#SPACE AGE DESIGN HOW TO#
#SPACE AGE DESIGN MOD#

Polynesian, Aztec, Tiki and African themes were popular, along with other kitsch diversions all combining with modernist, abstract features. The public were eager to embrace modern design concepts, possibly to distance themselves from the recent WW global conflicts and their escapist desires were adequately provided by decor objects that exuded fantasy, glamour, modernism, humour and the future.ĭesigns embracing a fun-factor, kitchiness and sense of the future were ubiquitous and covered a vast array of decorative objects that included figurines, lamps, planters, clocks and vases.

These provided iconic imagery that was very adaptable to the minimal streamlined industrial designs that had emerged in architecture and furniture from gifted designers like Le Corbusier, Ray Eames, Gio Ponti, Isamu Noguchi and Walter Gropius. The desire to bring futuristic styles into the mainstream, reflecting the thrust of the space age and the atomic age inventions, came into fruition. It represented the critical mass of the merging of numerous design influences including biomorphic curves, orbiting atoms, fractured cubist forms, brutalist abstractions, lava glazes and streamlined minimalist forms. Mid Century design from the post WW2 era possessed a bold and audacious aesthetic that grew from the fusion of many intrepid design concepts. And just as designers are continuously looking back to the future, why shouldn’t you own a piece of fashion history? Click through to shop the look.Vintage 70’s Space Age Howard Miller eye clock

#SPACE AGE DESIGN MOD#

And the Courrèges look inevitably finds its way onto inspiration boards at many of our contemporary designers’ studios: Consider ** Raf Simons’**s astronaut jumpsuits at Christian Dior’s fall couture 2014 show, or **Frida Giannini’**s coupling of mod shifts and patent-leather boots at Gucci’s fall 2014 show.

#SPACE AGE DESIGN HOW TO#

A photograph by William Klein (a fellow proponent of the mod aesthetic) from _Vogue’_s Maissue celebrated the then-fledgling designer: Dressed exclusively in Courrèges, a pair of bespectacled models appear as fashionable intergalactic representatives from the planet earth.īut the look came down to earth, too: One might recall Audrey Hepburn whizzing around in her convertible in the opening sequence of How to Steal a Million, outfitted in milky white Courrèges, from her chin-strap helmet to her white kid gloves.

Abbreviated hemlines, contrasting borders, and punchy stripes in silhouettes borrowed from children’s wear comprised the designer’s vocabulary. Nowhere was this truer than with André Courrèges, whose designs epitomized the era’s affection for everything outer space.ĭesigning for the year 2000, Courrèges’s eponymous label championed the youthful mod aesthetic for his sophisticated 1960s couture clientele. Chin-strap space bonnets, flat ankle boots, and sleek, plastic-like tech fabrics typified the space-age look as women readied themselves for a new sartorial stratosphere. The space race in the 1960s produced a crop of young designers aiming to equip the fashion masses for what they assumed to be the next frontier.

Space age design