idle gaze 001: Utilitarian design, techwear and the William Gibson aesthetic
Unprecedented times call for function over form.
It’s 2021. You wake up. You get up and get dressed. The world is still in turmoil, and there are a million things on your mind. But picking your outfit isn’t one of them. That’s because you have a capsule wardrobe and all your clothes are the same colour. You only own things that have a clear function. Brands and trends are irrelevant and a distraction. Details are frivolous,. Except for taped seams and pockets; to add essential items into.
Unprecedented times call for function over form. Scroll down for:
Matthew Williams & Givenchy: Utilitarian design’s introduction into the modern zeitgeist.
The immunized shopper and a near-future aesthetic inspired by the William Gibson-verse.
LOT2046 & Outlier NYC: The niche lifestyle brands engineering a future of fashion-as-utility.
In June Givenchy announced that Matthew Williams will take reign as creative director of the luxury fashion house. The introduction of a new creative leader at a high couture establishment might seem like non-news during the time of all-time low economic confidence, where brands around the world are scrambling to make ends meet as retail footfall and consumer spending dries up.
But the shifts in vision and ambition at the ‘maisons’ are predictive bellwethers indicating the shape of things to come. Catwalks inform trend forecasts, which in turn influence the styles that flood the global high street. Take Virgil Abloh’s appointment at Luis Vuitton in 2018, which symbolically reflected the merging of streetwear and luxury.
This time, Matthew Williams’s appointment at Givenchy indicates another incoming shift in the mainstream aesthetic. Mr. Williams has become synonymous with a principle of design defined by utility and industrial brutalist functionality, pushed to the point of fetishization. Whether it’s through his flagship label - 1017 ALYX 9S - or via his collaborations with brands like Dior, his most iconic pieces include a tactical nylon chest rig (adored by Kanye) and stainless steel buckles, (inspired by the highly secure, solid buckles found on rollercoasters). With Williams at the helm of one of the most influential fashion brands in the world, we can anticipate a near-future dominated by a need for rigid, no-frills, functional design.
More on William’s post-times, post-apocalyptic aesthetic: ALYX: INSIDE THE WORLD OF MATTHEW WILLIAMS
"The stillsuit covers almost the entire body, provides cooling and ensures that almost no moisture is lost." Utilitarian-al-a-mode in the upcoming 2020 adaptation of Dune.
The immunized shopper and a near-future aesthetic inspired by the William Gibson - verse.
The boundaries between sci-fi fiction and reality have become increasingly blurred in so many ways. The move towards ‘utilitarian anti-fashion fashion’ has taken many cues from the pages of the cult dystopian futurist William Gibson.
In his seminal 2003 novel Pattern Recognition, the protagonist Cayce is a marketing consultant and coolhunter with a sensitivity for branding, manifested primarily in her physical aversion to logos. Likewise in reality, Highsnobiety this April profiled the rise of the “IMMUNIZED SHOPPER”: previously brand-addicted hypebeasts now alienated by conspicuous consumption - the act of flexing your style knowledge in a bid to win social currency with other fashion connoisseurs has suddenly become unnecessary, even distasteful, considering the current inequality, conflict and unrest seen across the world.
From Pattern Recognition’s black Buzz Rickson MA-1 bomber jacket (“it’s fucking real, not fashion.”) - which has become a real-life utilitarian fashion icon, to Gibson’s influence on the techwear community, this New Yorker article is a comprehensive dive into the relationship between the author’s cyberverse and the present.
The Buzz Rickson MA-1 bomber jacket, first featured fictionally in Gibson’s Pattern Recognition
The emergence of techwear in the age of lockdowns and protesting.
Techwear has been lingering in the margins of consumer culture for a while, but with an overwhelming whiff of future dystopian cosplay, inspired by the gritty, concrete-clad worlds of Ghost in the Shell, Metal Gear Solid and Bladerunner. However, the principles of utilitarian style have recently started to transition from a nerdy Instagram community to gaining practicality in an increasingly uncertain and tumultuous daily life.
During the worldwide COVID lockdown and the BLM protests, social platforms - otherwise dominated by influencers peddling their latest throwaway fashion collaborations - were instead flooded with practical advice on functional, versatile clothing. What to bring on essential trips during lockdown to adhere to hygiene rules - makeshift facemasks, bandanas. And then as thousands of people around the world took to the streets in support of the Black Lives Matter movement - guidance on what to wear to protests - non-descript, sturdy jackets, heat resistant gloves.
US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (and many others) posted infographics on what people should and shouldn’t wear to the BLM protests.
LOT2046 & Outlier NYC: The niche lifestyle brands engineering a future of fashion-as-utility.
Two brands are spearheading a new vision of functional-first design, where utility is not just a benefit, it’s a principle to live by:
LOT2046: LOT2046 is a subscription platform that “designs and develops products for self‑care”.
Once a month, subscribers receive a bundle of clothing and accessories — which can include t-shirts, pants, shoes, jacket, underwear, socks, and accessories varying from toothbrushes to tattoo guns. All in matte black. The LOT subscription is driven by practicality, championing a lifestyle defined by not only a paired down, back to basics aesthetic, but also minimalism on a moral level.
As Kyle Chayka at SSENSE writes
"LOT is an aesthetic with a moral dimension, like the universal humanism of the Bauhaus. Like meditation, medicine, hallucinogens, or cigarettes, LOT is a way of understanding the universe’s implicit hints that your life will end someday, that you are not important...We live in an age of distraction—just remove one.”
Outlier NYC: Outlier NYC is a clothing brand focussed on pragmatic, democratic design, with a mission to “build the future of clothing… [making] garments that evolve around the boundaries of fashion using a function-driven design process and high-quality technical fabrics.” Selling items ranging from dungarees and ponchos with anime face mask and US military insulation. Making waves with Silicon Valley types.