1 Cyberpunk Fashion: Future-Shocked Looks from Fiction

© Ryan V. Stewart, 2018–present | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ARTpublika Magazine: Volume V Submission (Ryan V. Stewart) | 1 Cyberpunk Fashion: Future-Shocked Looks From Fiction, Film, and More By Ryan V. Stewart NOTE: Skip to the seventh paragraph of this article to read about cyberpunk fashion. The previous paragraphs provide some background on the genre, as well as its “look” and other qualities. Science fiction is, by its nature, a very broad genre. Beyond the fact that sci-fi—whether written fiction, films, video games, or other forms of creative media—is generally characterized by speculative scenarios involving significant future discoveries or developments, scientific innovations, or technological changes, the genre can, has been, and continues to be taken in new directions. Variations on sci-fi have, over time, lead to numerous subgenres, presenting readers, viewers, and gamers with scenarios in which themes and motifs can differ greatly, casts of characters can consist of any sort of being imaginable—from human to alien to cyborg to creatures scarcely conceivable—and settings can range from near-future and Earth-based locales to outposts at the edge of space and end of time, to even virtual worlds. One particular subgenre of sci-fi has stood out from the rest for both its innovative nature—pushing the boundaries of the genre on several important fronts—and its unique and visually striking aesthetic presentation: Cyberpunk, as it is called, is either a portmanteau of “cybernetics” and “punk” or “cyberspace” and “punk,” and, as the term suggests, encapsulates sci-fi which explores settings and scenarios emphasizing cybernetics—a field of study dealing with information systems, usually computer systems—or cyberspace—the “space” by which computer systems are connected, and communication over computer networks occurs—and “punk,” in this case broad enough to mean not merely the punk rock scene, subculture, and music genre (though counterculture does have its place in cyberpunk media), but also the discordant, down-and-out, helter-skelter ethos or “feel” of punk, generally. © Ryan V. Stewart, 2018–present | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ARTpublika Magazine: Volume V Submission (Ryan V. Stewart) | 2 Rooted in the 60s and 70s’ New Wave of sci-fi, and inspired by the emerging hacker culture of the 1980s—public access to both digital technology and computer systems being relatively new and unique phenomena at the time—as well as the West’s Sexual Revolution and aspects of its drug culture, it is often claimed that cyberpunk was initiated as a fiction genre in that decade, defined and developed by authors like Bruce Bethke, Pat Cadigan, William Gibson, and Bruce Sterling. As a genre of fiction, cyberpunk flourished throughout the 80s and the 90s, and lead to and influenced the existence and qualities of cyberpunk or cyberpunk-esque films, T.V. shows, and video games, as well as creative works based on derivative genres, such as post-cyberpunk and steampunk. © Ryan V. Stewart, 2018–present | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ARTpublika Magazine: Volume V Submission (Ryan V. Stewart) | 3 Famously described as “high tech, low life,” cyberpunk typically explores dystopian or near-dystopian futures in which advancements in engineering and technology have collided with societal development to create some level of dysfunction. The result is a darker, edgier, and grittier side of sci-fi, in which class conflict and corporatocracy, environmental decline, disillusionment, government repression, hedonism, overpopulation, mass surveillance, the potentially negative or revolutionary outcomes of technological development—artificial intelligence (A.I.), bio-engineering, brain-computer interfaces, robotics, and virtual reality (V.R.) being common—ethnic or cultural conflict resulting from hyper-multiculturalism, and urban sprawl and decay are some of the themes typically explored. Arguably much more so than other forms of sci fi—and, indeed, helped by the popularity of cyberpunk art and illustration, films, and video games—cyberpunk has an idiosyncratic “look” to it: Cyberpunk societies are stereotypically placed in overcrowded, towering, high-contrast and neon-lit cityscapes—often inspired by densely-populated cities in East Asia, notably Chiba and Tokyo (especially the Shibuya ward) in Japan, and Hong Kong and Shanghai in China—inundated with signs and advertisements—typically, and appropriately, in East Asian languages, notably Chinese, Japanese, or Korean, or futuristic dialects inspired by them, indicating a society with high level of cultural hybridization and pluralism, perhaps on the verge of post-culturalism—which emphasize ultra-consumerist tendencies, where human-machine interfaces abound. Individuals in these societies often range from suit-and-tie corporate types, presenting fashionably upscale, despite any potential cybernetic augmentations—think a businessman who, instead of wearing a Bluetooth earpiece, has half his skull replaced with a robotic implant, or gets charts measuring the changes in the stock market beamed directly to his retina—to the “punks” of cyberpunk—countercultural revolutionaries or nihilists, who might sport mohawks, combat boots, and other attire associated with the various contemporary countercultures. © Ryan V. Stewart, 2018–present | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ARTpublika Magazine: Volume V Submission (Ryan V. Stewart) | 4 These descriptions give us a general idea of both the visual atmosphere and ethos of a number of cyberpunk settings, and the day-to-day “look” of the denizens of such worlds—their peculiar, future-shocked fashions. However, when it comes to sheer descriptiveness and attention to detail, cyberpunk authors tend to give priority to the unique visual aspects of cyberpunk environments rather than their characters’ garb. Much of cyberpunk fiction leaves the daywear of its characters to the imagination of readers. Can we explore this topic further? Well, at least some works in the genre have elucidated the looks of the citizens of their cyberpunk societies. In William Gibson’s near-future novel (the plot is set in 2035), Neuromancer (1984)—one of the genre’s definitive and most popular books—for instance, we get a glimpse of some of the characters’ clothes and hairstyles. (Neon Dystopia, an excellent online magazine centered on everything cyberpunk, has a great article on this topic that’s really worth checking out. Shout-out to them, also, for providing pertinent information for this article!) “She wore mirrored glasses. Her clothes were black, the heels of her black boots deep in the temper foam,” we read of Molly Millions (known simply as Molly in Neuromancer, by her full name in Gibson’s short story “Johnny Mnemonic,” and in a later Gibson work as Sally Shears), a cyborg blade-for-hire who develops a close relationship with the novel’s main character. Note here the inclusion of temper, or memory, foam in Molly’s boots, serving as the slightly futuristic contrast to an otherwise 80s-appropriate, contemporary wardrobe. “… the glasses were surgically inset, sealing her sockets,” we also read, revealing a hi-tech augmentation allowing the wearer of these particular shades to some degree merge their outfit with their body. We continue to read, “The silver lenses seemed to grow from smooth pale skin above cheekbones, framed by dark hair cut in a rough shag. The fingers curled around the fletcher were slender, white tipped with polished burgundy. The nails looked artificial.” Note that the “fletcher” here mentioned is a needlegun, not an accessory or article of clothing. © Ryan V. Stewart, 2018–present | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ARTpublika Magazine: Volume V Submission (Ryan V. Stewart) | 5 Molly is described as wearing tight black jeans, and a black jacket “cut from some matte fabric that seemed to absorb light.” (Whether this “matte fabric” is a sort of futuristic textile, or something available during the 80s, is unknown.) She is also described as wearing a sleeveless, gray pullover underneath her jacket, featuring zippers on the shoulders. Molly’s outfit in Neuromancer suggests a bit more of the “punk” side of cyberpunk, her nearly all-black attire and shag-cut hair, paired with blood-burgundy nails and shades, coming off as offbeat and edgy. The zippers on the shoulders of her shirt remind one of the eye-catching placement of zippers on unconventional parts of clothing—the sides of shirts or sleeves of coats, for instance—common in the fashion of the cybergoth and rivethead subcultures, both associated with the darker aspects of the electronic dance music, industrial dance music, and rave scenes. A mesh shirt she dons later in the novel is also suggestive of a counterculture-type look. An ability to extend and retract blades from beneath her nails—an example of the bodily augmentations common in cyberpunk fiction—adds a menacing and even darker quality to her character. Molly’s inset lenses remind us of another character, this time from a Japanese media franchise described as “post-cyberpunk,” Ghost in the Shell. White-haired Batou, one of the primary characters of the franchise, which began in 1989 and ran until 1991 as a serialized manga series of the same name by Masamune Shirow, has circular, cybernetic eyes which look almost like bottle caps. © Ryan V. Stewart, 2018–present | CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 ARTpublika Magazine: Volume V Submission (Ryan V. Stewart) | 6 But far more interesting for her outward appearance is the protagonist

Load more