Cyberpunk Fashion and Jean Paul Gaultier’s 1995 “Cyber” Show #cyberpunk

It is always hard to assess the full and lasting impact that an artist, work of art, or a cultural moment will have, especially as that impact accretes through time. Following the “lipstick traces” of such cultural influence can take you to some very interesting and unexpected places.

One such strange nexus in the history of cyberpunk is Jean Paul Gaultier’s 1995 fall/winter fashion show at Le Trianon theater in Paris. Officially titled the “Horsewomen and Amazones of Modern Time,” but commonly known as the Cyber show, this groundbreaking runway spectacular would create a huge and lasting impact crater (in the fashion world and beyond) and is now considered one of the most influential fashion shows in history.

During the time of the show, Gaultier was deeply immersed in designing all of the costumes for Luc Besson’s film, The Fifth Element. The concerns of this upcoming sci-fi film, and its dystopian influences of cyberpunk sci-fi, the French comics artist Moebius, and the Mad Max films, especially Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (released earlier that summer), were top-most in Gaultier’s mind as he dreamed up his collection.

The burgeoning computer revolution and the Internet of the mid-90s also served as muses. This was one of the first fashion shows to incorporate computer-generated fabric designs. The designs were inspired by French-Hungarian artist Victor Vasarely, considered the godfather of op art. Gaultier also used lighting in some of the decorated football-like shoulder pads (obviously influenced by Beyond Thunderdome) and he even created embroidered computer chips to adorn outfits. Other tech found in the show included handheld hair dryers used to inflate some of the pieces.

Looking at this Vogue video now, one of the more striking things is his prescient use of facemasks in his vision of the future and blocks of makeup on the models’ faces (created by French makeup artist Topalino) that remind us of the experiments artist are currently doing in anti-surveillance makeup.

It is easy today to underestimate the forward nature of this show and how it changed the fashion world. While dystopian in theme, it featured a far more relaxed and friendly club-like atmosphere. Models smiled, took their time down the runway, and interacted with the audience. The show featured women and men of different colors and ethnicities, different ages. There were pregnant women with clothing designs featuring their bellies. It was a gloriously chaotic celebration of diversity, club culture, high tech/low life, and a street-wise, “beautifully disheveled” sensibility that had never been seen on the runway before. This show would give designers a whole new license to experiment, to incorporate fun and camp, and to not be afraid to paint outside the lines of the fashion establishment.

The world would get an even more breathtaking view of the work Gaultier was designing at this time when The Fifth Element would premier two years later. The surreal alien opera scene aboard a floating hotel in the film is dazzling in a way that quickly blows out one’s novelty and inventiveness circuits. This is futuristic alienness that George Lucas could have only dreamed about for his Star Wars cantina scene.

Here is a full gallery of all of the pieces from the show.


Adafruit publishes a wide range of writing and video content, including interviews and reporting on the maker market and the wider technology world. Our standards page is intended as a guide to best practices that Adafruit uses, as well as an outline of the ethical standards Adafruit aspires to. While Adafruit is not an independent journalistic institution, Adafruit strives to be a fair, informative, and positive voice within the community – check it out here: adafruit.com/editorialstandards

Join Adafruit on Mastodon

Adafruit is on Mastodon, join in! adafruit.com/mastodon

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, TinyGO, or even use the Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for CircuitPython, MakeCode, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.

Have an amazing project to share? The Electronics Show and Tell is every Wednesday at 7pm ET! To join, head over to YouTube and check out the show’s live chat – we’ll post the link there.

Join us every Wednesday night at 8pm ET for Ask an Engineer!

Join over 36,000+ makers on Adafruit’s Discord channels and be part of the community! http://adafru.it/discord

CircuitPython – The easiest way to program microcontrollers – CircuitPython.org


Maker Business — “Packaging” chips in the US

Wearables — Enclosures help fight body humidity in costumes

Electronics — Transformers: More than meets the eye!

Python for Microcontrollers — Python on Microcontrollers Newsletter: Silicon Labs introduces CircuitPython support, and more! #CircuitPython #Python #micropython @ThePSF @Raspberry_Pi

Adafruit IoT Monthly — Guardian Robot, Weather-wise Umbrella Stand, and more!

Microsoft MakeCode — MakeCode Thank You!

EYE on NPI — Maxim’s Himalaya uSLIC Step-Down Power Module #EyeOnNPI @maximintegrated @digikey

New Products – Adafruit Industries – Makers, hackers, artists, designers and engineers! — #NewProds 7/19/23 Feat. Adafruit Matrix Portal S3 CircuitPython Powered Internet Display!

Get the only spam-free daily newsletter about wearables, running a "maker business", electronic tips and more! Subscribe at AdafruitDaily.com !



No Comments

No comments yet.

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.