COOL KID TIKI

In fashion, trends always come a full circle. For example the tropical trend started in the 1950's when people were intrigued by the Polynesian tiki culture and started building restaurants and clubs inspired by it. Eventually fashion also took inspiration, and throughout the years the trend evolved, becoming mod and boho, and finding its current form in many of todays resort collections. But, many times designers don't want to take this route, and only be inspired by one trend from back in the day. They want to make everything as current and interesting as possible, so its no surprise that tiki has also been an inspiration to a lot of street style and sports fashion lately.

So, today designers are mixing these two elements and making them work as a whole new trend. Who would've thought that something so bright, beachy, and even sometimes tacky could work in the cool kid streetwear environment. These tropical colorways and patterns like florals and tie dye, bring  newness to not only resort collections but also ready to wear collections. Designers like Moncler are bringing this trend to even ski inspired wear, which shows well how two completely different climates and their trends can come together as one. 

This trend is fairly new, and its been shown mostly in the most recent collections on the runway, so who knows if within the next few seasons it'll evolve to something even more extreme or interesting. Surely, designers know how to break the usual fashion "rules" and mix trends how they want to, and that's what after all, makes fashion interesting.

STITCHED UP

Cut-outs in clothing are definitely not anything new. For example ripped jeans have been a huge trend for a long time now, and cut-outs in places like hips, under the chest and even right under the butt have been the more recent cut-out trends we've been seeing around the streets and on the runway. Designers are always finding new ways to make clothing more interesting, and another huge trend similar to the do it yourself aesthetic the cut out trend has, has also been reconstructed clothing, and making something new out of something old. So what happens when you add these two trends together, so you in a way cut out something, but then reconstruct it back together. You get a whole new, fun trend, that looks something like this.

Back in 1994, Gianni Versace created his iconic safety pin dress, and who knows if this is what may have been an inspiration for many designers creating modern fashion with this technique. Or in the other hand it might be the punk movement back in the day, and its DIY aesthetic, which is very relevant in our lives today too. But whether it was safety pins, yarn or other interesting materials that are used to stitch up the clothing back together, I'm sure this trend will develop even further within the next few seasons. We've already seen the lace up trend being extremely popular, sometimes even going as far as pants or skirts being laced up all the way from bottom to the top, so its just a matter of time when more designers will take this route and even take this trend to the next level. Designers like Christopher Kane, MISBHV and Y/Project are definitely leading the way.

ALIENS AMONGST US

Like in fashion, in beauty trends are always evolving and getting inspired by the world around us. And since people have for long been intrigued by the future and interesting, out of this world things like aliens and otherworldly creatures and events, this has been translated to beauty trends as well. To many artists this is not just a trend though, It is almost like expressing their own identity, that many of them might feel is not always human, maybe feeling like they’re a bit like aliens themselves. So, for some it is a lifestyle, while for others it is just a form of having fun with makeup and being creative. Subcultures like punks are definitely a driving force behind all of these. Being different, and out there. 

 Whether with the help of Photoshop or creating these interesting looks only using makeup, some artists have gained huge popularity on social media by creating these looks, including Instagrammers like @melovemealot and @matieresfecales. There’s definitely a shift happening by people looking up to makeup artists that create very wearable looks to people looking up to artists who create looks that are a bit more interesting and special. 

Makeup looks on the runway have occasionally been quite experimental, but there’s a long way to go before reaching the level of creativity these artists are using for their looks. Designers like Vivienne Westwood are known for runway makeup looks that are definitely out of the ordinary, but there’s not a lot of designers doing this, at least not yet. 

On social media special effects makeup artists are also gaining more and more popularity every day, and especially on Halloween a lot of people are recreating these looks on their own. These are definitely not your everyday looks that could necessarily reach mass popularity, but the artists creating them are definitely doing just that. And there is definitely some inspiration to be taken for our everyday makeup looks, like geometric eyeshadow shape, futuristic lip colours and so on. 

GET SPORTY

Fashion has always used the surrounding world as an inspiration, and this includes of course, sports. Baseball and football jerseys have been inspiring fashion designers for quite a few years already, and with street style fashion becoming mainstream and people wearing athletic wear every day, it's no wonder that designer still continue taking inspiration from sportswear every season. But like many other big trends, there's always a fresh perspective to everything, and lately it has been a shift from baseball and football, to sports like motocross, surfing, boxing and soccer.

 

Especially things like motocross looking pants and shorts that have elements from boxing shorts have been on trend for a few years now too. But today many street style stars are taking things even further, and buying actual motocross pants and boxing shorts, to wear with items from their closets. Many have also worn things like fishing vests and fisherman suspenders out and no wonder, since they look very similar to clothing that's on trend right now.

  Designers have also been inspired by sports that we haven't seen on runways a lot. For example Calvin Klein being inspired by the movie Jaws and creating garments from wetsuit material, and many designers like Prada, being inspired by hiking and rock climbing, and using elements from these outdoor activity wear to inspire their ready-to-wear lines. Gosha Rubchinskiy also collaborated with Adidas to create soccer jerseys, which we've seen both soccer players and normal consumers wear.

 

So, we're already seeing designer's being more creative with the sports they're inspired by and street style stars wearing authentic sportswear everyday, so what we can expect in the near future is definitely more of this, just in a larger scale. It could be very likely that sports like lacrosse or martial arts could be the next big thing inspiring designers, or that street style stars would start wearing authentic ice hockey or horse riding gear outside. But whatever the next big thing is, one thing I'm sure of: Sports won't stop inspiring fashion anytime soon.

LAUGHING OUT LOUD

Funny pictures, usually called memes, have been a huge form of entertainment for Instagram and Twitter users everywhere for several years now. There are many users dedicating their whole pages to posting them and even some fast fashion brands like Fashion Nova and Pretty Little Thing have used these funny images on their Instagram and Twitter accounts to make their pages more relatable to the younger audience. These same brands have also used these images in a cleverer way, making them more than just an entertaining image to scroll past. They’ve actually created memes that relate to their brand, using their brand within the joke, making people laugh and also remember the brand. This is a clever marketing trick since it’s combining two things many people love, fashion and memes. For example Fashion Nova has done this, not on their own page, but on actual meme pages, which makes it look more like a “real” funny image and not a marketing campaign.

From high fashion brands, Gucci is pretty much the only one who has used this same Instagram marketing trick. They’ve known for their fun campaigns, so it’s no surprise that they’re also hopping onto this trend first, and it’s working. These images became viral as soon as Gucci posted them, and it shows how powerful this marketing trick is. Even though there’s not many high-end brands using this trick yet, Gucci is definitely showing the direction fashion marketing on social media could slowly move into. A lot of brands are trying to get viral with their campaigns, and memes could be an easy way to do this. It is controversial though, because a lot of high-end fashion brands want to keep their luxurious image and memes and jokes probably don’t fit that image too well. 

  

Sometimes high-end fashion campaigns have become memes, but there’s a difference of if the brand actually intended it to be a meme or not. Sometimes memes that are made of fashion campaigns don’t make the campaign look too good, which can make it quite problematic for the brand. So sometimes it’s better just to make it yourself, to avoid these situations.

JUST LIKE US

For a few years now, some new brands like Vetements, Hood by Air and Vfiles have shaken up the typical casting system and started casting models for their shows from the streets, or even using their friends as models. This has brought more diversity to the usual catwalk shows with only certain type of skinny and tall models, and has definitely gotten people talking. Brands like Vetements and Y/Project have also used these normal people in their campaigns, and shown the fashion world that it's not all about professional models anymore.

This real life casting has inspired some more campaigns to take it even further, and actually share stories about these real life people and tell the world a bit more about them. Helmut Lang played around with the idea of old-school dating sites and personal ads and had mostly non-models share some of their interests in an Instagram campaign. The campaign wasn't all about clothes, but was a fun way to get the brand heard and get viral. Later, they used the same idea of introducing real life people in another one of their fashion campaigns, actually telling who these people were in the fashion video and in the caption of the Instagram photos.

Big traditional brands like Burberry are also taking notes. Even though they are not actually doing campaigns with real people, for their pre-fall 2018 campaign they followed the model Adwoa Aboah to her father's home country of Ghana. The campaign shows her home town and tells a story of where she came from, giving a more personal touch to the campaign.

                           

This trend of real life people in fashion shows and campaigns will most likely become more popular in the future, since consumers are demanding to see people like themselves represented in the fashion world too. And these real life stories and giving more depth to the people who are actually modelling in the campaigns, is a great way for people to also relate to the campaigns and models used in them more, and even create an emotional connection to a fashion campaign.

BELTED UP

Utility and technical clothing trends have been in for a while. Starting with bomber jackets and cargo pants, streetwear lovers have been wearing this trend for some time now. But throughout the years it has taken a new form, and things like harnesses, complex belts and buckle detailing has been popular within the streetwear community and also other communities like goths and cyberpunks. Sometimes this almost like bondage looking attire doesn’t come as a surprise, since lingerie has been worn for many years now as normal everyday attire too, and the utility/technical clothing trend has been in for a while.

 Especially generation x and y are driving this trend forward and being experimental with it. And even though the trend (especially things like harnesses and bondage details on pants) have been seen more on men, women are definitely becoming more familiar with it too. Streetwear influencers like Aleali May and Elyanna Sanchez are showing the way forward for women for sure.

Some brands have been playing around with these pvc or leather belts and silver hardware for a few years now, and for young brands like A-Cold-Wall and Heliot Emil it’s almost expected to see these details in all of their collections. Bigger brands, who are inspired by the streetwear/goth trends and younger generations a lot already, are most likely to hop on this trend soon enough, even giving it a more high-end or interesting twist. Some brands like Alexander McQueen, Helmut Lang and especially brands in Asia have done something similar in the past (and now), but in high fashion it hasn’t been a very popular trend yet. But just like chunky sneakers, only time will tell when every brand will be combining belts and buckles to their looks. This trend will definitely not slow down any time soon, but most likely just take different, even more interesting and surprising forms, especially if bigger designers are going to take inspiration from it and take it to the next level.