Meanwhile, we reach into space. Plans for Mars missions, including one involving crowdfunding, compete with media attention for existing accomplishments such as interplanetary probes and continuous Hubble discoveries made easily accessible online. The Chinese reinvigorate interest in the moon by landing a probe and NASA decides it want to land on an asteroid while discussions for mining take on a level of seriousness that would have seemed mere science fiction years ago.

Not since the 60s have we been so excited by science & space and its integration into our lives and our future. It is true that some designers, such as Chanel in 2012, had their eye on the outer reaches with their collection taking place as if in a shuttle craft flying over Earth while during the same period independents such as New York’s Shadowplay NYC featured Hubble photos on custom separates. The obsession with space continues, such as in the couture level silk scarves featuring images of the cosmos made more recently by slowfactory and by the fashion-forward collection created by Opening Ceremony for the soon-to-be-released Spike Jonze sci-fi film “Her”, some of which hints knowing inspiration from Star Trek uniforms. Naturally some designers incorporated the cleaner, streamlined 90s aesthetic with the innocent, youthful  elements of the early 60s into their collections, such as those by Alice + Olivia, Dsquared, Fendi, Honor, M Missoni, Mulberry, Rachel Zoe, and Tory Burch.

As we teeter through the year amidst conflicting economics such as deflation, retail closures and murmurs of cross-class spending restraint versus reports of record online spending and net startup and crowdfunding successes, fashion will provide the distraction the public needs as it captures the excitement and anticipatory optimism that the future always promises when innovation gets center stage. This, as we inch closer towards the end of the decade and ramp up for the true start of the century, will only fuel further speculation on what the future may look like, something covered many times before in this blog. The true influencers have yet to reach the age of impact at the level of fashion line creation, but already the stage is being set and the wow factor that gives us the message of cultural direction may be out of this world beyond what is being hinted now, especially given the exponential growth of our tech.

Certainly designers will pull out all stops, bringing their game. By September we will see the creativity compete for attention with tech on runways and on red carpets, the heights reflecting the precipice our certainty rests. Does this mean everyone is on board for a rosy future? Not necessarily when looking at some collection inspiration, but that’s a different factor that also has been hinted at before in prior collections and that will have to wait until next time.