How do people predict changes in fashion?
A few years ago, uncovered bellies were all the rage. It was so bad they had to outlaw it in grade school and middle and high schools. Somewhere I read someone predict that it would go away soon, and I thought it would never go away. Stomachs have been sexualized. It’s here to stay.
Today, I went out to get breakfast. I work at a university, so there are thousands of young women around. It’s a very warm day, so they aren’t wearing many clothes. But I looked around, and I didn’t see a single belly. The predictor was right. The fashion went away.
It seems to have been replaced with very short shorts. The legs are cut off at crotch level, clearly drawing attention to another erogenous zone. I guess the belly as erogenous zone is so yesterday, now.
How does this happen? How do people know what will happen? The big trend with short shorts is to wear leather boots with them. I think if this was the southwest, they’d be wearing cowboy hats, too. You could imagine the girls riding horses in their short shorts, clamping the sides of the horse with their strong thighs… better not go there, although that is clearly the point.
When things change, does that mean taste in erogenous zone changes? Is this all just part of some subconscious social shift, or are there quiding forces behind it? If there are guiding forces, how much control can they exert. I have a friend who is a clothes designer. She is always researching trends, which suggests that designers follow instead of lead. But is that the case?
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7 Answers
I push this video all the time but it is SOOO important! watch thestoryofstuff.com. Fashons are designed to change, in order to help inflate a false economy.
Personally, I welcomed the resurgance of long shirts. I have a high butt crack and could never find anything that didn’t make me lool like a plumber.
I think it’s the other way around. People of influence in the fashion industry pretty much dictate the fashion. It is usually something old regurgitated, something incredible new and creative or it could be the usual Emporer’s new clothes.
From what I’ve gather, it’s more a case of the industry calling its shots.
Every fashion trend goes ‘out’ of style sooner or later, so whatever it is, chances are it will pass. As for predicting what is going to come ‘in’ to style? I think it starts with streetwear, really. Something will start to catch on quietly, then stylists notice and start putting celebrities in those clothes and then those celebrities take the credit for unearthing a ‘new’ fashion trend, which then goes back down to the rest of the people.
That’s how I see it unfold, anyway. I’ve seen styles on blogs that aren’t very widespread, then a few months later you see fashion designers using it as the theme of their collection, then you see celebrities wearing it, then stores start selling it, then it’s overdone and it just disappears.
I seem to remember hearing that The People In Fashion Who Decide Things get together, like, 2 or 3 years before and decide what they’re going to be doing now. So that way, when Prada comes out with purple pencil skirts for the fall of 2014, it’s also Dior and everyone else going “yes, fall of 2014, purple and pencil skirts are in, as are chunky heels and clutch purses”. So that’s how it’s all synchronized. But, I can’t remember where I read it or know how true it is, so don’t take it at face value.
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