Foiling around: aluminium fashion is on a roll

Over at Moschino’s AW22 show, Jeremy Scott designed a shiny tray-turned-top. Junk modelling made chic, if you will. Loewe debuted silver bow heels from the same season, and Aries’ creative director Sofia Prantera’s favourite piece from her SS22 collection was ​“the crushed foil print, developed by metal rubbing and crushing tin foil under a photocopier.”

Foil’s big in the beauty world, too. Versace went for a shimmery gold foil look for its Men’s SS23 show, while Ciara accessorised her hair with silver foil at the Met Gala this year (according to this TikTok trend, it can sort out flyaway hairs thanks to static – bonus).

So why are runways now looking a little like The Shiny Show? Well, Space Age designers loved metallic looks in the ​’60s, and that whole next frontier aesthetic is rising in popularity right now, thanks to the likes of Moschino, Fendi and Gucci playing with sci-fi, retro futuristic themes.

In the ​’60s, Space Age fashion represented an optimistic, extraterrestrial vision of the future, one that never really happened because, well, the metaverse took over instead. Shimmery metallic looks from the likes of Andres Courreges and Pierre Cardin reflected newness, merging together human and machine.

Foiled looks now, though, are knowingly tongue-in-cheek; less forward-looking and more taking us to our real life straight-to-DVD version of Back to the Future: a kitsch retrofuturism in our age of constant revivals. Moon Boots, once grounded on space race gear, are now part of a Y2K comeback. We dreamt of androids, but got Androids instead, and we’re still using the exact same Bacofoil to wrap our sarnies as we were back in 1962, when it first came onto the scene.

“For years we’ve seen foil fashion hit the catwalk to shock and awe,” a Bacofoil spokesperson told THE FACE. ​“One of the key trends this AW22 is shoppers choosing function alongside fashion like never before. So why not foil? Fashionistas alike can stay warm and fresh in the winter whilst making sure the spotlight strikes them in a crowd.”