3. “…I felt that I was trying to describe an unthinkable present and I
actually feel that science fiction’s best use today is the exploration of
contemporary reality rather than any attempt to predict where we
are going…The best thing you can do with science today is use it to
explore the present. Earth is the alien planet now”.
William Gibson
4. The cyberpunk 123
movement still has a pulse in the 21st century artistic expressions; despite believes
that this concept had died in the fin de siècle of the 20th century. It has an emblematic meaning for
transcending into an entity of higher integrity, a way to escape the human body through
technological traits. By way of evolving of the criteria for the ‘ideal’ representations of the body in
the 21st century fashion, the need for re-evaluation of the penetration of cyberpunk arises. The
dissemination of cyber technology into the social and fashion field is more visible, primarily by means
of ‘stitching’ a new ameliorated virtual body that would be appropriate for the ‘augmented reality’
that we currently live in.
Defining ‘cyber’ aesthetics in the 21st century pre-supposes a renewed integration and interpretation
of cyberpunk as movement that symbolizes the modification of the body through technology, the
provoked raw human emotions as well as understanding of the contemporary modes of
communication. The story of 21st century fashion is another feature that portrays the human
desire to overcome the limits of the body, by designing clothes for ‘new’ bodies and bodies for ‘new’
clothes. The classic garment is a range of wearable technologies and interface: no longer just a means
of seduction, but ‘furniture body’. With collections featuring deconstructed suits and dresses that
acknowledge the effect of ‘Tron’4
alike beings, the hints of the cyberpunk influence are evident in the
collections of Alexander McQueen, Gareth Pugh, Rick Owens, Haider Ackermann, Ann
Demeulemeester, Christopher Kane, Helmut Lang, Versace, and Alexander Wang. In blurring the
dividing line between the natural and the artificial, cyberpunk also triggers the question of alteration
of the human body due to 21st century technological advancements in the fashion photography of
Steven Klein, Mert & Marcus, Nick Knight and Steven Meisel.
Technology does not erase the body’s materiality; the physical body is not removed from the picture.
Rather, it problematizes it by “underscoring its involvement with virtual phenomena: simulated
bodies, synthetic organisms and personality constructs”5
. The process of ‘technologization‘ of the
body is increasingly depicted in the last few years, it has been able not only to approach the human
body, but even to penetrate it, which resulted in creating body modifications, that are another
1
According to Merriam-Webster’s Encyclopedia of Literature (1995), cyberpunk is defined as: “A science-fiction subgenre comprising
works characterized by countercultural antiheroes trapped in a dehumanized, high-tech future.”
2
SF writer Bruce Sterling defined the movement in 1986, in the preface to Mirror-shades: The Cyberpunk Anthology: Suddenly a new
alliance is becoming evident: an integration of technology and the Eighties counterculture. An unholy alliance of the technical world
and the world of organized dissent – the underground world of pop culture, visionary fluidity, and street-level anarchy. Bruce Sterling,
Mirror-shades: The Cyberpunk Anthology, (Berkley: Ace Books, 1988), xii-xiii.
3
Behind the hyperbole, cyber suggests cyborg and cybernetics and the increasing presence of computers in our lives, while punk is an
attempt to identify this new writing in terms of its edge and texture. Constance Penley, Technocultures (University of Minnesota Press,
1991), 296.
4
Tron is a 1982 American science fiction film released by Wald Disney Pictures. The costumes were characteristic neon light suits.
5
Dani Cavallaro, Cyberpunk & Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson (London: Athenaeum Press, Ltd., 2000),
83.
5. attribute of the cyberpunks, that existed as fictional characters on films and novels even three decades
ago. Fashion in that time was enriched by the right to wear hybridization and electronics that shaped
smooth appearance of the body, which implied a seductive fascination with technology.
Film scholars and cultural theorists elaborated ideas related to the body, the city and technology
represented in cyberpunk novels and films that attain ‘milieu’ in the neo-noir genre. In relation to this,
Zizek underlined the need for a “refined philosophical and psychoanalytical conceptual
distinctions”6
in the analyses of cyberpunk. Regardless of the in-depth analyses of the cyber space and
the cyber characters in the epic sci-fi movies, such as Blade Runner and Matrix, as well as the cyber
setting in the pivotal cyberpunk novel Neuromancer; the articulated tensions between human and
machine opened space for abjection of the corporeal that resulted in serious analyses within gender
studies, but the study of cyberpunk has been overlooked within the fashion field.
The 1980’s and 1990’s fashion that was labelled as cyberpunk was either related to punk
rebelliousness (Vivienne Westwood’s 1983 Nostalgia map collection) or to futuristic expression of
the ‘utopian’ cyber world (Thierry Mugler, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto). In addition to this,
mediations between the varying discourses of cultural and social theory, science, and the tropes and
images of science fiction, translating theoretical, cultural and narrative models of the ‘post-human’
into performative parameters of corporeal actualization should open new perspectives for filling the
void in understanding the meaning of cyberpunk for the 21st century fashion representations.
The flow of images these days, are proof of the way we inscribe our bodies and narrate our identities,
due to the high technology that now includes cyberspace, information technology, virtual imagining,
virtual reality, and biomedical methods of body reconstruction. Ultimately the post-human body in
the post-modern environment is the core with which we map our relation to others and tell
ourselves our own stories, as Poster argues “in an increasing hyper-anesthetized everyday life it is
through various fictions that we endeavor to come to know ourselves” 7
. The struggle to establish
identity in the ‘Tomorrowland’ opens the question of the virtual body as a more powerful
counterpart of the human body.
6
Slavoj Zizek, The Matrix: The Two Sides of Pervesion. Inside the Matrix: International Symposium at the Center for Art and Media,
Karlsruhe, 1999.
7
Mark Poster, Postmodern Virtualities in Mike Featherstone and Roger Burrows (eds.) / Cyberspace/Cyberbodies/Cyberpunk: Cultures
of Technological Embodiment. (Sage Publicatiions Ltd. 1993), 13.
7. LOS ANGELES, NOVEMBER, 2019
I’ve... seen things you people wouldn’t believe... Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I
watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those... moments... will be lost
in time, like [small cough] tears... in... rain. Time to die...
Tears in Rain monologue by the replicant Roy Batty,
Blade Runner (1982)
8. Blade Runner (1982)
Replicants are like any other machine.
They’re either a benefit or a hazard.
Deckard
Blade Runner (1982)
9. The Matrix (1999); The Matrix Reloaded (2003); The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
The Matrix is a system, Neo. That system is our enemy. But when
you’re inside, you look around, what do you see? Businessmen,
teachers, lawyers, carpenters. The very minds of the people we are
trying to save. But until we do, these people are still a part of that
system and that makes them our enemy. You have to understand,
most of these people are not ready to be unplugged. And many
of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that
they will fight to protect it.
Morpheus
The Matrix (1999)
10. The thing about perfection is that it’s
unknowable. It’s impossible, but it’s
also right in front of us all the time. You
wouldn’t know that
because I didn’t when I created you. I’m
sorry, Clu. I’m sorry...
Kevin Flynn
Tron: Legacy (2010)
Everything you do or learn will be imprinted on this disc. If you lose your disc, or fail to
follow commands, you will be subject to immediate de-resolution. That will be all.
Sark
Tron (1982)
Tron (1982); Tron: Legacy (2010)
11. As a girl, she was a legal prey, especially if she
was dressed in a worn black leather jacket and
had pierced eyebrows, tattoos, and zero social
status.
Stieg Larsson,
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)
It is estimated that the human beings only use
10% of the brains capacity. Imagine if we could
access 100%. Interesting things begin to happen.
All this knowledge…you can unlock secrets that
go beyond our universe. I’m not even sure that
mankind is ready for that.
Professor Norman
Lucy (2014)
It’s like all things that make me human are fad-
ing away…
Lucy
Lucy (2014)
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011); Lucy (2014)
13. Shibuya Tokyo
Cityscapes have been influenced by cyberpunk, the representations of vertical urban life and
sci-fi scenarios from 20th century science fiction literature have become a key inspiration in
contemporary urban settings.
Cyberpunk as a subgenre of science fiction developed in the 1980s and 1990s is closely linked
with the metropolitan urban life. The cyberpunk philosophy read in the important cyberpunk
novels generates the ideas of formal urban theory, such as the idea of global cities, cities as
communication systems.
19. “Classic cyberpunk characters
were marginalized, alienated
loners who lived on the
edge of society in generally
dystopic futures where daily
life was impacted by rapid
technological change, an
ubiquitous datasphere of
computerized information,
and invasive modification of
the human body.”
Lawrence Person
20. The 1980’s and 1990’s fashion that was labelled as cyberpunk was either related to punk
rebelliousness (Vivienne Westwood’s 1983 Nostalgia map collection) or to futuristic expression of the
‘utopian’ cyber world (Thierry Mugler, Rei Kawakubo and Yohji Yamamoto).
1
3
5
42
Cyberpunk
fashion
80s & 90s
21. 1. Alexander Mcqueen for Givenchy fall collection 1999
2. Alexander Mcqueen A/W 1999-2000
3. Thierry Mugler, photo by Helmut Newton, Monte
Carlo, 1998
4. Yohji Yamamoto, Vogue France, December 1988
5. Vivienne Westwood Punkature collection S/S 1983
6. Koji Tatsuno, A/W 1993-1994
7. Yohji Yamamoto, photo by Nick Knight, A/W
1988/1989
8. Thierry Mugler, Les Insectes Couture Collection, S/S 1997
9. Thierry Mugler, Bridesmaids, fall 1995 couture details
10. Thierry Mugler, photo by Irving Penn, 80s
11. Rei Kawakubo for Comme des Garcons, 80s
12. Rei Kawakubo, A/W 1990
8
10
9
76
12
11
22. Cyberpunk
fashion 00s
The story of 21st century fashion is another feature that portrays the human desire to overcome the
limits of the body, by designing clothes for ‘new’ bodies and bodies for ‘new’ clothes.
With collections featuring deconstructed suits and dresses that acknowledge the effect of ‘Tron’ alike
beings, the hints of the cyberpunk influence are evident in the collections of Alexander McQueen,
Gareth Pugh, Rick Owens, Haider Ackermann, Ann Demeulemeester,Christopher Kane, Helmut Lang,
Versace and Alexander Wang.
1
3
5
4
2
6
23. 1. Rei Kawakubo, Comme des Garcons, Fall 2008
2. Ann Demeulemeester, A/W 2012
3. Fall 2012 runway looks from left to right: Chanel, Ann
Demeulemeester, Christopher Kane, Fendi.
4. Fall 2012 runway looks from left to right: Haider Acker-
mann, Gareth Pugh, Versace,
Vivienne Westwood.
5. Gareth Pugh, Metalic Organism
6. Haider Ackermann, photo by Tim Walker, 2012
7. Versace men A/W 2010 -11
8. Alexander McQueen F/W 2011
9. Rick Owens A/W 2014-2015
10. Rick Owens A/W 2014 - 2015
11. Gareth Pugh A/W 2011
12. Haider Ackermann A/W 2008-2009
7
89
10
11
12
24. Cyberpunk in
fashion
photography
In blurring the dividing line between the natural and the artificial, cyberpunk also triggers the
question of alteration of the human body due to 21st century technological advancements in the
fashion photography of Steven Klein, Mert & Marcus, Nick Knight and Steven Meisel.
1. Metal Headz. Photography Mert & Marcus. Stylist Karl Templer
2. Yohji Yamamoto campaign A/W 1999. Photography by Inez Van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin
3. Steven Klein. American Vogue. 2012
4. Raquel Zimmerman. Photography by Steven Meisel Vogue Italia, November 2011
5. Nick Knight. British Vogue 2011
1
3
5
2
4
25. “For cyberpunks technologies is inside, not outside, the
personal body and mind Itself”.
Darko Suvin
1. Paola Mirai bracelet
2. Benjamin Shun shoes
3. Gareth Pugh jacket
4. The Light Glasses
5. Rick Owens bracelet
6. Niels Astrup, Touch Skin OLED watch
7. Gareth Pugh pants
Cyberpunk
elements
1
3
5
4
2
7
6
26. “Cyberpunk emphasizes the pockets of invisibility that fold and unfold within the
visible. Indeed, the matrix itself is not only a siteless site – ‘There is no there, there’
– but also a sightless sight: a fog of visions endlessly receding towards the black
infinity of spaces between mirrors”.
Dani Cavallaro
27. References:
Cavallaro, Dani. Cyberpunk & Cyberculture: Science Fiction and the Work of William Gibson.
London: Athenaeum Press, Ltd., 2000.
Calefato, Patrizia. The Clothed Body: (Dress, Body, Culture). London: Berg Publishers, 2004.
Featherston, Mike. Body Modification. Nottingham Trent University Press. 2000.
Haraway, Donna J. Simians, Cyborg, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. New York: Routledge,
1991.
Shinke, E. Fashion as Photograph: Viewing and Reviewing Images of Fashion. New York: I.B. Taurus
& Co. Ltd., 2008.
Online sources:
http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/v/vivienne-westwood-designs/
http://singularityco.tumblr.com/post/31738130793/heroine-chic-the-season-of-sci-fi-fashion
http://www.patternindy.com/2012/05/30/fall-2012-trend-report-blade-runner-babes
http://moesucks.com/2011/07/06/defining-cyberpunk-and-steinsgate/
http://silverscreenmodes.com/?p=211
https://images.google.com/
