Women's Fashion in Zero G
One of the awesome things about anime is its ability to give the creators free range on their imagination without worrying about how they're going to cast and or film the sequences they dreamed up. One of the very cool things that this resulted in in the series Gundam Seed is that most sections set in space are set in zero gravity, unless it's set on a spinning space station. The result of this was that the writers got a stab at looking at what life in zero g in the future would be like, including a nice sequence where the pilot of the Archangel tries to leave his water bottle floating in the air beside him after they land on Earth, and is surprised when it falls to the floor.
One of the issues they didn't even start to tackle (and this is probably a good thing, because it'd get embarrassing very quickly) is the whole issue of women's fashion in zero g. The female characters serving on ship tend to wear very utilitarian clothes. However, in a segment where the Archangel captures Lacus Cline who comes aboard with a big floaty dress and hair do, I started wondering for the first time about all the pitfalls and opportunities of zero g fashion. This was then peaked by the multiple occasions when a character launches themselves away from a conversation, especially on the hangar deck which is multiple stories in height and has accesses at various levels (or if they're being pulled by the handrail down a corridor) giving the person they were talking to a very clear view down the skirt. This strikes me as a Problem with skirts in general, and then my brain got lost in all the fascinating complexities.
So, the first thing I was wondering was whether skirts would actually stay down in zero g or whether they'd float naturally upwards, exposing a lot? I'm not entirely sure about the mechanics of it. Skirts hang as they do because of gravity. Take away gravity, and there's probably nothing to stop them floating upwards. However, material has a natural tendency to want to keep itself straight and not bend. How much would that natural tendency take over? Would it be enough to keep a standard Earth skirt from floating upwards all the time to be impractical? If it did, are there materials with a stronger tendency to avoid bending and would they be suitable for daily wear?
If skirts don't stay down, then there are things that could still work. For example, Lacus wears lots of petticoats, and the natural brownian motion of the petticoats means that the probability of her skirt spreading out completely is not that high. It also creates and awesome floaty/swirly effect. The question is then whether the probability of exposure is low enough to warrant not worrying about it? Also, what other tricks are there for making everything come good?
All the above has been assuming that the person is standing still or not moving much. However, there has to be an angle where the person pushes themselves off or comes to a halt that naturally causes the skirt to flip upwards to be inside out. Again, is it possible to engineer a skirt that would be strong enough to withstand that? Would it be wearable if you could? And would the brownian motion of your garments negate that effect. Also, although such an angle can be found in theory, in practice, skirts crease and do not form a perfect cone, so do the creases and folds decrease its bendiness and would the skirt, to all intents and purposes just catch in the legs all the time instead of inverting? Could you engineer skirts to be very bendy and with many folds which naturally stayed down?
If women have to worry about skirts flipping inside out, and are still bothered enough to want to wear skirts, then what does this mean for underwear and garments down there in general? If you're going to have something that could be on display, would you change your wearing habits to be different? Would women start wearing shorts as a matter of course under their skirts, so that when they flash something, no one cares? Would accidental exposure really be a big think in a zero g society any more?
Having gone through all these problems, there are also so many awesome opportunities. For example, I've already mentioned floaty/swirly skirts. Also, the opportunity for floaty/swirly hair-styles should not be underestimated. Given the natural tendency of things to float/swirl in zero g, how would designers make use of this? What new and awesome fashions could there be, and what new utterly impractical fashions would suddenly become eminently practical in zero g? So, thinking about the petticoats Lacus wears, that kind of garb is heavy in Earth gravity, but it wouldn't be heavy in zero g and it would be easy to go to the toilet in (wait, how do people go to the toilet in zero g? On second thoughts, maybe I shouldn't ask that). The swirliness could damp unwanted rotation, although I think that once you started rotating, got the skirts to rotate, and then stopped, you'd still have problems with the skirt's inertia. So I don't really know. But, as you can see, it's quite fascinating to consider...
One of the issues they didn't even start to tackle (and this is probably a good thing, because it'd get embarrassing very quickly) is the whole issue of women's fashion in zero g. The female characters serving on ship tend to wear very utilitarian clothes. However, in a segment where the Archangel captures Lacus Cline who comes aboard with a big floaty dress and hair do, I started wondering for the first time about all the pitfalls and opportunities of zero g fashion. This was then peaked by the multiple occasions when a character launches themselves away from a conversation, especially on the hangar deck which is multiple stories in height and has accesses at various levels (or if they're being pulled by the handrail down a corridor) giving the person they were talking to a very clear view down the skirt. This strikes me as a Problem with skirts in general, and then my brain got lost in all the fascinating complexities.
So, the first thing I was wondering was whether skirts would actually stay down in zero g or whether they'd float naturally upwards, exposing a lot? I'm not entirely sure about the mechanics of it. Skirts hang as they do because of gravity. Take away gravity, and there's probably nothing to stop them floating upwards. However, material has a natural tendency to want to keep itself straight and not bend. How much would that natural tendency take over? Would it be enough to keep a standard Earth skirt from floating upwards all the time to be impractical? If it did, are there materials with a stronger tendency to avoid bending and would they be suitable for daily wear?
If skirts don't stay down, then there are things that could still work. For example, Lacus wears lots of petticoats, and the natural brownian motion of the petticoats means that the probability of her skirt spreading out completely is not that high. It also creates and awesome floaty/swirly effect. The question is then whether the probability of exposure is low enough to warrant not worrying about it? Also, what other tricks are there for making everything come good?
All the above has been assuming that the person is standing still or not moving much. However, there has to be an angle where the person pushes themselves off or comes to a halt that naturally causes the skirt to flip upwards to be inside out. Again, is it possible to engineer a skirt that would be strong enough to withstand that? Would it be wearable if you could? And would the brownian motion of your garments negate that effect. Also, although such an angle can be found in theory, in practice, skirts crease and do not form a perfect cone, so do the creases and folds decrease its bendiness and would the skirt, to all intents and purposes just catch in the legs all the time instead of inverting? Could you engineer skirts to be very bendy and with many folds which naturally stayed down?
If women have to worry about skirts flipping inside out, and are still bothered enough to want to wear skirts, then what does this mean for underwear and garments down there in general? If you're going to have something that could be on display, would you change your wearing habits to be different? Would women start wearing shorts as a matter of course under their skirts, so that when they flash something, no one cares? Would accidental exposure really be a big think in a zero g society any more?
Having gone through all these problems, there are also so many awesome opportunities. For example, I've already mentioned floaty/swirly skirts. Also, the opportunity for floaty/swirly hair-styles should not be underestimated. Given the natural tendency of things to float/swirl in zero g, how would designers make use of this? What new and awesome fashions could there be, and what new utterly impractical fashions would suddenly become eminently practical in zero g? So, thinking about the petticoats Lacus wears, that kind of garb is heavy in Earth gravity, but it wouldn't be heavy in zero g and it would be easy to go to the toilet in (wait, how do people go to the toilet in zero g? On second thoughts, maybe I shouldn't ask that). The swirliness could damp unwanted rotation, although I think that once you started rotating, got the skirts to rotate, and then stopped, you'd still have problems with the skirt's inertia. So I don't really know. But, as you can see, it's quite fascinating to consider...