Science Fiction Trivia

[RockDoctor]

Okay... we've had food and drink, we've had booze. Let's try another necessity of life - clothing.

Launching straight out onto the thin ice, wearing clodhoppers, twelve-point crampons and using a pogo stick, I'll propose the Invisibility cloak/ Hallow in Potterverse. If you'll accept Potterverse as SF - a stretch, I'll grant.
Prodding around in Poul Anderson's "Incarnations of Immortality" series, while all of the incarnations had "attributes" (as in, items which always accompanied them, through which their particular powers take effect), I don't think any of them were items of clothing.
I can't think of an actual "Invisibility Cloak" anywhere in SF. I would have thought someone would have - ehemm - dressed the idea up in new clothes and taken it for a walk somehow.

[Milo]

There's a Tom Swift novel where they cover a submarine in a non-reflective(?) material embedded with tiny microphones and speakers to record and then project any sound that impacts the sub out the other side, making it invisible to sonar. It's not hard sci-fi, but it's certainly sci-fi. And it's a sub wearing the clothing, but don't forget, there are people inside too!

[Disembodied]

There's the Ealing scifi comedy The Man in the White Suit, about a man who invents an unbreakable fibre that never needs washing.

[ffutures]

Launching straight out onto the thin ice, wearing clodhoppers, twelve-point crampons and using a pogo stick, I'll propose the Invisibility cloak/ Hallow in Potterverse. If you'll accept Potterverse as SF - a stretch, I'll grant.
Prodding around in Poul Anderson's "Incarnations of Immortality" series, while all of the incarnations had "attributes" (as in, items which always accompanied them, through which their particular powers take effect), I don't think any of them were items of clothing.
I can't think of an actual "Invisibility Cloak" anywhere in SF. I would have thought someone would have - ehemm - dressed the idea up in new clothes and taken it for a walk somehow.

I'm going to have to say no on that one for two reasons - it's not the main focus of the story although it's important, and we've repeatedly ruled out Harry Potter as SF.

There's a Tom Swift novel where they cover a submarine in a non-reflective(?) material embedded with tiny microphones and speakers to record and then project any sound that impacts the sub out the other side, making it invisible to sonar. It's not hard sci-fi, but it's certainly sci-fi. And it's a sub wearing the clothing, but don't forget, there are people inside too!

Nice try, but no - invisible vehicles are vehicles, not clothing. But I can think of one episode of a TV show that used something like that (but using cameras etc. so it was real invisibility) as a person's clothing, and their invisibility was the main focus of the story in that episode, I'll allow that if you can find it. Hint - the series title is a single word meaning a type of building.

There's the Ealing scifi comedy The Man in the White Suit, about a man who invents an unbreakable fibre that never needs washing.

Definitely yes, it was one of the stories I was thinking of when I set this question. First point to Disembodied!

[spud42]

dang the only one i can think of is Have spacesuit will travel, R.A.Heinlein and you ruled out space suits...

[Disembodied]

Here's an obscure superhero: Paradax! The handful of strips were originally published in the downright psychedelic Strange Days back in the 1980s. Al Cooper was a taxi driver who found a weird skintight suit in his taxi, which enabled him to pass through solid matter. He was mistaken for a wandering pervert when he first wore it outdoors, but fortunately he was able to wear ordinary street clothes over the top when he was … not really fighting crime, more indulging himself - and thus, Paradax was born.

[Milo]

https://startrekblog.wordpress.com/2018 ... explained/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... #Stillsuit

[ffutures]

Here's an obscure superhero: Paradax! The handful of strips were originally published in the downright psychedelic Strange Days back in the 1980s. Al Cooper was a taxi driver who found a weird skintight suit in his taxi, which enabled him to pass through solid matter. He was mistaken for a wandering pervert when he first wore it outdoors, but fortunately he was able to wear ordinary street clothes over the top when he was … not really fighting crime, more indulging himself - and thus, Paradax was born.

Okay, that's a good one - another one for you. The clothing basically drives the plot so it certainly counts.

https://startrekblog.wordpress.com/2018 ... explained/

I think I'm going to have to say no on this - sorry - while uniforms are certainly important to the "look and feel" of the Star Trek universe, they don't really motivate the plot. Or do much apart from being... well, uniforms.

Three to go!

[RockDoctor]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... #Stillsuit

Well, the stillsuit does have some plot implications ("he will know your ways as if he were born amongst you", or some such prophecy concerning the Muad'dib), but is it "central"?

[RockDoctor]

Continuing my pogo-sticking across the thin ice, and depending on the crocodiles to be a bit less than snappy,

Let's try another necessity of life - clothing.

Necessity?
A significant plot point in Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" is the importance of nudity within the "Nest" - partly to differentiate the in-Nesters from the out-Nesters, partly as a goad to the BuyBull belt of America, partly as a statement of something profound of a religious sort (that went over my head) ... Is nudity a form of clothing? Well, as the climactic scene shows His Michaelness deliberately shedding his "street clothes" and donning his sacramental garb of nudity for his apotheosis ... that's how Heinlein was thinking of it.
BOING, Boing, boing ... splash!

[ffutures]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_t ... #Stillsuit

Well, the stillsuit does have some plot implications ("he will know your ways as if he were born amongst you", or some such prophecy concerning the Muad'dib), but is it "central"?

Sorry, I missed the stillsuit link previously, I think Milo added it after I commented on the Star Trek thing.

On the whole I'm inclined to accept the stillsuit - it is a fairly major part of the whole Dune series and Arrakis culture, and while the story isn't actually about it, it does feel more integral to the plot (and a lot less generic) than e.g. a spacesuit.

OK, that's one for Milo and two more to go.

Continuing my pogo-sticking across the thin ice, and depending on the crocodiles to be a bit less than snappy,

Let's try another necessity of life - clothing.

Necessity?
A significant plot point in Heinlein's "Stranger in a Strange Land" is the importance of nudity within the "Nest" - partly to differentiate the in-Nesters from the out-Nesters, partly as a goad to the BuyBull belt of America, partly as a statement of something profound of a religious sort (that went over my head) ... Is nudity a form of clothing? Well, as the climactic scene shows His Michaelness deliberately shedding his "street clothes" and donning his sacramental garb of nudity for his apotheosis ... that's how Heinlein was thinking of it.
BOING, Boing, boing ... splash!

I'm sorry, it doesn't really feel like it was integral to the plot in the same way as e.g. The Man in the White Suit, where everything that happened in the story was directly related to the suit, the material it was made of, the implications for the textile industry, etc. etc. It's part of the lifestyle of Smith's cult, but it wouldn't have changed the story much if they had chosen some other lifestyle variant. I think I'll have to say no on this one.

[Disembodied]

Does the Wallace and Gromit adventure The Wrong Trousers count? Are Techno-Trousers® sufficiently SF?

[Milo]

This is skirting(!) the definition, but clothes are definitely a key element of the tale.

[ffutures]

Does the Wallace and Gromit adventure The Wrong Trousers count? Are Techno-Trousers® sufficiently SF?

Definitely a yes, I think - it's all about weird tech, and the trousers are the main part of that. One to go.

This is skirting(!) the definition, but clothes are definitely a key element of the tale.

Sorry, I think that this is the same problem as the Star Trek uniforms - it's something they're doing to make it look futuristic, rather than something integral to the plot of the story. I'm going to have to say no.

Let's try a few hints

• 1970s British novel about an alien world where fashion is integral to social status

• A 21st century Japanese anime television series in part inspired by the above

• An episode of a 1960s TV SF series set in the 21st century - the main protagonist of the episode (usually appearing in more secondary roles in the series) is an aristocratic supermodel, and this profession is integral to the plot of the episode.

[Milo]

https://www.theverge.com/2017/10/24/164 ... ku-fashion ?