Cyberpunk era is already here - and how technological clothing responds to it

Chapter I - The Condition

Cyberpunk increasingly feels less like fiction and more like an accurate description of the present. The resemblance has little to do with neon skylines or cinematic dystopias. What matters are the underlying systems once associated with the genre that have gradually become ordinary parts of everyday life. The shift becomes most visible online first: digital interaction once carried a relatively stable assumption of human presence - behind a comment, a photo, a voice recording, or an argument, there was usually a real person. That certainty has weakened considerably: AI-generated text, synthetic voices, generated imagery, automated engagement systems - these technologies are now deeply integrated into the structure of the internet itself. In practice, distinguishing between authentic and artificial content often becomes irrelevant, because the systems already function convincingly enough at a social level. As a result, trust changes shape - communication continues, but certainty fades into the background, questions of authorship emerge almost automatically; sometimes consciously, sometimes as a subtle instinct operating beneath attention. Over time, this affects the way information itself is perceived.

Surveillance has undergone a similar transformation. What once felt exceptional or associated primarily with governments and intelligence agencies has merged into ordinary infrastructure. Cameras, biometric systems, behavioral tracking, recommendation engines, predictive algorithms - these systems now operate continuously and quietly in the background of daily life, their invisibility comes precisely from normalization, they no longer need spectacle or visibility to function effectively. The important shift is not the dramatic sensation of "being watched", but the emergence of permanent registration as a default condition. Human activity increasingly exists as behavioral data processed through interconnected systems.

I notice related changes in creative and professional work as well. Artificial intelligence doesn't simply automate isolated tasks; it alters the economic and cultural value surrounding labor itself. Writing, illustration, design, analysis, translation - processes that previously required specialized skill and significant time investment can now be reproduced almost instantly at industrial scale. The transition feels gradual rather than catastrophic, more environmental than disruptive. A continuous form of pressure reshaping entire industries from within.

Alongside technological acceleration comes a broader atmosphere of instability. Economic systems appear increasingly fragile, geopolitical tensions continue to escalate, and many assumptions that defined the post-Cold War world no longer feel reliable. Technological advancement did not produce the degree of stability many expected. In many respects, it intensified fragmentation instead.

None of these developments exist independently. Automation, surveillance, algorithmic infrastructure, political instability, and synthetic media evolve simultaneously while reinforcing one another. Realizing this, I stopped thinking about cyberpunk primarily as a genre associated with the future - increasingly, it resembles a framework for understanding the present condition itself.

Chapter II - Influence and Origin

Long before cyberpunk became recognizable in everyday reality, its structure already existed in films, games, and animation. These works rarely felt like distant science fiction, since they operated closer to projection: technological trends, political tension, corporate expansion, urban overcrowding, information saturation. Existing conditions pushed several steps forward. That proximity became one of the defining characteristics of the genre. Watching Akira for the first time in my life (as I remember, it was back in 2018) never felt like looking centuries ahead - the environment carried a strange immediacy, as if the systems on screen were already forming somewhere beneath the surface of contemporary society. Later, when I also watched the first Blade Runner movie, it expanded that impression further. Its influence came less from spectacle and more from atmosphere and structure: dense architecture, permanent advertising, technological dependency, fragmented social space, corporate power embedded directly into the urban landscape.

The strongest influence came from Deus Ex: Human Revolution, recommended me by my good friend. After playing this game, what stayed with me was the coherence of the internal systems I saw: surveillance infrastructure, privatized security, information control, political manipulation, technological inequality - at the time these ideas felt exaggerated enough to remain fictional. Looking at the present, many of those structures now appear familiar. The distance between speculative fiction and contemporary reality has narrowed considerably over the last decade. Cyberpunk itself emerged from a specific imbalance - technological development accelerated faster than social and political systems could adapt, economic stability weakened, power concentrated inside increasingly interconnected structures, advanced infrastructure expanded alongside uncertainty and fragmentation. Hyperconnectivity became normal; so did alienation.

This environment gradually became the conceptual foundation behind my personal cyberpunk clothing brand - ETHELING. The starting point had little to do with fashion in the conventional sense. My attention shifted toward the figure of a person moving through dense technological systems while maintaining a degree of internal independence. Around that period, I encountered "The Forest Passage" by Ernst Jünger, - the idea of the "forest rebel" left a strong impression on me: an individual existing inside larger systems without becoming psychologically absorbed by them. That concept translated naturally into an urban technological context. I started thinking about the practical side of such existence: movement through modern cities, interaction with surveillance-heavy infrastructure; clothing as equipment adapted to environmental conditions rather than seasonal fashion cycles. The DXH01 jacket emerged from that line of thought. From the beginning, I approached it as a constructed object shaped by a specific atmosphere and set of conditions. Material selection, silhouette, storage architecture, collar structure, reflective surfaces - every element followed the same general direction: adaptability, durability, controlled visibility, and compatibility with dense urban environments.

The visual language developed through a similar process - traditional branding never interested me much. I became more interested in signaling systems and coded visual markers: symbols recognized selectively rather than universally. Part of that approach was influenced by the segmented corporate typography visible throughout Blade Runner. What mattered was the structural principle itself - compressed information reduced into minimal visual form. The result reflects a broader condition surrounding contemporary urban life. The jacket functions somewhere between clothing, equipment, and environmental interface.

Chapter III - Preparation

Designing the DXH01 forced me to think less like a fashion designer and more like someone constructing a tool intended for long-term use inside a specific environment. Most contemporary clothing is optimized for visibility inside digital platforms. Trends appear, peak, and disappear at accelerating speed, garments increasingly function as temporary content: highly visible for a short period of time, then immediately replaced by the next cycle. Construction quality becomes secondary to algorithmic performance. I had no interest in building ETHELING around that model. The project developed slowly and deliberately. The first concepts for the jacket appeared years before the brand itself existed publicly. During that period, I spent more time studying technical fabrics, construction methods, hardware systems, and silhouette behavior than thinking about marketing or seasonal releases. I wanted the object to feel stable, durable, and structurally convincing in physical reality - not only visually effective in photographs. That distinction became important to me very early. A large amount of contemporary "futuristic" fashion functions primarily as visual costume - they performs well inside editorials, music videos, or digital imagery, but begins to collapse once placed into ordinary urban life. I wanted the opposite outcome: something capable of existing naturally inside contemporary cities without losing its identity. This influenced the entire structure of the jacket: the silhouette remains restrained enough for everyday use, while still preserving a distinct architectural profile. Technical materials were selected for environmental performance and durability rather than novelty alone. Storage systems were integrated directly into the structure instead of functioning as decorative additions. Even reflective elements were approached less as graphic decoration and more as active surface components interacting with surrounding light and infrastructure. Over time, I became increasingly interested in the relationship between physical objects and psychological orientation. Certain garments change the way a person moves through space - not symbolically, but behaviorally. Structure affects posture, weight distribution affects movement, protective layers influence perception of environment. Clothing can alter spatial awareness in subtle but noticeable ways.

The project was never intended for mass accessibility or trend adaptation. I am more interested in creating highly specific objects for people who already recognize the atmosphere surrounding them and want material forms aligned with that reality. In that sense, the audience was always relatively narrow by design. Cyberpunk culture understood something important long before most mainstream industries did: technological systems don't remain abstract - eventually, they reshape architecture, communication, behavior, labor, aesthetics, and daily life itself. Objects change alongside those conditions.

ETHELING exists as part of that transformation. Not as nostalgia for fictional futures, but as clothing developed for the environment already forming around us.