Venus the author's introduce spacesuits made from
quote elastic garment fabrics such as rubber in which the whole limbs and
torso are tightly imprisoned. The cloth itself was supported by a network of
metal springs of extreme delicacy and remarkable elasticity to resist the
expansion of gases contained in living tissue travelers. The head was protected
by a kind of helmet of selenium, egg shaped and resembling the respirals.
Science fiction increased in popularity during the 1920s and 30s especially through the many
comic books that focused on space. By the 1950s movies set in outer space were
common entertainment. These works exposed a cultural ambivalence about advancing
technology that vacillated between excitement and fear. Cultural historian
Emily Rosenberg wrote in films comics and literature of the Prix Sputnik 1950s
space travel had provided an ideal venue for elaborating various utopian and
dystopian visions of a technological future directed by techno scientific and
political elites. All of these images contributed to cultural constructs of
the sartorial future of the space age. Movies and cartoons released after men
had successfully traveled to space such as The Jetsons running from 1962 to 63,
Star Trek the original series airing from 66 to 69, 2001 a Space Odyssey
released in 1968 and Barbarella published as a cartoon in 1962 and
released as a film in 1968 further explored the aesthetic role of metal,
streamlined or geometric shapes, uniformity and female body revelation in
futuristic fashion serving to reinforce these ideas in the public mind.
These aesthetics were cemented and spurred by the milestones of the space
age which spanned from 1957 when the Soviets launched Sputnik to about 1972
when the U.S. sent the last Apollo mission to the moon. This was an
optimistic time of unprecedented human achievement but the space race was also
a manifestation of Cold War brinksmanship that could have ended in
atomic apocalypse. Most importantly for our contacts today this period
especially at its peak during the late mid to late 1960s was a revolutionary
period in fashion.
Space age style was one of many varied modes of fashion that found traction
during the tumultuous 1960s. Only a handful of Parisian couturiers embraced
the startling new fashions inspired by spacesuits, spaceships and
other ephemera of science fiction made real. The space age aesthetic in high
fashion was at its strongest from 1964 to 69 when Andre Courrèges, Paco Rabanne and
Pierre Cardin created a dramatic break in French haur couture one that
embraced futuristic design inspired by the ambulance spirit of the space race
encompassing technology, new materials and modernism. Their designs were a
Parisian answer to the emergence of a worldwide and influential youth culture.
A movement that was barely acknowledged by other French couturières. Valerie
Steele explains quote in the 1960s the French had no youth culture the way the
English and the Americans did. No Beatles. No Rolling Stones. Confronted
with London youthquake fashions the French couture was frozen.
Then Courrèges used the idea of futurism as a metaphor for youth. All of his moon girl
outfits, silver travelers trousers etc that was really pivotal. For Courrèges,
Cardin and Rubin space age design was the future meeting the present. It
represented the promise of technology, youth and women's expanding freedoms at
a time of social upheaval, struggle and violence. Although these were the three
designers most often associated with the space age fashion they were not alone in
creating the style. Emanuel Ungaro and Rudi Gernreich were both innovative
within the genre and many other designers rift on the most extreme
space age designs usually tamping down the accessories and styling to
contribute to a space age fashion aesthetic that was widely publicized by
the fashion press. Balenciaga also played a large role in introducing the
space age aesthetic. He trained Courrèges and Ungaro who each took elements of the
masters signature style. Welted scenes, structural fabrics, volume standing away
from the body to build a space-age look. Michelle Goma designed for Jean Patou
for 10 years before becoming the ready-to-wear designer at Balenciaga. We
featured his Patou gown in Expedition. It's easy to see the relationship to
both Balenciaga and a space capsule in this design. Although space age designs
were highly directional they effectively trickled down to the masses
either as watered-down versions of the original or as lasting powerful
images in fashion magazines. These silver paper dresses are a great example
of a mass-produced space age style. André Courrèges was the most closely
associated designer with the space age aesthetic and was one of the most
influential and innovative fashion designers of the 1960s. Upon his death
The Telegraph wrote that Courrèges's own quote new look swept the
world in 1964 almost as dramatically as had that of Dior in 47. But unlike Dior
whose clothes evoke the opulence of a bygone age Courrèges is highly distinctive
designs owed virtually nothing to tradition. Instead they embrace the space
age. Physically active from a young age Courrèges admired women who were strong and
vigorous. He approached modern fashion with a desire to liberate the female
body. He rejected tight body manipulating undergarments and stripped his designs
down to their architecture removing surface decoration and ornamentation.
Courrèges space age style is perfectly exemplified by William Klein's 1964
photograph for Vogue. The model wears a clean white tunic with welted seams and
pockets, perfectly cut slim white trousers, and a matching space capsule
hat, kid gloves, and flat boots. She blithely reclines on the floor her
finger splashing the peace sign. As the caption attests everything about this
ensemble and the young woman wearing it quote leaps into the future. The double
welted seams machine sewn to appear as hermetically airtight as a
spacesuit and Courrèges use of structured luminous optical white fabrics convey
what was popularly understood as a futuristic technological look. The next
year Courrèges showed his models as space
cowboys in sporty trouser suits trimmed in navy stripes,
mini dresses with pastel plaid hip length jackets, and skirts with built-in
braces. Likewise inspired by menswear Courrèges also gave his models the tough
easy look of men in undress. Dressing them in white t-shirt tops with round
necklines and tank tops with deep armholes. He continued to style his
ensembles with white kid gloves and in spring 65 his boots feature to slit
toes. He further accessorized with goggle like
sunglasses and squared off cowboy hats. More than any other collection the
spring 1965 show presented in his atelier with the models energetically
dancing to jazz music embraced the space age and America's leadership in
the race to the moon. Courrèges designs were met with
mixed reviews. Some thought his ideas to be outlandish and unwearable. While
others were elated at his vision of the woman of the future. Yet Courrèges
signature style which he maintained and developed throughout his career made a
tremendous impact on fashion culture. Yves Saint-Laurent for example said in
1966 quote things have never been the same since Courrèges had his explosion. It
was a necessary and healthy happening in the fashion world.
He added, I found it difficult to break away from traditional elegance and
Courrèges changed that. Pierre Cardin a couturier famous for modernizing and
diversifying his business. He may be better known today as a brand than as a
designer was also an early enthusiast of space age design. Not only in clothing
but a also in furniture and architecture. Cardin's biographer Jean-Pascal Hesse
described the designer as deeply interested in the space age. Quote he was
a lunar perio obsessed with the cosmos, technology,
lasers, and the progress of the space program. He designed satellite dresses,
tubular forms in the shape of rockets, wheeled pants, kinetic dresses, and
jackets with metal breast cones. Cardin's engagement with a space
technology began in the late 1950s when he incorporated sleek modern forms into
his accessories designs. In 1966 he introduced his cosmos line echoing much
of the feeling for bodily movement and functionality in clothing that Courrèges
also embraced. Curator Valerie Mendez wrote of cosmos, every member of the
family was accommodated. The basic outfit was practical and unisex consisting of a
short tunic or pinafore over body fitting jersey ribbed sweater or tights
or trousers. A domed felt hat echoing cosmonauts helmets completed a female
cosmos and a peaked cap resembling NASA off-duty attire was worn by men. In fact
a Cardin Cosmo was functionally dressed for comfort and mobility but the
complete ensemble was far too adventurous for general consumption.
However the pinafore without its face like accessories was copied by mass
manufacturers and rushed into high street shops. These ensembles brought the
contemporary science fiction of living and space into reality. For example the
Jetsons wore animated and similarly geometric dresses, jumpers and
pared down separates in bright colors. Cardin's designs also bear resemblance
to the costumes in the Star Trek series especially in their uniform details and
color blocking. Although not young himself Cardin acknowledged the power of youth
culture by specifically targeting his space aged designs to the young stating,
what I try to do is create a style. A style which is contemporary, modern. But I
would like everyone to understand that it is a style for
young people and not middle-agers. At 44, I would never dream of dressing
myself up as a cosmonaut. Cardin was not exclusive to the space age aesthetic
during the period from the mid 60s to the early 70s. But at the peak of his
space age period he designed some of the styles most memorable and unconventional
silhouettes. Cardin continued his career well past a space age craze in fashion.
By 1972 he had shifted towards softer draped styles. His later fashion designs
occasionally resurrected futuristic aspects but he also channeled his
interest in futuristic forms and technology into environmental design.
Cardin opened a dedicated studio in 1970 and designed space age products that
range from furniture to bicycles, alarm clocks, computers and wallpaper. Paco
Rabanne was not strictly a couturier during the space age gaining admittance
to the Chambre Syndicale in 1971. He first gained popularity during the
mid 1960s with his colorful plastic accessories and space age sunglasses and
visors. His accessories work especially his large bright geometric earrings was
by 1965 frequently being featured in the fashion press. His philosophy was to
create fun colorful accessories that would amuse in the short term stating,
young people don't wear jewels anymore. Get a gadget jewel very often. Change
it quickly. Change the color, the form. That's the new feeling of the young. In
February 1966 Rabanne presented his first clothing collection which he described
as unwearable dresses made of contemporary materials.
Vogue pronounced the showing of 12 slim and colorful sheath of linked plastic
discs a sensational collection of modern clothes. While Women's Wear Daily called
it outerspace dresses for a brave new world of fashion. Although other
designers had experimented with plastic and metal Rabanne used these materials to
challenge the idea that clothing had to be cut from cloth. The result while not
completely unprecedented was stunning. In December 1966 Richard Avedon shot
Danielle Luna in a short Rabanne dress of aluminium rectangles decorated with
round studs. Styled with thigh high gladiator sandals she stands as a
fantastical super woman of the future. Rabanne's impact was immediate. Curator
Linda Camisas wrote a year after the bomb dropped by André Courrèges onto the
sleepy world of fashion a second Big Bang occurred in the form of Paco
Rabanne rattling the blase professionals of the fashion industry
just as thoroughly if not more so than the first. Rabanne gained significant
amounts of media attention in France and the United States. His designs were sold
in his own Paris store and at Lord & Taylor. While Cardin and Courrèges drew from the
giddy wonder and naivete of the space age, Rabanne's work probed a darker
manifestation of the rapid pace of social change. He noted of his first
collection quote I wanted to place clothing in harmony with the times. So I
decided to present a violent collection manifesto to show them all what fashion
could be. The collection was an intellectual exercise and provocation
but the results were well within the light-hearted if eventually
adventurously confrontational fun of the space age.
Although Rabanne's work was criticized as fashion extremity the film "Who are you
Polly Magoo?" released in October 1966 satirizes a designer who mobilizes
his models in metal sheets. Fashion editor Polly Melon recalled quote the
clothes themselves were at first quite heavy but when you got them on they were
balanced in a very beautiful way, in a very engineered way. He was able to work
metal on a woman's body where curves were needed. Rabanne created some of the
longest lasting fashionable impressions of the space age with his designs for
the film "Barbarella." He costume Jane Fonda as a futuristic spaceship captain
and throughout the film Barbarella is dressed and undressed as a futuristic
sex symbol, an astronaut, a fighter, and a sexually
liberated woman. Rabanne's costumes were bold statements of futuristic femininity in
plastic and molded armor, tight bodysuits, high boots and chainmail capes.
Everything was designed to reveal or emphasize Fonda's body but also her
individuality and her confidence. The film is deliberately camp but it
expressed a real urgency in women at the time. Rabanne stated in France during the
60s we had a similar women's liberation movement as in America. At the same time
I was doing the costumes for the movie "Barbarella."
So it was a moment when women emerged to be warriors because they needed to
affirm their desire of emancipation, freedom and liberty. Tthe armor was
necessary. Although not directly referencing the space age in his fashion
designs and rejecting the title of futurists, Rabanne created the most
committed examples of futuristic fashion pushing the limits of what could be
clothing. Throughout his career, he continued to utilize novel materials for
his fashion even circling back to fabric which was fresh to his design philosophy.
Camisas ascertains that because of his compulsion to innovate especially during
the late 1960s and early 70s he was the only one in the business who could claim
to be not a couturier but the custodian of traditional values of haute couture.
Courrèges, Cardin, Rabanne and others used space age design as a vehicle towards a
more logical and progressive lifestyle. The collective look they created has
come to represent the futuristic recognizable even decades later in both
fashion and science-fiction costuming. The space age looks designed in the
1960s have consistently been referenced since that time but the concept has also
evolved. Chilean for example shares Rabanne's experimental focus on
materials research clearly seen in his spring 2000 collection for which he
created an airplane dress from the same smooth rigid material used to construct
aircraft. The dress transformed by remote control
lifting its panels to create new silhouettes. Chileans design is just one
extraordinary example of the continuation of the space age couturiers
emphasis on provocation, new silhouettes and scientific inspiration
into the 21st century. Thanks.
[Applause]