High tech. Low life. High heels. Low cut.

Rachel Haywire

8 hr ago

As with every subculture under the sun, the definition of cyberpunk is constantly changing. We have our usual suspects and household names in literature and film, whether Neuromancer and Snow Crash or Blade Runner and The Matrix. Then we have newer shows like Altered Carbon and The Peripheral that have been adapted from cyberpunk literature. Yet something is clearly missing from this picture. One of the most influential yet often overlooked aspects of cyberpunk is fashion, which is evident in all these projects yet rarely discussed with equal complexity. I’m going to do my best to change that and chronicle how cyberpunk fashion has influenced the cyberpunk genre and made it what it is today. Let’s do this.

Present day. The video game Cyberpunk 2077 infiltrates the minds of a new generation, drawing inspiration from the cyberpunk fashion of the 90s and early 2000s. Now we see Instagram influencers cosplaying characters from the game, creating a cyclical cultural exchange. It’s all so Spenglarian. Yet where did the fashion element of cyberpunk begin? Surely it wasn’t William Gibson or Keanu Reeves who brought it to the runway. Molly Millions from Neuromancer was iconic, and maybe she inspired Trinity’s character from The Matrix, but who and what inspired Trinity’s clothing?

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