Ep. 89: Austin Powers Vibes and the Great Groovival

Nymphet Alumni

In this week's episode, we revisit the '90s does '60s phenomenon and discuss the parallels between the two decades—swinging youth culture and nightlife, technological optimism, design innovation—while also finding surprising similarities to our contemporary moment. We highlight the Austin Powers trilogy as this sensation's most brilliant high-camp cultural artifact, unpacking its satire of free love, modern masculinity, and British cheekiness. We explore Space Age fashion, the British Invasion(s), pop environmentalism, Volkswagen Beetles, iMac G3s, the Powerpuff Girls, and much more.

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Links:
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Consumer Aesthetics Research Institute's "Groovival" Are.na Board
"Austin Powers-core" musical subgenre Tweet
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery – fashion photography montage
Obituary of Pierre Cardin – The New York Times
Industrial designer Karim Rashid
"BBC" by Ming Tea – Official Music Video
Dressed to Regress: Interview with Austin Powers costume designer Deena Appel (1999) – LA Times
Deena Appel interview – From Tailors With Love
The Peacock Revolution: 1960s Menswear – Victoria & Albert Museum
Peter Bogdanovich on the lasting influence of Austin Powers in Goldmember – The New Yorker
‘A real stroke of genius.’ How Apple’s iMac G3 became an object of desire – CNN
AWOLTrends on Blobjects
Prada's spacesuits for NASA's 2025 Moon mission – Forbes
The Low Earth Orbit Economy – NASA
"Bye Bye Sixties" – Nancy Sinatra, Goldie Hawn, and Ruth Buzzi (1969)

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