The F Word

It seems to be the modern attitude – “Rebel against trend”, “Dress for yourself”, “Don’t try to impress others”.   But is it this exact attitude that is becoming a trend of it’s own?

Some may say NO… i say YES!  

Trend

1. Current style; vogue: the latest trend in fashion.

intr.v.   trend·ed, trend·ing, trends 

We are constantly influenced by trend whether everyone likes to admit it or not and an important question to ask is “What are the primary influences of these trends”?

I believe there are many different levels of ‘Trend Setting’:

1 – Designer collections

2 – Media/ Celebrities

3 – Daring people with a very open attitude to wear anything and everything that is ‘New’ even if it looks ridiculous

4 – Followers/main stream market

5 – Discount stores/ markdown sales (generally a sign that the ‘trend’ is almost passed)

Now that is an extremely broad way of describing the trend tree, but it does make a lot of sense when you think about it.  We, as consumers tend to feel comfort and confidence having seen the latest trends on celebrities, magazine editors, models and the like.  We are definitely at number 4 on the trend tree.  Now, if you think about it this way… how is it that designers like ‘Karl Lagerfield (Creative Director Gucci), ‘Jean-Paul Gaultier’, ‘Versace’ etc have the power to set a trend?  Is it because they have established themselves so much over the years as ‘Fashion Gods’ we seem to watch their every move and assume anything they design is the ‘IT’ thing to wear?

I find it a very interesting topic, because in Australia we have amazing designers like Sass & Bide, Kirrilli Johnston, Toni Maticevski, Gorman etc… that have minimal connection to these European designers and their collections, yet still manage to set trend?  Are we