Fast Forward: Anouk Wipprecht – Techno Sensual
One of my raver BFFs clued me in to Anouk Wipprecht a year or so ago. I kinda freaked out. Not only does her stuff look like old school raver clothes, but it also DOES STUFF. Like paint itself, create smoke clouds, and makes drinks. In my opinion, in most of Wipprechts pieces she is successful at creating something unique, conceptual, and technologically challenging while maintaining a distinct look and aesthetic quality. No small feat. How awesome would it be if Bjork wore one of these? Better yet, if I wore one at Burning Man? Yeah prolly not gonna happen but this DEFINITELY gives me a shit-ton of new ideas for Burning Man costumes (that will get a post unto itself 🙂 ).
In putting together this post it seems she works more on a per-project basis as opposed to producing seasonal collections. Other than Hussein Chalayan, technology pretty much is never featured in major fashion collections. Although to produce 1 or 2 collections a year fully integrated with technology would require an insane amount of work, I can’t help but feeling that this should be the new direction of haute couture. I wholeheartedly agree that the old traditions and techniques of couture should be preserved and maintained by the licensed houses. However, with continuing declines in the number of official couture houses, closing of specialty craft houses, reduced market and profitability of couture lines, why not start a couture house focusing on intricately welded electronics hand sewn into garments? Not a bad idea to reinvigorate a declining industry. I would loose my shit if Wipprecht got the backing to create a couture-level show.
I’ve highlighted some projects below, but for a full bio check out Wipprechts’ website.
PROJECTS and collaborations
2008 INFITTABLES final course project (inflatable designs) at K3 / Malmo university on the subject of ‘body, fashion & technology’, Malmo, Sweden
2008 FRAGILIS fashiontech project in collaboration with Eelke Feenstra | studio zesbaans, Utrecht, the Netherlands
2010 DAREDROID, cocktail making cocktail dress in collaboration with Jane Tingley and Marius Kintel in Vienna, Austria
2010 PSEUDOMORPHS fashiontech, transformable pieces in collaboration with V2labs [institute for the unstable media] Rotterdam, the Netherlands
2010 INTIMACY Black, dress with smart foil, in collaboration with studio Roosegaarde, Waddinxveen, the Netherlands
2011 INTIMACY 2.0 a series of two dresses that become transparent when approached, collaboration with Studio Roosegaarde
2011 BLACK EYED PEAS [STAGEWEAR]interactive stage outfit (incl. shoes) for Fergie lead singer of the Black Eyes peas during the SuperBowl 2011 halftime show which attracted over 111 million viewers.
2011 BRITNEY SPEARS pseudomorphs-based dress featured in the clip ‘Hold it against me’ by the singer. [Ed. note: I think its the long white dress that gets covered in dye.]
2012 SPIDER DRESS in collaboration with Daniel Schatzmayr (AT) a mechanic dress utilizing spider legs with embedded protection system.
2012 EUROVISION SONGFESTIVAL [STAGEWEAR] performance of Austrian team Baku, Azerbaijan 5 interactive costumes controlled wireless by DMX controller next to the stage.
2012 PROPINQUITY game-based interaction surrounding the topic of ‘play’ and interaction for Concordia university (CA) on invite for MoNo, artist Jane Tingley, Marius Kintel and team. Presented in Paris (France) and Montreal (Canada).
2012 SMOKEDRESS in collaboration with Aduen Darriba; dress has a wearable [550g] accu driven smoke system with implemented wireless technology, creates the illusion of smoke around the body. (release-April 2012)
2012 MORPHOGENIC in collaboration with Graham Smith – dress that changes color according to ‘tuning’ (release-June 2012) [Ed. note: the pic below is the link on Wipprechts homepage but the picture is I think from her Simple Girl vs. Robot Girl collection?]
More info
There is an excellent interview with Wipprecht on Fashioning Technology.
http://kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk/my_weblog/2008/10/i-am-but-a-simp.html
http://trendland.com/self-painting-dress-by-anouk-wipprecht/#
http://www.talk2myshirt.com/blog/archives/4690
http://www.vistelacalle.com/64547/la-moda-tecnologica-de-anouk-wipprecht/
http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669421/exhibit-explores-the-sexier-side-of-high-tech-fashion#1
http://akademievogue.blogspot.com/2012/02/anouk-wipprecht.html
Play: Jeffie – Space Babe Collection January 2013
Yeah, I can be a little behind the times with certain fashion trends. In particular, leggings, skinny jeans, and any pant with a cuff smaller than my thigh. Just too long-johnny for this Canadian. Tight pants also makes this shortie look wider than long. However, my not-so-closet nerdom was tweeked with Black Milks sci-fi leggings. I feel the quality of their graphic design has slightly waned over the past year since they totally blew up.
I was super happy to see my sharkie buddy Jeffie start up his own line of tightpantz. He definitely capitalized on the nerd-girl market which helped make Black Milk successful. The Space Babe Collection has a little bit for every lady geek: chemistry, medicine, astronomy, physics, and sci-fi. I’m PARTICULARLY in love with the Silica Pathway Legs and Construct Green Legz. One of my continuing disappointments with Black Milk is that they do not abstract a lot of their graphics so it looks just like a reindeer on a bathing suit instead of an interpretation of R2D2 that makes you look like a droid. Jeffie thankfully avoids this pitfall.
Stellar product pics courtesy of the Ashley Joncas. I can’t comment on the production quality as my bank is EMPTY. Digital prints look stellar though.
Raver styles
Alright, so I know there’s a lot of different “genres” of rave clothing. Let’s try and clarify them shall we? First, lets make a list.
- East coast techno-snob
- Club kid
- Candy kid
- Cyber raver
- Cyber goth/industrial
- Indie/emo raver
- Sparkle pony
- Burner
- Hippie/boho festival raver
- Hipster nerd
- West coast feathers and leather
- Junglist
What am I missing? Enlighten me. I know there’s a bajillion goth styles and I can’t cover them all (others do it better too). Past or present, what distinguishable styles have you seen pop up in your area?
Rewind: SNUG Industries
It’s been pretty challenging trying to track down old pics. The designer profiles/image archives will definitely be a work in progress, I’m going to post what I’ve collected so far and hopefully this will inspire more contributions.
If you have any additional photos or company info/history, please hit me up at thetechnosnob (at) gmail (dot) com
In action: 1995- ?? (latest 2005)
Designers: Tony H. Elston and Greg Blagoev
HQ: Toronto
I think most of you already know that SNUG was founded by Greg Blagoev and Tony H. Elston in Toronto. Pretty much any old-school raver in the GTA if not a personal friend of the duo, at least knew 1 person who was. SNUG was started in 1995 with Tony and Greg designing bags and selling them to Toronto stores. They expanded to mens and womens clothing lines as well as outerwear and accessories, supplying product to stores around North America, Europe, and Asia. Unless I hear otherwise, I’m going to assume that Tony and Greg were the primary designers for all of the SNUG product lines for the lifespan of the company.
SNUG was ingrained in the southern Ontario rave scene through promotions, partnerships, and sponsorships with Bad Boy Bill, Jumpin’ Jack Frost, UK’s V Recordings, and Toronto’s Vinyl Syndicate (anyone remember any other DJS who were sponsored?). Style-wise they were one of the early trend-setters in rave fashion and streetwear for techno-heads. Not only were they continuously turning out innovative, dope shit for both dudes and chicks (not fucking easy), their clothes were ridiculously popular in the scene and arguably established the look for the Canadian rave scene.
Key aesthetic elements in SNUG designs included hidden pockets/compartments, logo incorporation into different parts of the product, cog wheel motif, graffiti-esque fonts, multifunction garments (eg. zip of parts), for women – long skirts, flare to wide leg pants, linear/sleek overall look, hoods/mock neck/cowl neck, for men – big fuckin pants, cargo pants, bright coloured shirts/hoodies/hats paired with earth/muted tone cargo pants. I personally couldn’t afford SNUG gear until way after the peak. Totally worth it if you could afford it, but I couldn’t at 16. Also, from what I remember, none of their ladies stuff had lycra so there was no stretch. My waist measurement can vary at least 3″ throughout the day so it’s REALLY hard for me to wear anything that isn’t at least 2% lycra. I know many guys SWEAR by their SNUG pants and still find them indispensable both on and off the dance floor. What was your experience with SNUG gear?
Full gallery HERE.
I don’t have an exact date of when the company closed shop. Greg launched his new company SZOLDIER with it’s first collection in 2005. SNUG was definitely done before that. I heard that they had to close shop because a financing deal didn’t go through, but that is hearsay from like 10 years ago. Anyone have better info?
Other random stuff
SNUG logo font has been turned into a typeface. Info here.
The snug ear piercing was named after the company.
The following items I need style names for if anyone happens to know them!
THIS DRESS. WITH THE BACKPACK. I NEEEEEEEEEEDS IT.
Sources
Thanks to C. Hodge, Niki R. and Mudshark Streetwear for contributing photos.
Exploriment has details on fixing up an old SNUG bag. He also saved patches off old gear to reuse.
http://contests.eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_09.17.98/news_views/borra17.php
http://contests.eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_11.08.01/thebeat/behind.php
http://natefullerart.blogspot.com/2011/07/snug-industries-big-fuckin-pants.html
Rewind: SNUG Industries Gallery
Please comment on what you liked about these different styles and as always:
SEND PICS TO: thetechnosnob (at) gmail (dot) com
SNUG Industries profile located HERE.
Techno Snobbery 