science fiction about fashion
Dec. 14th, 2010 09:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI ask the internets for this has been vaguely bothering me for a while: I read a short story once, probably in Analog somewhere between the 1960s and 1990s for I have a complete collection and read a great many of them once. It was about early human space colonisation, on moonbases and space stations I think. The technology wasn't much above now, so there were tiny tin cans full of people and surrounded by vacuum. Living in space was precarious. Everyone did drills and had to be able to climb in to space suits at a moment's notice. And this was depressing, because it really limited your fashion choices. Everyone was stuck wearing the same shape clothes, either skintights to fit under a spacesuit or something baggy to whip off in a hurry, and nobody looked good, and everyone thought it sucked. But fashion wasn't the highest priority, so they had to live with it.
Until a fashion hero came along, and invented a fabric that went airtight when the pressure dropped, so you could make whatever you liked with it, and be wearing a space suit all the time. Color and structure returned to space fashion and the day was saved.
Obviously it is possible this story only exists in my head, or existed in many different parts and pieces my brain squished together. Something about the logic of it appealed to me, that fashion would have to follow function and would reflect the dangers of the environment. Does it ring a bell with anyone?
I'm watching Next Gen and the evolution of the one piece stretch uniform intrigues me, so I keep thinking of this.
Also thinking of Terry Pratchett's 'The Last Hero' where they've got weird spacesuits that aren't even steampunk they're pre steam. Fashion follows function, but there's different ways to think about function.
... also also thinking about men in those really short miniskirt tunics. Because that is a very distracting visual. I don't think there's any Next Gen guys I would want to see wearing those regular, but there are people I can think of would be very decorative in them...
Until a fashion hero came along, and invented a fabric that went airtight when the pressure dropped, so you could make whatever you liked with it, and be wearing a space suit all the time. Color and structure returned to space fashion and the day was saved.
Obviously it is possible this story only exists in my head, or existed in many different parts and pieces my brain squished together. Something about the logic of it appealed to me, that fashion would have to follow function and would reflect the dangers of the environment. Does it ring a bell with anyone?
I'm watching Next Gen and the evolution of the one piece stretch uniform intrigues me, so I keep thinking of this.
Also thinking of Terry Pratchett's 'The Last Hero' where they've got weird spacesuits that aren't even steampunk they're pre steam. Fashion follows function, but there's different ways to think about function.
... also also thinking about men in those really short miniskirt tunics. Because that is a very distracting visual. I don't think there's any Next Gen guys I would want to see wearing those regular, but there are people I can think of would be very decorative in them...