In 1982, Fashion Got the Future Wrong

In 1982, photographer and ex-model Lucille Khornak put together a book called Fashion 2001, which contained 90 photos from 90 of the world's biggest womenswear designers predicting what they thought clothes would be like in the distant year of 2001. Turns out the majority of them thought that in 2001 women would all be fierce, power-suited vixens covered in latex and living in space, which would have been awesome. Sadly, the only people who seem to be living out those dreams nowadays are the Black Eyed Peas, which isn't really what Issey Miyake et al. would have wanted. Here are some comparisons between the projected and the eventual reality.

THIERRY MUGLER 1982  

It's funny how optimistic everyone was about the future of space travel in the 80s, like they genuinely believed we'd need dresses fit for that upcoming intergalactic debutante ball. Hats off to Mugler for keeping it glamorous, though. Every sketch and painting of the future from that era always kits out its subjects in rigid, steampunk-esque garb, and while he still went for the hardy, metallic look, at least Mugler dressed his model in something she could look vaguely fuckable in, rather than the drab, robotic stuff everyone else was so keen on.

THIERRY MUGLER 2001  

Obviously glamor wasn't big on the Mugler agenda post-millennium, but apparently dressing like a style-blind, color-shy Avril Lavigne fan on her way to a Japanese Lolita convention was totally in.

ISSEY MIYAKE 1982

Miyake's "thing," for the 30-odd years that he headed his brand, was that he was always tech-driven and forward-thinking with his design, so this project should have been right up his street. Unfortunately, he decided to dump all of that visionary genius and go for a half-baked synchronized swimming outfit instead. That said, the socks and arm-warmers are a nice touch. I don't know about you, but any time I go for a swim, I curse Speedo out loud for not providing me with something to protect my poor little forearms.

ISSEY MIYAKE 2001  

Right hand man Naoki Takizawa took the helm at Issey Miyake before 2001, but to his credit, it looks like he was keen to continue his mentor's passion for shrink-wrapping women's heads with tight fabric. Also, for all we know, the model here might have the exact same bathing suit on underneath that cloak, so, despite my previous jibe, I'm going to put an early bid in here on Miyake being the most prophetic designer of the 1980s.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER 1982

Gaultier thought that, by the new millennium, clothes would have been dispensed of in favor of spray-on latex apparel, which is a pretty bleak outlook for someone whose job revolves specifically around clothes. Thankfully, his prediction never came to fruition, because everyone would be forced to see the detailed outline of your genitalia.

JEAN PAUL GAULTIER 2001

Gaultier's usually untouchable, but 2001 was clearly an off year. I have no idea what the fuck he was going for here—or who he thought it would appeal to, for that matter. He'd have probably been better off sticking with the spraycan latex. It would have been hugely uncomfortable, sure, but any level of discomfort is better than looking like a character from Tekken with two sets of eyebrows and weird arm bangles.

GIVENCHY 1982

I don't really see anything that could be classed as predictive about this outfit. Maybe this would have some gumption if the designers were asked to style a look that they expected to see a couple of years down the line, but not 20 years later. I guess it is the most realistic assumption of where fashion would end up going, but there's nothing funny about that, and if we can't laugh at how deluded people were in the past, then what's the point in even getting into it, right?

GIVENCHY 2001

It seems that stripes, dodgy hats, and sultry posing were a pretty solid staple in the Givenchy repertoire. That is until Ricardo Tisci took over and turned all Givenchy fans into mind-blowing, pierced, streetwear kids from the future, of course.

GIANNI VERSACE 1982

Gianni must have been watching a lot of low-budget 80s B-movies when he came up with this. You know, the ones that verged on softcore porn and the plot saw a mysterious young woman appear in a desert, who would then sleep her way round the local town, turn all the men against each other, before disappearing like she was never there, fucking everyone's life up in the process. Either that or he was under the impression that people would be so over fashion in the future that they'd rather just opt for a shapeless white sheet and be done with it.

VERSACE 2001

Turns out Gianni was right on the money. Versace's SS2001 collection was all floaty and white, two things incredibly reminiscent of sheets, although they did make the sheet silhouette slightly sexier and wasn't nearly as prudish as his 1982 coverall frocks. Talking of losing interest, we were already four years into Donatella's reign by 2001, so while people might have still given a shit about interesting fashion, Versace was completely off the cards. Rrreow.

Thanks to forum user fashion.fashoff for scanning and uploading some of the images from the book. Without your help we never would have retroactively realized what we didn't miss. 

This post originally appeared on VICE Style.