Instantly Passé Trend

i don't think they're making the point that we the consumers don't want something new, i think they mean that every week we won't be cashing in on the new craze or fad. we'll be wearing something different don't get me wrong.

I really don't like fashion trends. i think it would be a positive move towards the new generation of fashion. I prefer people to look like individuals than all wearing the same peasant skirt and skinny leg jeans. I totally get what this article is saying. This has been on my mind for the past few months but only now do i realize what i was thinking.

This move will finally cement the 21st century as a individual stylish period. You know how people refer to 1950's fashion or 1980's etc.I'm not sure but i feel like it is going that way! and about time...
 
susie_bubble said:
I think he does make a point about the world being oversaturated with trends. However, trends are useful to set a tone each season and I don't think we as consumers are experiencing a trend backlash. Instead, we are becoming more savvy and INCORPORATING trends with out personalities and styles. We all have defined styles and trends are there to perhaps there to encourage our fashion sensibilities rather than dictate.

yep totally agree about everyone incorporating trends with their own style.
 
source: telegraph.co.uk

Is fashion too fickle?
(Filed: 05/10/2005)

Last week Tom Ford, the former Gucci designer, attacked the fashion industry, saying that rapid introduction of new trends is leaving consumers confused and putting them off buying clothes - but is he right?

clare.gif
Yes, says Clare Coulson - the speed of change is getting out of control

What will you be this winter? A scowling goth in a floor-sweeping black skirt and high-necked Edwardian shirt? A mini-skirted Mod with kohl-framed eyes and kinky boots? Or a Hitchcock heroine with blood-red lips, p*ssy-bow blouse and a body-hugging pencil skirt?

The reality is that you probably won't be any of the above because while the fashion industry creates a dizzying, unrelenting flurry of trends, most of us are wearing the same thing year in, year out.

Tom Ford's recent assertion that fashion now moves too fast sounds like the dismissive words of a man who has made his mark (and his money) and moved on to pastures new (in his case, the film industry). Ford is far too clever to make sweeping statements without foundation; this is the man who ruled fashion in the late 1990s and invented the concept of the modern, ruthlessly branded fashion label. And he is right - fashions now come and go so fast that only the most ardent fashion victims can keep up.

Viktor & Rolf spring/summer 2006

Some designers flit from one theme to another each season - think of Miuccia Prada's shift from a sombre, largely black collection this autumn to her feather-light one for next spring. Or Marc Jacobs, who for autumn decreed a new egg-shaped silhouette, only to replace it for next spring with the clean preppy lines of American youth.

Of course fashion thrives on change - its continual pursuit of the new and novel is what keeps the industry alive and keeps us, the consumers, interested. It's fun to buy new things and change the way we look, but the speed at which fashion evolves now feels out of control. Trends move more quickly than ever before; they come and go in a matter of weeks, not months or years as they used to. High street shops turn around new collections so quickly that if you don't buy on a first visit you are unlikely ever to see the most sought-after pieces again. Sometimes it is easier, as Ford says, to opt out altogether and live life in a nice pair of jeans.

Of course, it's in the best interests of the fashion industry to convince us that if we don't have the latest dress, bag or pair of shoes, we've been left behind. Last year the womenswear market was worth £38 billion and is growing steadily, but as the womenswear buyer of a well-known London boutique recently admitted to me, trends come and go so quickly that women get turned off by the whole thing. They feel as though none of it applies to them and end up stuck in a style rut.

But some designers out there are trying to slow things down. In Paris this week the avant-garde duo Viktor & Rolf said: "Fashion is running out of time. There is too much, too fast. The only way to progress is with our originality and patience."

This new breed, who belong to the slow fashion movement, believe in developing a look over several seasons. Their aesthetic develops over years and their labels seem more relevant to real women because of that. Phoebe Philo, Alber Elbaz at Lanvin and Christopher Bailey at Burberry produce collections that shun the dramatic biannual about-turns that other labels revel in. Take Chloé, for example, where Philo develops the brand each season, adding to her lexicon of looks so that her designs are never simply one-hit wonders - they are of the moment, yet timeless too.

justine.gif
No, says Justine Picardie - fashion may be transient, but you should tackle it at your own pace

It was Coco Chanel, that most acerbic and knowing of iconic designers, who remarked, "Fashion should slip out of your hands. The very idea of protecting the seasonal arts is childish. One should not bother to protect that which dies the minute it is born." It's an intriguing suggestion, that fashion is something we can never preserve, for it is always elusive, always on the verge of escaping us, and that is why we follow it.

Looking at it her way, fashion is like quicksilver; and to castigate it for change would be to miss its point entirely. Thus, the fashion industry has built itself around mutability; marking the passing of the seasons with transient collections, adjustments, reinventions, predictions.

Chanel autumn/winter 2005/6

But look at it another way, although still through the prism of Chanel, and you can see that some things endure in the lexicon of fashion: not least the little black dress, first popularised by Coco Chanel in the Twenties, and back in the shops again this year (as always). Then there's the talismanic Chanel iconography, the camellias and pearls; the double Cs and number fives - all still here, reworked yet remarkably timeless.

And you don't have to dress in Chanel to know that there will be elements of your own wardrobe that remain constant: your favourite jeans, softened through washing and wearing until they fit you, and you alone; or maybe some reliably durable T-shirts (I like mine in black from Gap or Petit Bateau, precisely because they don't change the cut).

Then there are the pieces we love because of the history that is attached to them - the red party shoes that carried you towards your heart's desire; the dove-grey cashmere sweater that softened a harsh winter or a colder rejection. These are the keepsakes that we keep safe (and keep us feeling safe, in turn); and with these in place, you can gladly go on the occasional shopping expedition to pick up something more ephemeral.

But curiously - and maybe this is a sign of middle age - when I do go out searching for the new, it often looks familiar. Take this summer's beaded boho tops - surely, they were more or less the same as last year's offerings (and those of the year before that)? Or this autumn's proclamation that black is back: well, we've all been here before, haven't we? As for the latest military jackets - they're near identical to the Topshop version I bought several winters ago.

Perhaps what is most important, in the end, is to remember that fashion is all about you - your tastes, your desires, your need for change, or constancy. You can make it go as fast or as slow as you want; you can take your time, go at your own pace. Without your choices, there would be no fashion industry; without you, your wardrobe would have no stories to tell.

Justine Picardie's new book, 'My Mother's Wedding Dress', is published by Picador, £12.99
 
there's a recent Vanity Fair article about Disney World that made me think of fashion trends. the writer argued Disney World was a similiar phenomenon as the Cargo Cults, a religious movement which occurred in the South Pacific in which the islanders interpretated material western goods as gifts from their gods. I think the writer was referring to idol worship and belief in fantastical characters as representing some cultural affirmation.

In attempts to get cargo to fall by parachute or land in planes or ships again, islanders imitated the same practices they had seen the soldiers, sailors and airmen use. They carved headphones from wood, and wore them while sitting in fabricated control towers. They waved the landing signals while standing on the runways. They lit signal fires and torches to light up runways and lighthouses. The cultists thought that the foreigners had some special connection to their own ancestors, who were the only beings powerful enough to produce such riches.

In a form of sympathetic magic, many built life-size mockups of airplanes out of straw, and created new military style landing strips, hoping to attract more airplanes. Ultimately, although these practices did not bring about the return of the god-like airplanes that brought such marvelous cargo during the war, they did however serve to eradicate the religious practices that had existed prior to the war.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cargo_cult

The same term "cargo cult' is used as an analogy for any group of people clinging irrationally to any business strategy such as 'trends'. by imitating and possessing certain items, a person is convinced they can reach spiritual enlightenment.

i think adam smith, the father of capitalism, is rolling in his grave.
 
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travolta said:
i think adam smith, the father of capitalism, is rolling in his grave.

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

And Marx is telling Paine, "I told you so...pay up."

Remind me of "the Gods Must be Crazy" and the holy Coca-Cola bottle.
 
I can see what Travolta is getting at. The comment about Adam Smith was his reaction to people losing touch with themselves through imitation and the want to be like others, but then cheapen the actual experiance or product and themselves at the same time. How can I put it into words? It's as if trends are taking advantage of people who don't know any better. Does that make sense? (I'm not being sarcastic, I found it hard to explain but easy to feel)
 
fourboltmain said:
I can see what Travolta is getting at. The comment about Adam Smith was his reaction to people losing touch with themselves through imitation and the want to be like others, but then cheapen the actual experiance or product and themselves at the same time. How can I put it into words? It's as if trends are taking advantage of people who don't know any better. Does that make sense? (I'm not being sarcastic, I found it hard to explain but easy to feel)

What was his reaction? Are you talking about division of labor that alienates the worker from the product itself? :unsure:
 
faust, i admitt was kinda tipsy writing it. suddenly i imagined myself as noam chompsky. i am not. really at all. ;(
 
travolta said:
faust, i admitt was kinda tipsy writing it. suddenly i imagined myself as noam chompsky. i am not. really at all. ;(

:lol: all righty then
 
^ good. we all have our days of self-imposed delusion. thanks for being so gracious. ;P
 
travolta said:
^ good. we all have our days of self-imposed delusion. thanks for being so gracious. ;P
my pleasure (bows theatrically) :-)
 
I think trends are useful when used with flair and intelligence. I get inspiration from trends and pick what works for me. But there are only one element of many other sources of inspiration. This is how I actually managed to build my very own style. And also I don't let the trends rule me, I 'rule' them!
 
Mr-Dale said:
I think that trends are something surreal.....and i think that it also is not true that people need to find their look for a season....Dress how you want to, don't change because the season's change...change because your mood changes or because your own idea of pretty, stylish or perhaps "trendy" changes.....

I completely agree with you.
 
Don't confuse trends with knowing "What's up". I personally see fashion trends as something that is verbalized for the uneducated consumer. A couple of years ago, I was in a very long, severe funk wherein I absolutely could not pick up a fashion magazine or watch a fashion program because I was so disgusted with the marketing and high speed trends. I personally feel that with the bigger, more corporate labels, the reason the trends change so quickly and to such an extreme IS to make money by keeping their followers spending major $$ to keep up. I couldn't take it, it made me sick, that they thought I was that stupid and I essentially denounced my love of fashion.

However, I continued to follow all of my other loves; film, industrial designs, music and, to over generalize, the art world. Somehow, I still managed to get up every day and "fashion" an outfit that didn't make me look like I was totally out of touch and was often complimented by other who did follow fashion. With the exeception of my jeans and undergarments, literally everything I wore came from a thrift shop. I am not trying to toot my own horn, I am just trying to make the point that if you pay attention to your enviroment and the world at large, you don't need Tom Ford (or anyone else for that matter) to tell you what to wear.

Trends are natural, everyone who creates is inspired by someone or something else. Fashion victims ARE victims, victims of their own isolated world wherein they are looking to salesmen to tell them who they are a/o should be.

P.S. Thanks, Gardenpea for reviving this thread, I hope others post their opinions what I think is a very interesting issue.:flower:
 
i am just patiently waiting for the day that all popular trends end...
but i doubt there will ever be 100 percent individuality amongst every person
 
scandababian said:
Don't confuse trends with knowing "What's up". I personally see fashion trends as something that is verbalized for the uneducated consumer. (...) Somehow, I still managed to get up every day and "fashion" an outfit that didn't make me look like I was totally out of touch and was often complimented by other who did follow fashion. With the exeception of my jeans and undergarments, literally everything I wore came from a thrift shop. I am not trying to toot my own horn, I am just trying to make the point that if you pay attention to your enviroment and the world at large, you don't need Tom Ford (or anyone else for that matter) to tell you what to wear.

Trends are natural, everyone who creates is inspired by someone or something else. (...)

P.S. Thanks, Gardenpea for reviving this thread, I hope others post their opinions what I think is a very interesting issue.:flower:

I see trends that way too. Trends as depicted on style.com's for example are flavours that kicks my inspiration. To this adds up to my childhood memories, films I have seen, people I have met, places I have gone. It's such a individual experience. For this you definitely need to be open and pay attention indeed. This requires a lot a self-confidence and 'education' (ie artistic sensitivity) that can take a long time to acquire. This often means going through a time of clonism, dressing a certain style to fit in your surroundings (mainly and hopefully in your teens). After that, it's a bit dreadful. I guess the vast majority of people just don't know or don't care, they're a reflection of our society where people buy, wear and throw. I couldn't do that because first I have too little money to waste it and because something really needs to strike me to buy it. Something that says straight away 'this is so me'. Well I hope it's not too confused, I have some trouble writing in a coherent manner tonight!

I really hope too some other people will post about that subject...:wink:
 
i think trends will be around forever - perhaps not in a strict sense, but they will always exist to inspire people and what they wear. yeh sure, people nowadays like to mix things up, create their own unique look - but like it or not - most of them are still influenced by the current trends of the season. i love seeing and discovering new trends - it's one of my favourite things about fashion.
 

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