Glimpses of a Digi-Cyber Wardrobe: Junya Watanabe S/S 13

Fashion is an industry constantly projected into the future and for decades designers have been fascinated with ideas of what our supermodern wardrobe will look like.

As seen in previous posts, the nostalgia for Space Age fashion became a fixation of many different contemporary designers: quite a few of them reinterpreted selected looks in current collections, including the clean lines, stripy suits and cut-out boots of André Courrèges who is among the main points of reference for the Spring/Summer 13 collections.

Yet, Rei Kawakubo's protegé Junya Watanabe seemed to have turned to a different kind of future, slightly dystopic and disturbing though visually fascinating. Though a few critics glimpsed in some of his shades and silhouettes a modern revisitation of Pierre Cardin's '60s key designs, the opening looks and in particular the red and orange streamlined sportsuits seemed to be borrowed from cartoon series à la Ben 10 (think about Heatblast and flames licking his body or Upgrade…) or Digimon Adventure than from Cardin.

Watanabe's future is a sort of digital cyber space populated by women in cropped trousers and tight fitting tops, sporty dresses (the presentation featured pieces made in collaboration with Puma) and outerwear made out of the same fabric used for parachutes (with blown up collars) the whole matched with sneakers or wedge trainers and scary helmets covered in (Hellraiser-style) studs, mirrors or spikes.

Futurism was clear in the choice of the palette, in the performance techno fabrics and the graphic elements, but, funnily enough, some of the most brilliant shades, but also the comb-like and spiked headgear seemed to be borrowed from Silvana Mangano's looks in cult '60s film Le Streghe.

Mesh, curving sheer inserts and garments with zippers that spliced up to reveal acid colours underneath added energy and a sort of speed rush to a collection that, while at times was too repetitive, successfully proved that the future of fashion may be hiding in a combination of bizarre cartoon characters, space age looks and cult '60s films.