Hasta La Ideas

William Gibson, author of Neuromancer, Pattern Recognition and other seminal cyberpunk works, has turned to design. The author’s Aviator briefcase does an interesting job of drawing influecne from both the very worlds he’s created in print and the real one outside our doors:

The bag is labeled “Buzz Rickson’s Flight Equipment.” It’s produced by the Japanese faux-WWII military outfitter whose replica aviator jackets were fetishized in Pattern Recognition as one of the only pure and comforting designs in the eyes of the novel’s hyper-sensitive heroine. Porter is a highly regarded Japanese maker of custom bags, in this case for the growing “William Gibson Collection,” which includes jackets, gloves and shoes.

Buzz Rickson’s is a real-life company that should properly exist only in the imagination of Gibson (or perhaps Jean Baudrillard, since it’s a Japanese atelier producing simulacra that surpass the original).

Cool Tools writer Chris Nakashima-Brown has an extensive review of the $530 bag here.

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