It's not news that the past is being spliced heavily into our culture every day. What we call "referencing" has always been a part of the process that creatives love to use as inspiration to move forward. Below, Kim Hastreiter outlines a few notable examples. (For more of her thoughts on #Nowstalgia and how pulling from the past moves us forward, go here.)
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The Whatever It's Called
(Left) Back To The Future Part II, Michael J. Fox, 1989. Photo courtesy of Universal/Everett Collection. (Right) Justin Bieber in Los Angeles, 2015. Photo courtesy of AKM-GSI
Take that crazy little two-wheeled contraption that paper's Drew Elliott floats around on in our office every day. It's not a skateboard, not a hovercraft and not a scooter, but whatever it is, it's everywhere. And although it's surely original, it sure as hell reminds us of a mash-up of the early Segway with Marty McFly's hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II circa 1989.
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The King of Nowstalgia
Of everyone out there, it is Marc Jacobs who has really built his career as a fascinating and innovative commentator on nowstalgia. Jacobs has consistently, every single season, nailed the zeitgeist by reinventing and recontextualizing past cultural and aesthetic moments into a big fresh soup of mix-mashed ingredients that come together to make perfect sense of the now. His ss16 show was an amazing example of this. Staged at the deco-designed Ziegfeld Theatre, complete with old-fashioned "candy girls" handing out Twizzlers, a full-on live old-school orchestra accompanying with their crazy rendition of the Beastie Boys' "Sabatoge" and the hashtag #marcjacobspremiere on the marquee, this That's Entertainment-inspired show referenced every decade we could think of -- but Jacobs mix-mastered it all so it felt completely fresh and new.
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The watch
(Left) Braun, 1970. (Right) Apple, 2015
Take a good look at the new watch design from Apple's Jony Ive, who in the past has freely admitted to referencing Dieter Rams. The legendary industrial designer's transistor radios and stereo systems from the '50s and '60s were the basis for Ive's original designs for the iPod, iPhone and iMac, and the Apple Watch is clearly referencing Rams' watch designs for Braun in the 1970s.
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The Artist Collaboration
(Left) Salvador Dali fragrance bottle for Schiaparelli, 1946. (Right) KAWS fragrance bottle for Pharrell Williams, 2015.
The uber-trendy notion of "artist collaborations" -- billed by many "cool hunters" as one of the freshest trends of the past two decades -- is also not a new idea. Pharrell Williams may have had the artist kaws design his fragrance bottle last year, but did you know that designer Elsa Schiaparelli had Salvador Dali dream up her perfume bottle in 1946? Riccardo Tisci may have collaborated with Marina Abramovic´ and Kanye West with Vanessa Beecroft this fall on their fashion shows, but the Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned sets and costumes from Pablo Picasso in 1917. New it's not.
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The Human Backpack
Many folks got bent out of shape when they saw designer Rick Owens'"human backpacks" that he recently sent down the catwalk in Paris for his SS16 women's show. Although surely some millennials in the audience didn't realize it, Owens was clearly referencing the late Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, whose radical work from the late '80s and early '90s inspired global edgy fashion creatives from Rei Kawakubo to Gareth Pugh to Alexander McQueen. And yes, had Owens tipped his hat to Bowery on his show program, folks likely would have cut him more slack. But hey, I would bet you money that in 1993 when Leigh concocted these contraptions for his performances, something somewhere that he had seen had inspired him as well.
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The Future of the Future
(Left) Pierre Cardin, 1970. Photos © Corbis. (Right) Gypsy Sport, 2015. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne
Speaking of mix-mastering, has anyone else noticed that the edgiest kids on Tumblr seem to be referencing a late '90s-early 2000s vibe lately? From the Internet to the catwalk, we're seeing a nod back to the frenzy of the millennium -- a moment heavily influenced by the shock of a new futuristic century and filled with appropriately mod-looking fashion. y2k also marked the end of the supermodel and diversity, bringing us the trend of robotic, clone-like casting on the runways with a slightly fascist all-Caucasian aesthetic pioneered by Prada and quickly followed by the rest of the fashion world. This millennium aesthetic clearly referenced yet another mod moment -- one that had taken place five decades prior, in the glow of a different sort of technology. The new nuclear age, the nasa space program and the moon landing were all reflected in fashion by designers like Courrèges and Pierre Cardin. While the '60s and y2k showed a futuristic clone-like aesthetic of all-white sameness, thankfully the 21st century kids are turning it upside down to reflect their culture now. Young fashion brands like Gypsy Sport, Hood By Air, Moses Gauntlett Cheng, Sadie Williams, Feng Chen Wang and Andrea Jiapei Li are not only doing their mix-up of futurist references with the past; they are also a diverse group of designers who fill their catwalks and lookbooks with people of all races, sizes, sexual orientations and gender identities -- proving that the future has never looked so bright.
The Whatever It's Called(Left) Back To The Future Part II, Michael J. Fox, 1989. Photo courtesy of Universal/Everett Collection. (Right) Justin Bieber in Los Angeles, 2015. Photo courtesy of AKM-GSI
Take that crazy little two-wheeled contraption that paper's Drew Elliott floats around on in our office every day. It's not a skateboard, not a hovercraft and not a scooter, but whatever it is, it's everywhere. And although it's surely original, it sure as hell reminds us of a mash-up of the early Segway with Marty McFly's hoverboard from Back to the Future Part II circa 1989.
The King of Nowstalgia Of everyone out there, it is Marc Jacobs who has really built his career as a fascinating and innovative commentator on nowstalgia. Jacobs has consistently, every single season, nailed the zeitgeist by reinventing and recontextualizing past cultural and aesthetic moments into a big fresh soup of mix-mashed ingredients that come together to make perfect sense of the now. His ss16 show was an amazing example of this. Staged at the deco-designed Ziegfeld Theatre, complete with old-fashioned "candy girls" handing out Twizzlers, a full-on live old-school orchestra accompanying with their crazy rendition of the Beastie Boys' "Sabatoge" and the hashtag #marcjacobspremiere on the marquee, this That's Entertainment-inspired show referenced every decade we could think of -- but Jacobs mix-mastered it all so it felt completely fresh and new.
The watch(Left) Braun, 1970. (Right) Apple, 2015
Take a good look at the new watch design from Apple's Jony Ive, who in the past has freely admitted to referencing Dieter Rams. The legendary industrial designer's transistor radios and stereo systems from the '50s and '60s were the basis for Ive's original designs for the iPod, iPhone and iMac, and the Apple Watch is clearly referencing Rams' watch designs for Braun in the 1970s.
The Artist Collaboration(Left) Salvador Dali fragrance bottle for Schiaparelli, 1946. (Right) KAWS fragrance bottle for Pharrell Williams, 2015.
The uber-trendy notion of "artist collaborations" -- billed by many "cool hunters" as one of the freshest trends of the past two decades -- is also not a new idea. Pharrell Williams may have had the artist kaws design his fragrance bottle last year, but did you know that designer Elsa Schiaparelli had Salvador Dali dream up her perfume bottle in 1946? Riccardo Tisci may have collaborated with Marina Abramovic´ and Kanye West with Vanessa Beecroft this fall on their fashion shows, but the Ballets Russes impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned sets and costumes from Pablo Picasso in 1917. New it's not.
The Human BackpackMany folks got bent out of shape when they saw designer Rick Owens'"human backpacks" that he recently sent down the catwalk in Paris for his SS16 women's show. Although surely some millennials in the audience didn't realize it, Owens was clearly referencing the late Australian performance artist Leigh Bowery, whose radical work from the late '80s and early '90s inspired global edgy fashion creatives from Rei Kawakubo to Gareth Pugh to Alexander McQueen. And yes, had Owens tipped his hat to Bowery on his show program, folks likely would have cut him more slack. But hey, I would bet you money that in 1993 when Leigh concocted these contraptions for his performances, something somewhere that he had seen had inspired him as well.
The Future of the Future(Left) Pierre Cardin, 1970. Photos © Corbis. (Right) Gypsy Sport, 2015. Photo by Rebecca Smeyne
Speaking of mix-mastering, has anyone else noticed that the edgiest kids on Tumblr seem to be referencing a late '90s-early 2000s vibe lately? From the Internet to the catwalk, we're seeing a nod back to the frenzy of the millennium -- a moment heavily influenced by the shock of a new futuristic century and filled with appropriately mod-looking fashion. y2k also marked the end of the supermodel and diversity, bringing us the trend of robotic, clone-like casting on the runways with a slightly fascist all-Caucasian aesthetic pioneered by Prada and quickly followed by the rest of the fashion world. This millennium aesthetic clearly referenced yet another mod moment -- one that had taken place five decades prior, in the glow of a different sort of technology. The new nuclear age, the nasa space program and the moon landing were all reflected in fashion by designers like Courrèges and Pierre Cardin. While the '60s and y2k showed a futuristic clone-like aesthetic of all-white sameness, thankfully the 21st century kids are turning it upside down to reflect their culture now. Young fashion brands like Gypsy Sport, Hood By Air, Moses Gauntlett Cheng, Sadie Williams, Feng Chen Wang and Andrea Jiapei Li are not only doing their mix-up of futurist references with the past; they are also a diverse group of designers who fill their catwalks and lookbooks with people of all races, sizes, sexual orientations and gender identities -- proving that the future has never looked so bright.