What determines fashion trends?
The people responsible for deciding what's trending are called trend forecasters, and they focus on two specific types of trends: microtrends and macrotrends. Microtrends are items that go in and out of style rather quickly (usually from season to season).
To accurately predict fashion trends one must observe and analyse social cultural movements to project a short, medium or long term impact on the direction of fashion. Trend forecasters use a mixture of intuition, research and data to create a scenario which they then communicate through writing and mood boards.
Fashion trends are influenced by several factors, including cinema, celebrities, climate, creative explorations, innovations, designs, political, economic, social, and technological.
- Social Factors.
- Cultural Factors.
- Political Factors.
- Environmental Factors.
- Psychological Factors.
Marketing, advertising, and the media all try to influence the way our generation dresses. Their reasons are mainly profit based. We also make our clothing choices based on the Functionality of the garment. Consumers of our generation often look at the comfort, durability, and adaptability of a piece before purchasing.
People in the fashion business say trends are rarely decided by individuals. Instead, they are decided by committee. One of the most influential committees is a group of 10 people whose names are a secret.
Anja Bisgaard Gade: “A trend is the beginning of a new direction, taking a turn or a twirl or a twist to something that already exists. It starts something new and then over time, will become more normal before something else will become a trend. “
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics, clothing construction and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by culture and different trends, and has varied over time and place.
The culture of the people ensure that the fashion accessories and clothes meet certain goals or objectives. Culture also influences design and fabric selection. For example, designers can choose from and make use of indigenous materials abundant in a particular place. This will create a strong local identity.
Fashion trends are expressions of trends – which are socio-culturally grounded – in aesthetic spheres, mostly by means of visual and haptic characteristics applied to clothing and apparel products and are often considered fads or short-term trends.
Why do fashion trends repeat themselves?
According to the DSN English report on fashion trends, trends repeat every 20-30 years because of “generational changes as well as designers taking inspiration from styles their parents wore.” Children are being influenced by their parents' clothing and seeking inspiration to translate that into “modern” clothing.
