Iron Fusion Envoy
by BONZO, HSM Editor
The Iron Fusion line sees an update, and this time it’s not in transforming or fantastically designed robots. No, rather it is a line of futuristic chic clothing.
The feel of these outfits is somewhat familiar, but doesn’t scream replica. The tight, form-fitting female dresses are sexy; you can’t go wrong with form-fitting. This is one concept I have been continuously impressed by from Lockwood. Take a look at their history with fashion design for the female crown; the dresses often cover a lot. The sexiness in the attire comes from the silhouette rather than how much skin they expose. Lockwood understands that the form and lines are what say sexy, rather than the obscene overexposure of skin, hinting at nudity.
There is something about these outfits which reminds me of many of the classic sci-fi icons. Even some of the more modern interpretations in video games, like Mass Effect. But also there is a hint of Star Trek, Fifth Element, even a little Tron. There is a simple explanation for this. It isn’t that there is a pool of designs these genres take from, or rather there is. But it’s not as generic as you think. Designing for the future is hard, because you never know where the future will really go. Take a look at the 1950’s concept of what the future would be. Mostly tight spandex jumpsuits, and metallic fabrics.
Take a minute and conceptualize a futuristic design. How would you go about doing that? More than likely, you will take a current, modern style to work from as a base. That’s really what happens in most cases; hence why the 1960’s are so prevalent in the original Star Trek series’ outfits. You look at The Next Generation series of Star Trek and it screams 1990’s. The current era of the design will have a major influence on the concept of the future.
While the dresses have a familiarity to them, there is nothing like them in Home. They are also really well-designed. There are four varieties with a very slight variation, so you may not notice the differences right away. There is one pattern, but the color pattern is inverted to make them two different dresses, and each has a long sleeve and sleeveless variety to create four different options. The shoulders have glowing bands which just adds to their futuristic appeal.
The bob hairdo is significantly different from the bob currently available for your avatar customization option. It is more uniform, shinier, and sleeker. This is like the “after” model of a hair care product commercial. But that is something which is also consistent with Lockwood: they always seem to put just a little more effort and detail into their hairdos.
While I do love the female outfits, I can not say the same of the male outfit.
This one just seems like an afterthought. Which is surprising from Lockwood, because if anyone has done some cool designs for the men of Home, it has consistently been Lockwood. The majority of the male clothing I have shelled out money for has been in the Lockwood brands like Drey, Figment, and Delirious Squid. I haven’t been impressed by too many other designs enough to want it. Lockwood introduced great design options for male avatars that deviated from the standard hip-hop thug, and unflattering t-shirts. They took male fashion seriously and filled a market that needed variation and visually appealing design desperately.
I get where they were going with this – a uniform style, asymmetrical futuristic design. The danger with asymmetrical design is that it can easily go wrong. The asymmetry in the Fool Throttle female rogue outfit was beautiful, but the asymmetry in this male Envoy outfit just comes off looking like a mistake. The cut is awkward, the lines don’t flow, they seem to struggle with each other and the bell sleeve on one side just looks unbalanced. It looks like half of two separate outfits were merged together. If it’s hard to design a futuristic design, it doubles in difficulty when designing for male outfits. Why? Because we have seen a wide variation in paramilitary, armor style, or formal military-like outfits already. If you go with a design along those lines, it comes off looking generic. In fact, the right half of the Envoy male outfit looks just like some formal type of uniform, while the other half looks like it was designed to be some sort of ethnic diplomatic outfit caught somewhere between dictator and monk. I love Lockwood, and I love the female Envoy design because it has flowing lines which make sense, but this particular male outfit is a hot mess.
Mystery Bot
Watch the video carefully: towards the end is a hint of a new robot. A tease of a possible future Iron Fusion release? It looks crazy. It also looks evil, almost bat-like — certainly not like the panthabots. There is something bestial about it, but the few frames it occupies don’t disclose too much information about it just yet. It looks like it has either swords in its hands or long blade-like protrusions extending from its arms.
There seems to be a deeper story to the Iron Fusion line: an as-of-yet untold battle of the bots here, which is being revealed slowly and looks very interesting. There has been no official word on this particular robot yet; could it be a Gift Machine item or maybe one of the auctioned commodities from the new HQ and the experimental auction event coming soon? Stay tuned; we will soon find out.
December 6th, 2012 by BONZO | 3 comments
BONZO is an editor and artist for HomeStation Magazine.
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Great article Bon! I totally agree with your assessment
Yep, me too. I was more impressed with the ladies outfit than I was with the male’s. I quite like the unbalanced nature of the bell-sleeve ( plus it glows -- cant resist gently glowing futuristic stuff!) but the sash seems weird, like a child forced to awkwardly wear a scarf. The cut is also a bit awkward, giving the full drape of the outfit a kinda eclectic mish-mash that puts me off.
But then maybe I’m just fussy. I’ve been waiting patiently for a casual suit jacket and shirt design that I’d happily wear but nothing released so far is quite right. LKWD ( I think) were SO close with the low-drop V-neck t-shirt and suit jacket combo, but they made the jacket almost Tweed which stopped me dead from buying it. I mean, TWEED LKWD!? What the hell were you thinkin’!?
Weirdly I have always loved a man in a tweed jacket… it gives off a distinguished air of intellectual warmth and wit. I have always liked that old world look on a man. The pipe smoking professor with the padded sleeves has always had a slow duff burn kind of sexy for me… Like warm fires, cups of tea and really really good conversational debates which stimulate rather than eradicate a deeper sort of want.
And a practical “Keep Calm and Carry On” attitude.
But I suppose it takes a special kind of man that can carry that look and blend it with a sort of masculine attitude that has him coming off as latently sexy and not a geek. There are a few men that can do it successfully however… Think Sam Shepard in Pelican Brief or Harrison Ford as in Indiana Jones.
I own a Burberry bag and suit- sooo… and I believe the designer is famous for capitalizing on that old world plaid, and tweed- a look that distinguishes them from other designers and that has made them world famous. I would not mind seeing the fare on Home and would probably be their best customer on PSH.