io9
Retro pop culture always seemed to predict a future world of jumpsuit-clad he men, but around 1920 Italian Futurist artist Giacomo Balla designed and constructed a two-piece suit that looked like something Elton John might have worn on tour in the 1970s. Click through for a closer look, along with a picture of Balla wearing the suit, and a taste of the theory behind it.
In The Antineutral Suit: Futurist Manifesto (1914), Balla railed against "neutral, 'nice,' [and] faded" colors, not to mention "stripes, checks, and diplomatic little dots." Instead, Futurist attire would be "Dynamic, with textiles of dynamic patterns and colors (triangles, cones, spirals . . .) that inspire the love of danger, speed, and assault, and loathing of peace and immobility." Balla also predicted Diana Dew's light-up fashions of the 1960s when he called for "Phosphorescent textiles that ... spread light around when it rains, and meliorate the dimness of twilight in the streets and in the nerves." Tim Gunn would be proud of the way Balla incorporated the tenets of his manifesto into the cut of suit—though probably less so of the way the Futurists went on to ally themselves with Mussolini's fascist government.
Here's Balla in his suit, almost perfectly camouflaged against a background of Futurist art and architecture.The Antineutral Suit: Futurist Manifesto quotes from Emily Braun, "Futurist Fashion: Three Manifestoes," Art Journal (Spring 1995).
Comments
The problem with futuristic fashion (one of them anyway) is the designers jump to a design that epitomizes their personal hobby horse. A Futurist designs this weird looking geometric thing while a cubist designs something asymmetrical with the head hole in the armpit and a Minimalist thins everyone will wear white sheets. Fashion is an organic outgrowth of culture. What sort of ideals does the culture of the future have? Comfort? Sexual liberation? Environmental concerns? Those will define what fashion of the future will be, not some abstract art movement.
That being said, I want a Dada robot suit.
Change the colours, and the pattern reminds me of ski-wear from the 80s/early 90s...
That's not nearly flamboyant enough for Elton John circa 1970s.
At best their art was a footnote to 20th century art history, and that suit is truly ridiculous, but you have to admit that the Futurists' hatred of peace and stability and love of fast screaming death seems to have predicted the mindset of the remainder of the 20th century and the early 21st century... And, that suit, even if ridiculous, is also somewhat awe-inspiring...
Sweet dazzle suit!
[en.wikipedia.org]
Although I somehow don't think this suit would be protection from torpedo looks in hostile crowds...
Well, the designer might have been slightly mad, but I like the suit!
I could definitely scar some people for life wearing that thing.
-Kle.
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