source: nationalpost.com

For the Fall- Winter 2017/18 Ready to Wear Chanel show watched by well over almost one million and two hundred views the theme was Space.

Then Karl Lagerfield explains his reasons for designing Chanel’s Space inspired FW17 show.  Lagerfeld spent 6 months creating the final frontier and the show was highlighted by a rocket launched in the finale with Elton John’s ‘Rocket Man‘.  His reasoning is very basic:  it is the final frontier, and there was a French Astronaut that he liked.  His reason is there is a lot that we do not know and he liked the sparkle, not just at night but during the day.

source: instyle.com

He worked with a tight team and the detail was in the management under his leadership.  His work colleagues would talk about his ability to work with new things, new ideas, young people, how he hates nostalgia and is a visionary.

Will people dress differently in the future?  Probably not much.  This is the key point in his understanding of space too.  For instance, if he has mastered his field, then clearly understanding the market and how essential clothing is to us.  What and how it shapes us, how it makes us feel and how it inspires us.  Lagerfield speaks much of his privileged world and how vision and reality turns out differently.  He talks about visualising our future and not our fears and is also very protective of his inner thoughts of his ideas.

When I was thinking of Karl Lagerfield with my Team Manager at EU- Japan Centre little did we know that his time would come.  It is moments like this, when we reflect and think that when we meet or know of visionaries to really explore the depths of peoples’ ideas and see how we can make it happen.  Chanel aimed for the stars in 2017 and when we think of Karl Lagerfield’s legacy it is immense.

source: pinterest.com

 

Back in the 60s he designed shift dresses and cap toe go-go boots.  Those references were in the Fall 2017 Chanel show.  Chanel transformed the Grand Palais from a functioning brassier to an iceberg filled room, and never before in a fashion world – to witness a rocket launch.  The idea is that his pieces are made for walking on the moon.  The style, colours as well as the silver glitter is something we can all most likely resonate with.

Bearing in mind the lack of gravity and chilling temperature in space, Lagerfield’s ideas including metallic Mylar space blankets with nubby Chanel tweet cuts into suits, shirts, trousers, dresses and tights.

source: buzzsprouts.com

According to Instyle, Lagerfield went as far as interviewing Astronaut Thomas Pesquet while he was in space – on a long distance phone call.  Lagerfield got in touch whilst Pesquet was aboard the International Space Station for a Q&A and was taking notes for Lagerfield’s theme Chanel show.

“I am very flattered that Karl Lagerfeld draws inspiration from space for his collections,” said Pesquet. “It means space makes people dream, that people are interested in exploration and science, and that’s a good thing, because we are doing this for them. We don’t do this for fun, but to be useful to society, at the end of the day.”

source: screendaily.com

Touching on fashion, Pesquet got frank, “Thankfully [Lagerfeld] did not draw inspiration from astronaut’s outfits, because obviously here, we tend to wear European Space Agency polo shirts and pants with Velcro fastenings, which is not that great.” Instead, Lagerfeld’s fall ready-to-wear collection saw a myriad of chic planetary hard case clutches and glitter moon boots—not a Velcro strap in sight.

 

source: france24.com

As an entrepreneur, when we see a potential problem, there is a potential market.

Space fashion is not new and has been trending probably before NewSpace well got into the picture, think of Star Wars, Star Trek including the Jetsons.  The difference now, is how can we make NewSpace accessible to the market.  I have been trying to define and re-define newspace and now I am truly working on the grassroots definition of NewSpace: ‘Non-traditional space players and non- traditional space markets’.  At this point I think if we can think of combining, fashion, space and technologies including wearables like watches, booster shoes, AI -intelligent clothing, 3D printing and experiments of different materials, I think we could explore far more than if we were to limit only to operations up on space.

As emphasised in my previous blogs, both the EU and Japan are exploring space applications and so why not in fashion and arts?

source: globalvillagespace.com

According to Fashion United the global fashion market is 385.7 billion dollars, that is almost about the same for the Space market.  My point?  Anyone that has an ingenious idea of combining the two is going to not only create a new sector but also be pioneering in the field.

When one looks at the finale of the Rocket launch at the fashion show, we can almost look ahead into the future where as interplanetary species, living on the Moon or Mars and thinking of what will we wear?

Karl Lagerfield has already given us some ideas.  And his legacy will influence in ways which we may not know, in the same way his designs has.  This legacy will live on.

source: harpersbazaar.com

 

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