What exactly counts as Tres Chic? I've found nada.

Spencer

Take a look at some of the big media awards ceremonies. That's usually a good guideline.

Edit: as long as you keep in mind that by 2065 they will have been out of fashion for sixty-four years and eleven months, ten or nine if they were particularly inspired or original.

~J

I'm taking a wild shot in the dark here, but I'd guess Mulvihill and crew aren't people you'd want to go to for fashion advice, and rather than throwing something together and calling it The Future (most other times they tried that, it didn't work out so well), they (I think prudently) left it mostly undescribed. Since clothing is, for most gamers, an abstruse and confusing subject, it's not often a major (or at least functional) game element, and is pretty easily scaled up or back depending on the game style, consitutents, etc.

That said, a real analysis of fashion trends would take a while, but it's safe to say that classics will stay classics forever or nearly that. Still expect advancements in both natural and artifical fibers (more the latter if you buy into SR's Everything Is Plastic Or Soy Because It Is So There future paradigm). Expect fitted cuts to be more mainstream for men and risque stuff to creep in more and more for women. Formalwear is something else entirely, and can completely go crazy (watch the Academy Awards for just how divorced from reality it can be). Beyond that, you can look at some more fashion forward (but still more or less mainstream) design houses today like A|X and H&M and think of them as the Gap of tomorrow. But, don't forget: plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose— trite but true, even and perhaps especially here.

Tres chic is between dos chic and cuatro chic.

Any other questions?

Chic is just a french word synonym to elegant and distinguished when used to describe clothing. "Très" means "Very"

So what counts as being very elegantly dressed? Any clothes that costs a lot of money and doesn't get you laughed out of a high society event, basically. It usually also means you are wearing expensive jewelry (for women), or are wearing a beautiful woman on your arm loaded with expensive jewelry bought by you (for men).

You can always snatch up an old copy of the neo-anarchists guide to real life (I think that's the one. Correct me if I'm wrong) to see what constituted as trés chic in the 2050s. If memory serves, there are pictures of people wearing designer armor clothing in there. (Including a paticularely amusing picture of a troll in a kilt).

Tres Chic and Computers are a lot alike, they come out of the factory, hit the market, are purchased, brought home, and made use of once, by the time they are used again they are no longer considered as great as they were, because the new stuff has just then hit the market.

That metaphor is completely specious. Fashion does not progress like technology. A 5 year old piece of tech is literally obsolete; a 5 year old piece of clothing that was once a fad can have made the rounds as a fad, hit the closet floor for a few years, and now be back as retro chic. Or it could not be a silly fad and have stayed fashionable while trends moved on. Fashion really functions more like a postmodern interpretation of the art world crossed with technology than what you're suggesting.

Time to start shadowrunning on those Fashion Design Schools to find out what's next year's hottest fashions. I'm sure there is a lot of money involved in that...

While it may come back into fashion, it is to my knowledge extremely rare for something to be Trés Chic again.

~J

Extremely is a bit strong. Hel, this past fall, designers decreed from on high that tweed was cool! And everyone around the world decided that looking like walking carpets was probably a good idea now. This sort of stupidity is really not uncommon enough. But, even in these fad waves, a few things actually possess real merit, and they'll stick around.

The comparison to the tech market's really pretty superficial. Yes, I can do work on an old computer, but obsolescence due to progressively more powerful software and the demands of interconnectivity is unavoidable. Fashion doesn't work with these dynamics unless you want to strap your metaphors to the rack.

yea, lately i have seen younger people wear stuff that look like something i could find in my parents attic. only diff is a change in colors mostly...

then there is the catwalk designs that i cant belive that anyone would ever show up with in public. some of the stuff shown of there looks like it have to be glued in place.

in my view the fashions you see is only indirectly influenced by the catwalk. the catwalk have become similar to a concept car show, its designers are going wild and totaly out of touch with the real world. if you look at the mens wear it have not changed since the 1930 or so. but the dresses of the women changes from short skirt to long skirt, from straps to full length sleeves and so on. and while men can use the same suit over and over the women cant be seen in the same dress twice, (preferably) ever.

the only way to compare it to the tech market is by compareing brands rather then tech specs. currently im seeing a whole lot of people going for apple products, and and linux based solutions is on a up. how that will be in 2, 5 or 10 years is anyones guess. then there is the mobile phone, where the latest features and models is allways a good way to sell a phone. but still the designes change, maybe slideing phones are in style this year (phones where the numpad slides ut from the phone itself) while next year it may be the candybar design thats hot (numpad fixed below the screen), or maybe clamshell design. then there is the one shot designs that may or may not create a new style that everyone will try to emulate.

fashion is about being part of the in crowd, but if you manage to ask whats in then you will be marked as a poser (you got the right stuff but the attitude is wrong).

fashion changes from social system to social system, from contry to contry, even from city to city. so basicly tres chic is what you want to be seen in if you want people to belive your someone or you want to become someone (in fact those two are very related, show yourself of as a moviestar and you may well become one and so on).

tres chic should be coverd by the sota rules however, every month to year every set of tres chic your character owns should have a chance of becomeing fine or even ordinary clothing.

tres chic does not so much have to do with how it looks and what its made of as it have to do with the waves of fashion...

allso, the armor section of cannon companion is a nice read. some stuff there stay tres chic thanks to brand. some become fine after a year or so...

I'd say being "tres chic" to some degree reflects the quality and worksmanship that goes into the clothing as well. I might agree that somehting bought "tres chic" simply for the purpose of following fashions could degrade. I would however say that you might as well have paid "tres chic" prices for a very fine business suit, that will still get you admitted in the finest clubs for years to come without looking out of place.

My sense of humor is very dry. I say just about everything with a straight face.

Fashion does seem to come around again... flares are back in again, at least in Britain, and a lot of the stuff I'm seeing in shop windows has a very 60's/70's look to it. Fashion bemuses me, though, so I may not be the best judge I find no benefit in paying £100 for a plain pastel yellow T-shirt made by Pierre Cardin instead of a tenner for an intricately detailed printed T-shirt from one of the local shops.

Somebody please email me when Bellbottoms are back in style...

I always thought it took the pop or movie star dujour to make something mashipnable.

Before Point Break (i think) Oakley's were around $15 and saw only mild popularity, afterwards, they are 90 bucks to start.

No one ever knows what will become the next big thing for sure, but you can't buy what teh stores won't sell. My parents let me in on a secret concerning bell bottoms, you just couldn't buy any other style in the readily accessable stores at the time. They were popular for some folks not because they liked them, but because they needed a new pair and nothing else was for sale.

Not to mention very falacious to oversimplify like that. You might as well say the same thing about art or film and be just as wrong.

Generally speaking, fasion comes and goes in a roughly 30 year cycle. 10 years ago, hippie-style clothing came back for a bit, then recently we had flares (a new name for bellbottoms). We should be coming into a more 80's like style soon, involving bright colors and whatnot. Of course, this prediction isn't exact, but it's roughly correct.

So actually, fasion in the 2050s should be roughly 70's-esc, but by the 2060's it should be somewhat related to the 80's (and today).

JaronK

Hm. I usually just picked whatever I liked. That or used some of the pics in the SBs as a measuring stick for the general ambience that someone not fully in on my twisted little universe could use to orient themselves.

True enough; I suppose I misspoke in terms of overemphasizing the impractical parts of Trés Chic. I do, however, think that if you can get it at a store at the mall or see it regularly on the street, it almost by definition isn't Trés Chic (capitalized to emphasize that this is the game concept being discussed).

~J

Maybe Fred Segal, then.

Maybe.

I don't consider Trés Chic to be beyond the pale of useful clothing - those articles simply don't have a spot on the list. I've always played Trés Chic as top of the line fashion worn in whatever aspect it was purchased for (Corporate, Tribal, Political, Media, Etc).

When a PC wishes to go further, she or he goes shopping and pays many thousands of dollars for a single dress or suit.

Yeah, but for 1,000 nuyen for a set, that's slightly above average even for such high end places as FS.

But, yeah, I have no problem having a PC go out and get a bespoke suit, and depending where it's made, what it's made from, and who makes it the price can vary tremendously.

Let's look at a tailored $3,000 Armani, Jil Sander (ok, multiply price by two) or Brooks Brothers. Would I wear one into combat? No, ok, they're not exactly BDU tough in terms of durability, but they are going to be very well constructed from the best materials available, and far from non functional. "Trés Chich must be non functional, tin foil runway crap" doesn't really hold up. Even with women, where you have a bit more room to maneuver, I still wouldn't say that's accurate.