I had to share this. Its Paris Fashion Week which means that I've been attached to my computer for the better part of three days.

I have my own fair share of feelings on fashion in Shadowrun and such but felt this collection from Iris van Herpen was really spot on as far what I could see SR Couture fashion being! You gotta take a look, It's fantastic!

Am i the only one who thinks this stuff looks like shit?

Probably not but I'll take that as my hint to not post more. Just an FYI, Couture fashion is supposed to be sculpture on the female body, a form of art if you will, it's not supposed to be worn in an everyday manner.

While I often like couture this is just somewhat derivative in my mind, so I don't particularly like it. Every outfit screams "I stole this from some artist on the internet and there is nothing they will ever be able to do about it..." Particularly the "bubble" clothing which is reminiscent of numerous water bottle sculptures, and the Goth overtone "dress as armor" was so overdone 10 or even 15 years ago in a wide variety of night clubs that I have a problem taking any of her collection seriously.

You're relating the age old argument. Good artists create, great artists steal.

Right now the big thing all over my fashion blogs is how Givenchy stole the idea of huge earrings for their show earlier this week from Dior in 1997. Everyone's inspired by someone. I wasn't posting this as the end all be all of creative couture, I simply felt it summed up a feel that I felt related to Shadowrun.

Oh and that whole water bottle thing? Look at Dada and the Italian Futurists from the early 20th century. Dresses as armor? Been doing that for hundreds of years. (Unfortunately I'll admit I was part of that terrible goth scene 10-15 years ago. Not one of my better choices...) Again, everyone steals from *EVERYONE*. I used to get hung up on "OMG THIS IS THIS AND THAT IS THAT AND THIS PERSON STOLE THIS" but after awhile you just come to realize that everyone steals and takes ideas from everyone. Especially in fashion.

I realize people steal stuff, but this is a little too fresh. Of course I am having issues with the return of some late 80's and 90's fashion trends which make me cringe. Can we do the 20's, 30's, and 40's instead or lets make a concerted effort for Victorian wear in men's suits, but please leave the 80's particularly in a heap of stretched spandex and leggings.

I'm just looking through the posted gallery and I can't help but think 'man, they all look like escapees from 80's and 90's sci-fi movies'

Somebody feed those people!!! They look starved!

While I don't remotely care about this, my girlfriend sure will! I'm gonna show her.

Makes it no less pointless

Well, actually, not really.

While couture work is kind of a little out there, elements of it are what creep into next year's prete-a-porter designs, which in turn trickle down into the clothing that you and I wear. We may not be going out to buy $500 designer clothing, but the styles and trends that filter into the mainstream come from shows like this. And this stuff is a big enough deal that to even be able to design and hold a couture show, you have to be certified in Paris.

...which is not to mention the criminal element inherent to fashion and couture shows. Tehana could fill you in better on that than I could.

But hey, y'know, whatever floats your independent boat there

And, to be on topic with the OP,

Yeah, it's totally Shadowrun

And, to be on topic with the OP,

Yeah, it's totally Shadowrun

Interesting. Not exactly my taste, but some of them wouldn't look out of place in a cyberpunk world. I encourage you to keep posting these things from time to time, the few good ones make it worth it

I have discussed Versace at great length but let's just say I find it odd that they have a couture show at PFW when other designers do not.

This is a very light article, I'll edit a better one in when I get more coffee in my system, but crime, favors and fashion are all so interconnected it can boggle the mind.

Here's the wiki lite on FFC, it's an extremely significant process to be accepted and be able to show at PFW in a couture show.

I too think it's a good concept piece for SR clothing. Thanks for posting. And the fashion discussion here so far is a pleasant treat. Not something we usually get on DS.

The thinness of the models is a concern, one that has been around for decades. But go back before the 70s or so and you see a different body style. Go back a couple of hundred and beauty was defined as something radically different again. Who knows what body style will actually be chic 60 years from now. One can only hope it will be one that is not so dangerous to the models as the current fashion is.

Hah, you might get a kick out this current plot line in weregeek:

http://www.weregeek.com/2012/01/26/

I grew up in tattoo parlors... I'm amazed at how accurate this is.

I think the 80's and 90's look has been effectively dead for a few years now. I'm not sure what area you live in or the media sources you're looking at but it takes a few years for things to trickle to different areas. I would say in most cases it takes 4-5 years for trends to go from Haute Couture to a midwestern town. 2 years or so for a larger metropolis.

The 1950's are huge right now. Dior did it big for women and for men it seemed to throw between the 30's and the 50's. 50's cuts for men's suits have been pretty standard for a few years now. Prada did it just this past week too.




You see, you're only seeing what is commercial currently, you aren't seeing what is on the runways which influences every little bit of fashion in the world. Jeans at Walmart? Those cuts were designed by Dolce & Gabbana in 2007 or Ralph Lauren in 1996 or any other number of designers that created a new style, or interpreted one into an existing style. The shade of those jeans? The whiskering, the content of the fabric, the weave of the fabric? All influenced by high end designers. You might not think so, but every piece of clothing you are wearing at this very moment has been influenced by high end fashion. Commercial fashion is not designed, it is taken. Department stores don't have real designers working for them, they have fashion buyers that buy from companies that make copies of higher end fashion. My husband won't take me to the mall because I can literally tell you exactly what designer it was taken from and what show it was from. If I saw your outfit right now, whatever you were wearing, I would bet significant money I could identify what high end designer your clothing was taken from. Even something as simple as a tee shirt is cut a certain way based on current trends.

So no, it's not pointless. That art that is in all your Shadowrun books? None of that clothing would have been imaginable without fashion houses. Without Haute Couture designers they would have never existed. Fifth Element? That was pretty influential on a generation of futuristic artists and designers. Jean Paul Gaultier. So it's actually far more relevant than you might like to believe, but your clothing depends on high end fashion. It wouldn't exist without it.






All things considered, models have gone up in size in the past 5-7 years considerably. It is not as chic to be thin as it was in the 1990's. I will say though, that these trends were primarily dominated by male influence.

Karl Lagerfeld had a big part of that with his outlandish weight loss and outspoken nature about how "right" being skinny is. I love the man, but he's friggin anorexic.

But the root of the whole anorexic model thing is Calvin Klein and Vincent Gallo. Take a read through the Heroin Chic wiki, it explains more concisely than I can.

That said, clothes look better on skinny tall girls. Not skin and bone, but thin built women. Its also easier to fit sample sizes when models are all similar shapes, when you start to have curves you get things that don't fit the same on all models. In Haute Couture you also have extreme amounts of small details such as hand embroidery and hand beading. When you're working with a smaller canvas, this can save hundreds and hundreds of hours.

As I said though, I don't think that models are overtly thin currently. At least not to the point of anorexia like they were in the mid 90's. A bit kerfluffule happened just a month or so ago over Italian Vogue and a photo shoot by one of the most prolific models currently, Karlie Kloss. Karlie is extremely athletic and active and because of that has very little body fat. Here are the untouched, unphotoshopped of Karlie, who isn't anorexic. NSFW.

And I'll end with this. Because Givenchy and Tisci are awesome. A sign backstage at the Givenchy Spring 2012 show.

I pretty much don't have very similar tastes or views on Shadowrun as you Tehana, however I do think you should continue to post whatever comes to mind-and not allow someone else to bully you into not posting, or participating. Not only do they not have to read this thread or post to it, but frankly as much as our world views may clash in some instances I do recognize that sometimes it's really good for me to have a point of view that isn't my own. If nothing else I discover some things I don't want to do or use. best case scenario, for me, is I find something I will use or want ot use, or that inspires me.

Dumpshock does not have a proscribed point of view that must be uniformly adhered to. The game is big enough to support all of the views espoused here, and thousands of other threads.

Faded and cracked black synthleather with spots of brown showing through, buttons and patches, and lots of zippers and chains.

Malcolm McLaren. Or you can shoot real far back and go to WW2 bomber jackets. But you said chains so I'm going to toss to him.

Thanks

I know my view is out there, but it's not *that* far out there if you look beyond the veneer. I know this is a male dominated forum and I'm not saying that interests always lie along gender lines, but there is more to Shadowrun than black turtlenecks and guns. There's a whole dirty world out there to play with...

I've got a protein shake for em!

Not sure about the black turtlenecks, I don't really go for playing a dude that sits in Starbucks all day, but I agree there is more to SR than guns, there is ammo and treachery as well.

Not sure if that should be horrible or not, But... Thats horrible.

Someone had to say it...

Bomber Jackets are in Arsenal. Honestly, it and the add-on in Attitude should be places to check out styles other than, "I wanna be Neo or Morpheus!"

Hey now, i'm a guy and most of my character builds dont wear the typical black leather coat.
Ofcource i have to admit a lot of that is cos i just love steampunk, so most of my characters wear that style.
But i do try take account the other thinks that are in fashion on SR currently and concurrently actually somewhat know what is and has been in fashion in SR .
Where's as my knowledge of RL fashion is limited to watching the early Victoria's Secret fashion show

Arsenal and Attitude has some nice options to play around with.

That said, please, there's Gay Men out there that would look simply FABULOUS on a Shadowrun, and you know it! I can think of some friends back home that would be doing that exact thing!

They just shake their heads over my own personal dressing tastes, BTW. *Shrugs*

We'll have to agree to disagree on that point

You basically stole the words out of my mouth.

Out of any of them, I think that Augmentation comes closest to being actually "fashionable", due to the fact that it actually talks about sixth world culture and doesn't do embarassing things like come up with invisible padded armor for nightgowns. That's pretty funny. I actually had to supress the giggles at "electrified pantyhose" that you charge through static electricity - really? Really?

Well, at least it has my group thinking beyond "What gives me the best armor" to "What should I wear to blend in".

I think the problem is it is not clothing as much as art dressed as clothing. But since it is shown at fashion shows then you look at it as clothing and think "How am I going to sit down in that thing?" and to be fair one of two looked like they were wearing tumors or had been mugged by a balloon animal. As for high end runs, think of all the possibilities-the design, the models, stealing them, sabotaging them, meeting people and contacts in the salons, the hand off of a stolen file between runs. If you want to go sort of "Miss Congeniality" on it, convince a female runner she has to be the one out there on the cat walk.

"Come on Abby, you're got the figure for it! You're the best shot, it's you or Trogdor." "What part of Sociopathic Murdering Slitch don't you understand?" "I used to MC these things back when I had a life. Trust me, you'll fit right in. Keep your ceramic knives."

Yeah I think some of those outfits look "high end" shadowrun culture, to me.

OK, to be a bit more specific; when looking over the gallery my reactions ranged from "seems like your average small and black in a new material" to "that is not a dress, that is a life jacket". Then again, i am male, worker family background, aspie, and find myself wearing utilitarian clothing more often than not. I am the guy in the background fiddling with the comlink in a barely acceptable suit the face tossed my way.