If ever a trend had dazzling prospects, this is it! “Futuristic Couture” combines technological innovation and hyper-modern materials with the art of traditional manufacturing. This makes for an exciting theme world full of glamour and surprising visual effects: we look forward to the future.
Back to the future with varied tones
The colour palette for Futuristic Couture ranges from clean and pure through sparkle and glitter to harsh and shrill. Radiant white, cool grey and silver sit alongside a wide variety of magenta, turquoise and green shades, synthetic colour nuances and neon colours, plus a complete range of metallic tones. Just as in the 1960s when new technology and materials influenced the design world, today’s future trend also happens to be classy, with a futuristic glamour factor and surreal science fiction aesthetic.
Artistic and artificial
Plexiglas, metal, diamanté, neoprene and many new materials provide designers with an almost inexhaustible source of inspirations to play with and create innovative combinations, filigree shapes and unprecedented visual and tactile effects. In particular, they are keen to combine the tried-and-tested with new materials created in novel ways such as 3D printing or laser cutting. In glass design, for instance, the focus has s-hifted to a mixture of computer-processed plastics and sophisticated traditional materials, including hand-blown glass and hand-painted porcelain. The result is dishes, vases, lamps and jewellery, plus other decorations and accessories with surprising new surfaces and fascinating colour progressions. One such successful symbiosis of plastic and artistic is a cake stand made of polypropylene, which shows how an everyday table top classic can adopt a futuristic look and holographic effect using innovative materials.
Hommage to tradition
Playing with the artificial and breaking with conventional style still leaves room for reminiscence about classic designs and manufacturing traditions. Take the laser-cut glass bowls with crochet-look surfaces that are a hommage to traditional craft skills, for instance. Or the 3D-printed, flocked and thermally treated materials that give a whole new meaning to textile relief, yet bear traditional motifs and patterns. And of course there are also references from fashion and art, as in this presentation by stilbüro bora.herke.palmisano. Design aficionados will pick up on the associations with legendary futuristic creations of Paco Rabanne and Courrèges created through colours, silhouettes and combinations of materials – especially in jewellery and accessories. Our conclusion is: Futuristic Couture redefines a trend which then as now combines daring avant-garde with forward-looking innovation.
