Welcome to the future

Fashion houses of 2014 step aside… Could it be that some of our hottest trends are now being set by the likes of Apple and Google? With the digital revolution as prominent as ever we are seeing the fashion world go technology mad; with the Apple Watch debuting the cover of Vogue China and the Google Goggles stealing the show at New York fashion week, we ask the question: are we really dawning upon a new age of futuristic fashion? And how far are we from the predictions of fashion we have seen over the past century?

Over the years many films have tried to depict their vision of what ‘futuristic fashion’ would be. Blockbusters such as The Matrix and Blade Runner projected future visions of shady metallics, edgy vinyl, and grungy dark makeup, while in Back to The Future we saw auto-drying jackets, auto-lacing shoes and colour-shifting hats, and now it seems that some of these fantasy predictions are becoming more and more of a reality.

 Take Louis Vuitton’s Matrix-esque AW14/15 menswear collection for example; we saw slicked back hair, futuristic shades, dark black leather and trench coats. While popping holographic prints and dishevelled metallics have never been bigger on the high street. We have even seen some impressive advancements in garment technology over the past few years such as ‘wearable solar’ which now means it could be only a matter of time before we can plug our iPhones into our dresses. It certainly seems to be the case that the future has never been so now.

 Coco Chanel once said: “Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” and in this digital era it seems Coco’s philosophy has prevailed once more; fashion is the new and ever-changing inventions, discoveries and technologies. So bring on the new technologies, and lets hope that auto-drying jacket is just around the corner, because we sure could do with one of those here in Manchester!