How do people realise that something is a trend and start wearing it?

[mustlovegin]

Also, how do trends start and who starts them?

For instance, Veja trainers. One day I saw everyone wearing them all of a sudden, no other brands in sight

Or lately I've been spotting several young women wearing overalls at trendy places (but they were not working IYSWIM). Have they become a trend?

Nowadays I guess a lot of people see things on Instagram or social media and copy - many people even ‘tag’ the items they are wearing so you can tap and go right to the website if you wanted to buy it.

When I was younger I just saw Marissa from The O.C wearing something in Shout magazine and decided I should also wear it.

Also shops stock trendy things. So if wide leg jeans are trendy there’s lots of them in shops which might encourage you to buy them.

loads of stuff doesnt actually make it to be a trend over here, but i do see stuff coming up on instagram etc sometimes and think "this is brilliant, this is going to blow up big and sometimes it takes a while, but it does

@Boysofsummerhavegone

I think magazines used to drive the trends a great deal, as pp said upthread. I vividly remember the switch from short to long skirts right at the very beginning of the 90s, because I was about 12 and an avid reader of fashion magazines (Vogue, Elle etc.), but I had only seen the long skirt trend in them and not in real life. Then one day I remember being utterly delighted on my way into town to see a woman wearing a long black skirt with a split — which looked very odd in person!

Six months later long skirts were the only thing in the shops and they didn’t leave for ten years or more.

Now I think it’s a mixture of social media advertising and email advertising and so on. I now watch almost no TV and read no magazines, but I get advertised to on social media all the time and magically I seem to know what the new trends are…

I was delighted by the return of the long skirt trend, I have to say 😂

I was going to use this exact example! I have good legs and looked good in short skirts (I modelled myself on Joy Merryweather in Drop the Dead Donkey ). I was disgusted at the prospect long skirts coming in but yeah, of course I wore them. I still have a couple!

And I would almost certainly have heard about the advent of long skirts from the fashion page of the Evening Standard.

I was 11 in 1996 and I'm pretty sure a lot of influence came from bands! A long black maxi with a split in it with trainers was very Sporty Spice and a lot of people adopted a tight top, Kangol hat and combats off the back of All Saints.

The midi dress/denim jacket/trainers combo goes back to 2019, so predates lockdown. I can still find the first blog posts mentioning them.

The midi dress/denim jacket/trainers combo goes back to 2019, so predates lockdown

I obviously wasn't paying any attention then

Cool hunters are actual people who travel and document street styles from abroad. They feed this back into the stores and designers and tap into a look before we know we needed it.

Why were birds everywhere in home design? Or festoon lights for our gardens? Or pastels and neutral colour blocking leisure wear?cool hunters find that tiny niche and feed it in.

I used to do a lot of street style photography years ago and this was often a big indicator of what was coming down the line for the masses.

Combats and vest tops and kangol hats was also co opted from the indie kid look pre dating all saints, much more the stone roses, charlatans vibe. Some stylist or maybe one of the singers themselves put it together, that plus their looks and influence=Massive trend.

@TheDuchessOfMN once something is in all the shops, it’s no longer high fashion…it’s become mainstream….and therefore a bit past it.

@Pliudev

I find this very interesting. I keep trying to cut back on the amount of clothes I buy, then something comes along and I have to have it. Having decided I really don't need anything new this autumn (or ever gain given my great age) I found myself searching for a high neck, navy, sleeveless jumper. Also a black quilted coat (non shiny if any of you know what I don't). I feel like I should join clothes anonymous or something. But to get back to Op's point, why these things and why now?

I’m certain they had this top in navy a few weeks ago!

Dark navy, rather than black but would definitely be non-shiny.

Fabulous quality - good enough to satisfy even a determined non-buyer. Unfortunately their shapes and proportions this season just won’t suit me.

True, Blacksheepcat. I love the shock of something unfamiliar hitting my eye - too wide, too square, too padded, oversized, clashing …

These people are the go to for the vast majority of high st retailers.

www.wgsn.com/en/

They're basically the Illuminati of high st fashion. Sling in the influencers and a handful of the most powerful design houses and you're done.

The magazine editors are so heavily reliant on dwindling ad money they say whatever their sectors most powerful brands want.

It’s like baby names. You feel like you’ve dreamt up a name, nobody uses it anymore, you love it, and a year later realise you now know 20 little Noahs and how did they all have the same epiphany you did?

I find unique ideas later create a trend, the overall outlook created! Trends followed by me are from social media and celebs!

Is it mega trends? I remember reading something on here about how grey ( in interiors specifically) was a mega trend

I'm often just ahead of trends I always have been for me it's about wearing something I like I don't actively try but I seem to be good at spotting things. I worked in a clothes shop part time through school so 14 til 20 and I remember having 'lessons' from the older women about styling and picking what works. We were very much encouraged to buy with a 25% discount on clothes and 50% on bags and accessories plus the full timers who got loads of great stuff mega cheap would pass/sell on to us. I love clothes they can totally change my mood and attitude but I spend very little now I'm older

@Atalune

Combats and vest tops and kangol hats was also co opted from the indie kid look pre dating all saints, much more the stone roses, charlatans vibe. Some stylist or maybe one of the singers themselves put it together, that plus their looks and influence=Massive trend.

Yes, definitely! It just needed translating into womenswear and being shipped into Topshop for teenage girls to be able to dress like popular early-20s female singers.

A french friend of mine worked for an agency that all the big brands would go to for samples for trend forcasting. She would make mini versions of jackets as samples.
Its a bit like choosing wallpaper . Then when you see purple everywhere being the hot colour thats why. So it always made me laugh when designers would discuss their inspiration because quite often they would be making up an interesting back story for the sake of good PR. It makes sense so the shoe/ bag designers know purple is the hot colour then people can match things in etc
There are also people that travel the world documenting trends and forecasting them and for me what I found interesting was I got to travel recently and went to flea markets outside of work and youth culture because of social media is so homogenous now. The trends are just worldwide the same and not culturally shifted as much. So u have to look at Japanese surfers or similar sports that have a subverting trends to spot any coming trends its not so much in youth culture now. Say the return of the mullet on teenage boys. I have seen these in interesting contexts. Quite posh teenage boys with wispy moustaches with what was the idiots haircut now worn quite artfully they might even pull out a shellsuit. I had to explain to a young man on the top deck of the bus who was sweating needlessly that because its a heatwave and its not breathable fabric thats why u feel so overheated. Gruff man behind him nodded in agreement so it wasn’t just me being a mum number although it did make me feel old and I did pause. He was being so theatrical with being overheated plus the boil in the bag BO 🤮 Ah Fashion as David Bowie sang along

@ToykotoLosAngeles

I was 11 in 1996 and I'm pretty sure a lot of influence came from bands! A long black maxi with a split in it with trainers was very Sporty Spice and a lot of people adopted a tight top, Kangol hat and combats off the back of All Saints.

The midi dress/denim jacket/trainers combo goes back to 2019, so predates lockdown. I can still find the first blog posts mentioning them.

Yes but where did the spice girls get their style advise? From a stylist ( though god knows their style was horrendous IMO)

It’s all hell for leather this Autumn . Vintage leather is better . I remember double denim . I nicknamed a guy this before it became a trend because he always did dbl , ironed his jeans and took them to the dry cleaners he was denim obsessed though

This scene in the devil wears Prada explains it quite well

[quote garlictwist]This scene in the devil wears Prada explains it quite well

[/quote] Been mentioned several times. Good scene though

Has no one mentioned sex and the city yet? I never used to watch it but would keep an eye out in the magazine's for carries latest outfits - a whole host of quirky trends started this way in the early 00's.
Giant flowers on clothes, named necklaces, baguette bags, and combat trousers with heels - anyone remember those!!

I'm not sure if there is a modern equivalent, since audiences are media diverse.... Mega influencers like KK maybe?

I am just a bit restless - I hate classic clothing, clothes that I see everywhere - bores me to tears. I'm always looking for something fresh and interesting to elevate it - a cut, a colour, a texture, a different play with proportions - I buy stuff on this basis, sometimes it's mainstream fashionable and other times it's not.

I remember having a conversation with a guy who believed his marketing company started the Gin craze - he advised us that the next craze they were promoting was Port and we'd be seeing it everywhere - I like Port - I'd like to see it more often but it's hardly reached the same levels as the Gin craze but I suppose lockdown didn't help.