This week’s edition is an ode to all things fantasy and sci-fi. We take a look at the highlights and winning outfits of the fifth annual Her Universe couture fashion show at San Diego Comic-Con and the story behind Jodie Whittaker’s outfit as the Thirteenth Doctor.
Elsewhere, the Look Book provides brightly-coloured, time-travelling inspiration based on the latest trends (including a covetable “weird and wonderful” collaboration between Converse and British fashion label JW Anderson). Rounding out this week’s features are collections from Margiela, Maison Kitsuné, and Anrealage that take traditionally ‘geeky’ elements in fun, eye-catching directions.
Settle in and enjoy!
GEEK CHIC: COMIC-CON AND BEYOND
There were three prizes given out at the end of the night. The judge’s award went to Cynthia Kirkland for her lovely “The Couture of Water” gown. Jane Burson won the Singer sewing award for her “Howl-in for You” outift, while Kristi Siedow-Thompson won the audience award with her rocking “PWL Chic: Ripley in the Powerloader.”
- The Best Geek Couture in the Galaxy From the Her Universe Fashion Show at San Diego Comic-Con 2018 (The Mary Sue)
Brands have debuted ’80s glamour, meaning animal prints, shoulder pads, and neon looks galore will be hitting the streets in six months but the industry is also thinking forward with holographic pieces showing up across all the major fashion cities. Whether the sci-fi escapism of Jeremy Scott’s show or the apocalyptic inspiration at Calvin Klein and Maison Margiela, designers have been expressing the zeitgeist through in-your-face iridescence.
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The Future Is Now With Fall 2018’s Holographic Trend (CR FashionBook)
32 sketches later, [designer Andrew] MacLaine and his friend started to prep the Funko Pop!s for construction, and spent five days wiring hundreds of heads to make the skirt. “It was frightening!” MacLaine said. “First of all, even though I had seen Pop! figures for years, and even owned some, I never realized how cubic they were, and heavy. That was the main challenge and concern: the weight.” It took an additional three days to make the bodice, and two days to paint and sculpt the wire swirls.
- Exclusive: Her Universe’s Ashley Eckstein Debuts First-Ever Couture Funko Pop! Dress Inspired by The Nightmare Before Christmas (Disney Style)
“The costume kind of felt that it could come from anywhere, and it should feel like that,” she said. “I didn’t want something that felt too neat and tailored.
“This picture was black-and-white, so I don’t know what era that picture is from. It felt like such a wonderful expression, in one image, of timelessness, purpose and inclusiveness. All in one simple look.
“It didn’t feel you needed to be a certain shape, or age, or gender, to wear it. And that’s mainly where it came from.”
THE LOOK BOOK
Articles on clothes, hair and accessories for all your street style inspiration and needs.
If you’re to pinpoint a particular moment in the not-so-distant past that is really, truly alive and relevant in the trend cycle, you can hop in the Wayback Machine to 1998, when the dresses were cowl-necked and slinky, the sandals were strappy, and the sunglasses were small and symmetrical. Dig a little deeper, and you’ll see tiny handbags, feather-trim LBDs, and other Instagram-favorite trends of the summer also made appearances on the likes of Kate Moss, J.Lo, and even Oprah. Certain celebrity photos from a decade ago feel like they could appear on your feed today (and not as a cheeky #TBT).
The sneakers—the Chuck 70 Hi and the Chuck 70 Ox—feature gradient patent leather, oversized fuzzy laces, and translucent colored soles. It’s as if the Candy Land board game and a glossy leather designer handbag were bred to create a pair of shoes. And yet, the sneakers still feel right on the money—something that today’s more adventurous dressers will almost certainly want to wear. In a press release, Anderson explains searching for inspiration “in the new, weird, and wonderful,” and the proof is certainly in the pudding.
Outlandish as this trend may seem when styled with a crop top, a la Kardashian, British Vogue reckons that worn with a billowing shirt, or just peeking out underneath a tailored jacket, cycling shorts may be the summer wardrobe addition you never knew you wanted – “a sleek alternative to the endless floral midi dresses”.
Vintage revivals don’t come prettier than those of the sweetie-coloured, gum ball-shaped, plastic beaded, Sixties-hued variety, henceforth known as The Bag of Summer 2018. If you’ve been caught truffling through your mother’s wardrobe in hot pursuit of that old retro handbag you probably dismissed as a teenager, you’ll understand the appeal. Rustic basket bags masquerading as market purchases are all well and good, but beaded bags are their more sophisticated sister in arms.
- Why The Beaded Bag Is Winning Summer 2018 (British Vogue)
ON AND OFF THE RUNWAY
Some of the collections that caught my eye this week.
Inspired by the young assistants and interns that surround him at the house and their dependence on technology, and riffing on the notion of carrying your world with you, Galliano added virtual reality headsets in vintage car metallics, set iPads into the vast practical bags (they were set to continuously play images of “curated glamour”), and iPhones that were attached via elaborate industrial-looking contraptions to the ankle, set to video mode and angled so that the Margiela models—he dubs them “neo-digital natives”—filmed the front row in real time.
For a brand that trades in playful, retro cool, a theme loosely centered around the early days of computer programming makes for a winning formula. The obvious place to start: reducing the house fox to lo-res pixels and giving him a rabbit to chase; the two stars can be found on new versions of the label’s perennial sweaters and sweatshirts. Cartoonish rockets were the other key visual; they populated the season’s camouflage pieces and adorned badges and buttons alike.
The ensuing trios of looks included prism-PVC ruffled shirts and dresses in a rainbow triangular check. Papery checks and houndstooths that rustled as the wearers walked on their cool prismatic Onitsuka Tiger x Anrealage high-top sneakers were invisibly covered with a “multi-ocular lens effect” coating that made them appear dotted by internal nano fairy lights when the spotlights came up.
And now, this edition’s bonus question: Do you have any favourite outfits from sci-fi, fantasy or comic book media?
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