TREND BOOK

by Christopher Riedl

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Table of ContentIntroduction 3

Trends Slowmotion 4 Neorangement 6 IDentimize 8 Conclusion 9 Source list 10

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IntroductionGabrielle „Coco“ Chanel once stated: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.“ (Charles-Roux 2005: 11) She was right with it - a trend cannot be related to just one impulse or factor. It is a combination of various indicators. With this knowledge and a lot of curiosity, this Trend Book has been made. With its purpose to find new trends out of different factors, influences and vibes, the results have been bundled together and presented as a trend forecast in this booklet.

„Trend forecasters offer [...] objective and early guidance about the changes in [...] color, fabric and shape. Forecasters explore and analyze changing social, economic, cultural and political influences that are likely to affect fashion. Global and local influences combine to affect the zeitgeist of a season differently in each country. It is the skill of the forecaster to explain how fashion products may best reflect the mood of a moment.“ (Hines/Bruce 2007: 175)

To get all the important factors involved and actually being able to determinate a trend, I went to Amsterdam and Berlin on trend research to find the most exiting and new movements that are starting at the moment. Keeping eyes open, everywhere I went, is the key to success when it comes to trends. Because the starting point of a trend can be anywhere and anytime.

With the aim to point out what the zeitgeist is, what will be trend, this booklet is made for concept developers and fashion designers, to inspire and to guide through the upcoming trends Slowmotion, Neorangement and IDentimize, which will be explained in depth on the following pages.

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„With the death of Alexander McQueen and the suspension of John Galliano at Dior, the fashion world lost two of its most important eccentric fashion designers...after a hurry we calm down to a consciousness, a slow-down movement in fashion.“ (Freimodekultur Magazine, no. 1).Everything these designers did, was to create an abstract fashion idea of a brand with mostly non-wearable clothes for a fashion show to grab the most media attention as possible, creating trends, which led to the sale of accessories, perfumes and shoes in the end. From what I noticed in my trend research, we are longing for the opposite now - the mass in the future doesn‘t want to have the latest trend, it is aiming for a long lasting piece of clothes, furniture and lifestyle in general.

The Slowmotion trend is created out of different aspects: sustainability, eco-fashion, ethical angles, green fashion, vintage and second hand. All these important factors are creating the desired new movement, which I call Slowmotion. With the sickness of Fast Fashion and the chivvy for trends we desire an „off-trend“-trend, values of the past: more quality and less quantity. Bringing honesty and fairness back into our daily lifestyle. Examples of that I display here in the selected pictures. The youth and their use of vintage clothes and accessories, cafes with a GDR/second hand interior, new designs with the goal to outlast trends like the teapot with its timeless design (green living, interior, Berlin), posters around the city and a store concept (YUU Store, Berlin), in which new clothes that are 2nd or 3rd season are sold - with success, as the owner told me.

The relevance of this trend is huge, as it affects not only our buying behavior, but in general the whole system: „It will alleviate pressure on the earth‘s natural production cycles so

the Slow Fashion movement can be in a healthy rhythm with what the earth can naturally provide“ (The Slow Fashion movement, Carlotta Cataldi). This has to be and will be the future orientation, otherwise this ongoing consumption and behavior will destroy the environment. It is also great that we see this trend in so many different areas: food became more and more bio, we tend to eat healthier. Also in society, politics, urban environments we are looking for more meaning, for authenticity and products, that last, which we maybe pass to our children‘s children.

So not the sustainable idea of this trend is new, it is the desire of the old times, the value, which was important back in the days. It is actually a nostalgic flow: we rather safe money than to spend it for this timeless, sustainable piece. We need to see Fast Fashion as a moment that is happening now. We will calm down and have the Slowmotion in our lives. We already begun with other developments in this direction, as I mentioned the slow food movement or the green fashion/sustainable flow for example. And also „this movement recognizes its connectivity to the social system, its impact on people in the supply chain and aims to make a positive contribution by paying living wages and supporting communities that they work with“ (Cataldi, p. 6).

To conclude I can say that this is one of the most important movements that will happen in the (fashion)industry as it effects so many different areas. It will not be something like a hype, it will be a lifestyle that people are willing to live and aim for. It is a mind setting - a perfect start for concepts and an opportunity for brands to use this movement as a strategy.

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In today‘s world which is driven by fast lifestyle and restless society we are in a need of constant change. We get bored too fast, but we don‘t want to. We desire the change that keeps us alive, awake and excited. If we include the sustainable movement we get what I call Neorangement: a change, a new arrangement of the existing. Work with what we have. According to the book „Triumph of the City“ by Edward Glaeser, the most important changes were made in cities which dealt with what the city had to offer. And others, for instance Detroit (USA), which did not and failed. This can be adopted to all kinds of areas.

It is about the transformation of an ongoing trend - the constant change in fashion/trends in general - into the change of existing things. With the knowledge of mass consumption and the will of sustainable activities, we „re-arrange“ the things we already have, give them a complete new meaning and lead this to a longer life product with a higher value.

„The clothing styles emerge to clarify and lend expression to the cultural ambivalence. The broad variety of clothing styles in turn creates a high degree of ambiguity in individually constructed appearance styles, the meaning of which must then be collectively negotiated in social interaction“ (Kaiser, 1991, p. 180,). These millions of different styles we have in form of trends, lead to mass consumption.With reusing and recycling we already made an important step in the field of art and fashion. If we still want to keep up with the speed of change we are having now, we need to use the existing goods, because this will then positively effect society, environment and will create new space for creativity.

So it is not surprising that this can already be seen in various ways: museums in the form of art with loose wood blocks, which can be rearranged. A piece of art made out of different kinds of „old & useless“ things, expressions of society in form of street art, showrooms which constantly change or people that just try to change the world around them to make it a more beautiful place. If we take this as a beginning, we can bring it to a next level and professionalize the idea.

The exciting aspect of this upcoming trend is the consciousness in it. A constant change as I said is not new at all, but the twist in it - that we are going to rearrange things we have, existing things - that‘s our desired change where we can save resources.At the same time, this is the important connection to other movements as well as to trend ones: it is Slowmotion, a calmness we are aiming for. For this, the sustainable movement here is as important as for the Slow Fashion movement.

To sum up, it can be said that the society nowadays won‘t change the speed of life but they do want to change how they rearrange or invent new things. With the impact of the green movement we tend to have exciting new things out of already existing products. The Neorangement we have been looking for.

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„The meaning of ,standing out‘ is further articulated through a contrasting series of meanings related to [...] conception of heroic individualism, such as climbing to the top of the socioeconomic ladder and attaining power, prestige, and wealth. By ,standing out‘ in [...] [the] current social context, [...] [we] can see [...] [it] as enacting a course that will eventually culminate in these life goals [...] it is an act of differentiation“ (Thompson 1997: 23).Because of this desired individualism that the above mentioned research is based on, we have the reason for the trend called IDentimized - the need to stand out, have something special and be unique.

Nowadays, it is not about dressing in the style of the gender we are or the group we belong to. What we want in art and clothes and in general lifestyle is to express who we are, not what we are. IDentimize describes a trend in which personalized products give the consumer a way to identify with. Customized products with a personal and/or emotional relation. A memory or a story, something outstanding, that‘s what this trend is about.

As we more and more loose personal connection because of fast fashion and have no huge identity in clothes anymore, this trend has the potential to turn this around again. Shake it up and mix our minds new. The consumer gets a personal connection to his purchases, he learns again to appreciate the products for what it is, not just what the price was.

„With this, members will continue to receive a personalized showroom, with exclusively designed items, from which they can select their choices monthly as before, but now will be able to visit and buy anytime“ (http://www.marketwatch.com, press release of ShoeDazzle).Brands already noticed the desire of the consumer as ShoeDazzle shows. On the

trend research, I found very interesting IDentemize brands and ideas. A T-Shirt shop where you can design and customize your own T-Shirt (Mazooka, Berlin), an actual bike shop with individual designed bikes which offers you the perfect accessories for the city and at the same time will reflect your personality (stilrad, Berlin), a bag made out of daddy‘s old shirt or a smokers café with famous smokers on the wall which we can identify with. This shows that not only products can provide the personal angle we are looking for, also interior and shops and cafés can provide it.

The extent of the trend and the personal twist in the trend is what makes it so new and interesting. As mentioned, we can find it not only in fashion but also in bikes, accessories and the environment, e.g. clubs & bars. It is very accessible as we find personalized and customized products in shops - this is new as well. Before we did all unique things on our own or ordered it for a whole lot of money.

„[People interpret] [...] clothing styles as strategic instruments deployed in a broader-perceived social competition. To stay ahead on the realm of fashion trends and individualism is to symbolically gain an advantage in the more significant contest for career opportunities [...] not become one of the masses“ (Thompson 1997: 23).So we can say that the IDentimize trend not only effects us in a way of clothing but also in a social way, it helps us to become a unique person which may lead to better career opportunities. We can also link it to the two previous named trends, Slowmotion and Neorangement, in a way that this is also anti Fast Fashion. This is not about trends, this is about uniqueness, IDentimize you.

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ConclusionWith the results that are presented in this book, it can be said that trends always will be different, something new and exciting, but what I found out is that all the three trends that are included here are heading towards the same direction: the sustainable / slow fashion movement. With the sickness of fast fashion and a new consciousness in society these new trends are created and will be „the next big thing“ - at least, the important starting point.

The knowledge that this book provides can be applied to all kinds of different areas and can be used as a professional. The possibilities of the trends that I found - Slowmotion, Neorangement and IDentimize, are immense. They could be the starting point for a unique and new brand concept, they could also be the base for a new brand. Fashion designers can take the idea Slowmotion for instance and create a collection with the main idea based on this particular trend. Neorangement is a great starting point for a brand concept which could deal with used clothes made into a new collection and IDentimize gives the best opportunity to build up a new brand which provides 100% personalized products.

So in a conclusion, it can be said that these trends are very important and interesting, highly recommended to a professional, they give a direction towards which the society is heading at the moment and leads us to a new movement. We need to take these trends and include them into our new, creative work.

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Source listCataldi, Carlotta „Slow Fashion - Tailoring a Strategic Industry Approach towards sustainability“,

p.6, 10

Charles-Roux, E. (1981) “Chanel and Her World. London, p. 237

http://fashionista.com/2012/04/slow-fashion-movement-picks-up-speed-in-iceland/

Freimodekultur Magazin, Issue 1, 2012, Bielefeld

Glaeser, Edward,Triumph of the City, 2011, UK

Hines, Tony / Bruce, Margret, “Fashion Marketing”, 2007, 2nd edition, p. 175, Oxford

http://www.just-style.com/management-briefing/textile-and-clothing-recycling-worldwide_id113958.aspx

Kaiser, Susan B., Symbolic Interaction, Issue 14/2, p. 165-185, „Fashion, Postmodernity and Personal Appearance: A Symbolic Interactionist Formulation

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/shoedazzle-creates-personalized-head-to-toe-looks-with-launch-of-apparel-collection-to-10-million-members-2012-03-29

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/16/fashion/milans-annual-furniture-fair-takes-a-techno-turn.html?_r=1

http://oxfordstudent.com/2012/04/11/customising-clothes-no-longer-just-for-kids/

http://www.sparxoo.com/2010/08/03/consumer-trends-innovation/

http://www.sparxoo.com/2011/01/20/2011-market-trends-customize/

Thompson, Graig J. , 1997, „Journal of Consumer Research, Vol. 24, no. 1, Speaking of Fashion: Consumers‘ Uses of Fashion Discourses and the Appropriation of Countervailing Cultural Meanings“,

p. 23

http://www.trendhunter.com/

http://www.textilwirtschaft.de/fashion/Greif-zu_80241.html?a=1

Trendwatch in Amsterdam

Trendwatch in Berlin

PHOTOMATERIAL: STuDEnT’S OWn