Post-Apocalyptic Fashion
Intrepid commenter Cookie recently emailed me this:
Maybe because I’m getting older or I’ve been watching too many zombie/apocalypse shows but I’m getting awfully tired of future fashion consisting of leather, combat, goggles, gears, guns, etc. in some or other combination. With the economy looking bleaker and bleaker and just about everything else circling the crapper why should our fashions be dreary too? Other periods of history were just as bad or worse yet they went through it with a bit of flair; think 18th century France. Too colorful? How about pre soviet Russia; late 19th/early 20th century kulak? Good peasant functional ethnic look. Looking for something a little closer to home? Why not ’20’s – 30’s American depression era? Think Waltons and Bonney and Clyde. I never thought that I would say this but I’m kinda getting sick of black. How are the other shadow folk thinking? What do they want to look like standing in the bread line?
Although I can think of exceptions (the Hunger Games comes to mind), it’s true that a lot of post-apocalyptic clothing is mighty boring. That’s often explained away as survivors wearing whatever they could scavenge from the rubble of civilization, but it’s suspicious that nobody ever seems to scavenge Elton John’s closet.
So what do you think, oh commentariat? When civilization falls will we all be wearing black leather, or will “peasant style” become a thing again?
Posted in Whatever | 5 Comments »
January 7th, 2016 at 11:56 am
It seems highly unlikely that the cheap leather they stock in the fabric stores and make ready to wear clothes out of would even make it through 3 months of hard wear. Most likely you would see people making new clothes out of sheets and curtains and lots of patching and mending of old items. New fabrics would be hard as hell to make (weaving is an incredible amount of effort, especially with limited equipment and raw materials) so poorly tanned skins of animals that got hunted for food would likely be the name of the game until someone could spin up production of old style fabric mills, etc. I have seriously considered investing in a treadle sewing machine so I could rake in the (gold? bartered food?) in the event that shit goes south. I would likely be one of the few around that could mend/make clothes quickly without electricity. Maybe I’ve put too much thought into this…
January 7th, 2016 at 3:07 pm
Most likely animal skins, simple woven items, beaded work (clay beeds fired in a simple cockery kiln (think american indian outfits) augmented with salvaged items and cloth bits would be worn, as newer fabrics would be avaible to the rich and powerful
such as the warlords who would get the pick of the best salvaged clothing and equipment.
January 7th, 2016 at 6:32 pm
One thing I can guarantee is that women won’t be walking around in bikinis.
January 10th, 2016 at 3:18 pm
I can see bright colours becoming slowly dimmer just because so much of the brightness comes from artificial dyes (I can’t remenber the actual words for it – where you make it from refined chemicals rather than just distilling natural colours from their sources).
That said, I bet there’s a lot of local theatre company basements to scavenge from, and those with excess resources tend to favour clothes that are pointedly useless just to hammer home to the proles that they don’t need to work.
But in our post-apocalyptic world, will uselessness be indulged, or will the hard-working, gutsy heroes get rid of the resource parasites? I guess it depends on which way the world goes out.
BladeRunner style, with all the well-to-do taking off for space colonies? Yeah I can see colourful, useless clothing being used where it can. Particularly once we start finding extraterrestrial dyes to use. And in a world like this I can totally see bikinis still being in style, even becoming everyday fashion.
Book of Eli style, with everything gone to shit and only the rough surviving? Fuck colour. Fuck style. Stuff that looks and IS tough is the only thing worthwhile here.
Mad Max? As above, with one caveat: you can’t be shiny and chrome without the shiny chrome. Utility plus fabulousness. It’s the Billy Idol Age. And who the hell wouldn’t want to see that?
January 10th, 2016 at 7:45 pm
First @ Craft; check out Lehmans catalog, they supply the Amish and have a dandy treadle sewing machine with comments,( you can buy it cheaper elsewhere.)
Now guys, wow, we went from an economic downturn to full blown Armmegeddon. I was thinking of the fashion “begats”; The oppressive Victorian era begat the 20’s flappers who begat the practical “make do” 30’s that begat the 40’s “We can do it” but we’ll dress the way we want which begat the repressive 50’s that begat the hippie 60’s and 70’s……etc.. I didn’t mean to fast forward to eating your neighbor’s poodle and making a hat out of his skin. Gee guys, it will be a while before it’s that bad. I was wondering if all the depressing (!!!) black/goth might beget a more colorful ‘to hell with it’ style in the near future, maybe Gypsy style? That being said I admire your practicality and thought put into your answers. and uhhh smile!