There are trends that we see strutting down the catwalks every. single. season. As sure as Aunty Pat will visit you at Christmas and buy you a hideous gift, so ‘Tribalism"will resurface as an influence, coincidentally around the time that companies start flogging us floral headbands and denim cut-offs for festivals, and suddenly everyone is a free spirit for three days a year.
So here are our obvious predictions for what's coming around again for 2015:
Autumn - Folklore
Just because Autumn automatically conjures up inexplicably German style landscapes of knotted tree trunks and cottages in the mist for the average person, the fashion world immediately skips backwards to the 1600s and to the wealth of visual influence to be mined in fairytales and folklore. One also sees a lot of brocade and rich fabrics happening around this time labelled as 'peasanty', which is odd because most peasants preferred the woollen beige tunic look, as far as I can tell from my history books. Another reason that folklore proves a popular and ever-resurfacing trend is because no one from 17th century rural Bavaria is going to call designers out on cultural appropriation.
Summer - Bohemian
Did you know that there are entire tumblr blogs dedicated to the concept of Summer? Teenage girls must spend hours of their lives carefully curating every delicate gold belly chain, every close up of an icy mojito, every Triangl bikini being unboxed.... they probably spend their actual summers indoors doing just that, sitting on tumblr and crying because they don't have a hand crocheted hammock to lie on. Boho has never come back like it was in 2002 (Remember when Shakira’s suede jeans WERE the whole of fashion?) but it’s easy to push an agenda of exposure and floaty materials when it’s swelteringly hot outside. Note that ‘Baroque’ has never been a thing in summer, as presumably heavy jewellery and carpet-like embellishment doesn’t mix well with chlorinated pool water.
Winter - Coloured fur
Because I guess you feel better about wearing a fur that doesn't look like it came from an actual animal, right? Whether fake or real, this trend is a serial reoffender. It’s like we can’t stop lauding the person who realised that warmth and general pleasant fuzziness could be combined with hot pink to make something of a fashion statement. I love coloured fur, I just wish it wasn’t hailed as a visionary trend (think descriptions such as “1980s Russian oil giant’s wife meets with neo-punk Barbie”) everytime.
Spring - Florals
IT HAD TO BE DIDN’T IT? This felt too predictable to even be part of an article that mocks cliches. It saddens me that in the year 2014 we are still pointing at catwalk collections, and then at blossoming flowers and nudging each other and saying “Rebirth… symbolic… circle of life…” I have nothing left to say. Over and out.