On Saturday, the Globe and Mail’s style section team put out a list of fashion and design trend predictions for 2010.
On the list are clogs, trench pieces, a graphic eighties influence in home accessories and a movement they call “Anything Goes”:
“If there is a primary trend for 2010, it may be the “untrend.” Now that design and decorating information is available through the click of a mouse, the dictation of design precepts by decorating elites is quickly becoming a thing of the past.”
I’m all for encouraging free expression but the trend of the untrend is a convoluted idea that seems completely at odds with the shared, social media consciousness invading our brains. Trending seems more likely than ever and now there’s a trail of tweets and Facebook posts that follow how the word was spread.
Plus the suggestion that a trend exists because of the astute observations of designers, editors and bloggers alone is just backwards. The style-reporting standard that a writer needs to source three examples of a trend before we can call it one proves that. If three women show up in a forest wearing ponchos and no one’s there to see them, it still counts.
What is increasingly sketchy is the idea of trend forecasting. I remember sitting in on a forecasting seminar aimed at fashion designers who vigorously flipped through trend data books full of last season’s runway shots arranged under arbitrary headings like “Laser Sharp” and “Flower Bomb”. They all scribbled down ideas for next season’s collections. Can you say self-fulfilling prophecy?
I do think there’s a rogue spirit inspiring designers these days and the first instance I found was in a post by FinalFashion.ca blogger and illustrator Danielle Meder. She, along with designers Jamil Juma and Ashley Rowe, question the value of the runway for young labels who now have a multitude of other, more modern options for marketing a collection.
Call this movement the un-fashion show but don’t call it a trend yet. We have to find two more examples before its official. [rssbreak]
