The 9^th year of the decade was a year of a lot of unrest and movement, but not of impactful change. In many ways, the world of 2018, similarly to the entire decade was one of great digital movements. In other words, the passions and battles that unfolded were mostly semi-imaginary battles, with little to no real change in the physical world. Unfortunately, 2018 was a very political year, a year in which political interests topped morality, art or scruples.

Infantile approaches to life and a black and white view of the world are what seem to contour the global landscape more and more. Social media, which will likely be one of the biggest defining characteristics of the entire decade, is not only the place where things happen, but is also the place for which things happen. In other words, people lead lives where they focus on taking “good” pictures, which soon enough become clichés, in order to gain social status among their peers. However, besides a growing polarization, there does not seem to be any strong change, even though, little by little the world is changing.

Unfortunately, it seems that we are heading (if we’re not already at the door of) Nietzsche’s idea of a world dominated by a chaos of cultural preferences. We’re more and more entering world where there is no “public square”, or where there is a rather fake public square, to which countless niches are attached. “The Last Men” as Nietzsche called them, are men and women who turn their backs on challenging ideals, who pursue a banal existence and who do anything to avoid strong feelings. In a world emptied of meaning, people’s concerns are the trivial and the narcissistic. The people of 2018 seem to be very similar to what Nietzsche said when he talked about a future in which people will be timid to take real action and fool themselves that they are happy. 2018, and it seems most of the 2010s have been defined by the growing Nietzschean idea of a “religion of comfortableness”. Real values are more and more set aside, as the mundane is placed in the spotlight. We see this today with useless petitions and protests, with virtue signaling and being brave in a room full of approving peers.

Such a world is rather predictable and so it did not come as a very big surprise that most of the trends we predicted in terms of fashion and culture in our 2018 Trend Forecast at large have been proven right.

Here is a look at how the trends we mentioned were visible in fashion (and a few examples of them in culture at large) in 2018, with their expressions in fashion often being created for future seasons.

Space

One of the biggest trends we commented on was space, with everything it contains, from planets and stars to imaginary aliens and the like.

A good example of this trend came even before the year ended, as it was announced that American Girl’s 2018 “Girl of the Year” Is an Aspiring NASA Astronaut.

We could see space references in collections such as: Pronounce AW 2018-19 or Heron Preston AW 18-19, which featured a full astronaut costume. Philipp Plein set their AW 18-19 show in a spaceship set, and Louis Vuitton constructed a spaceship at the Louvre.

Other collections such as the Marcelo Bulon County of Milan spring 2019 collection also featured space-inspired looks.

Popular brands such as H&M also featured lots of space-themed clothes, including t-shirts and hoodies with the NASA logo and even top podcaster Joe Rogan wore an astronaut outfit on one of his first shows from the year.

We could also see lots of moons, stars and galaxies in watchmaking, as many of the models released during the March 2018 edition of Baselworld included such elements. There were enough for a special column in InCompany by Attire Club and our digital edition.

Black culture

2018 was a year on which there was a lot of emphasis on race in the Western world. Also, as we mentioned a few years ago, there is a rising trend in discovering and reimagining the Southern hemisphere. While there was not exactly a lot of focus placed on these issues in 2018 (we still think they will arrive), we could see a good example of this in the Black Panther movie, which featured an imaginary African utopia and was considered by many people a symbol of what they believe is the empowerment of black people.

Girly men

It’s old news that femininity is at the forefront of culture these days in the West (and in more subtle ways throughout the world). Thus, it was normal to see very feminine models and fashions on the runways of the world in 2018.

Some examples include: MAN AW 2018-19, Bobby Abley AW 18-19, Undercover AW 18-19, Thom Browne AW 18 and others. After the June shows from Milan, thelocal.it wrote an article titled Milan Men’s Fashion Week Shows Its Feminine Side, which said “Italian fashion houses Alberta Ferretti and Ermenegildo Zegna kicked off Men’s Fashion Week in Milan on Friday with a rather feminine feel.”

The article continues to say “After London Men’s Fashion Week wrapped up on Monday, Milan picked up the reins, with 28 ready-to-wear shows to reveal the Spring-Summer 2019 lines. But the women are muscling in to Milan men’s week, with 13 co-ed catwalks and another two women-only shows.

«We are living in a huge evolutionary moment regarding the concept of men’s and women’s fashion,» said Carlo Capasa, head of Italy’s national chamber of fashion. «That barrier doesn’t exist any more, the fashion week calendar is responding to that reality,» he told AFP.”

In our forecast, we also predicted many drag looks walking the men’s runways. We could see this more than actually expected. Here are a few examples: Vivienne Westwood AW 2018-19 (which featured a semi-drag look), Charles Jeffrey AW 2018-19, Alessandro Trincone SS 19, etc.

Vogue wrote in their online edition on June 20 an article called The Mainstreaming of Drag Seems to Be Having an Impact on The Men’s Spring 2019 Runways. In the article, they claimed that “A lot of hype has been built up around genderless fashion a la Alessandro Michele and his band of Gucci misfit boys and girls, but this is something different. Daniel W. Fletcher took classic pinstripe fabric and gave his guys a corset that laces up the side in lieu of a jacket. Astrid Andersen’s bandeau top and tracksuit look was worn just as well by a man on the runway as it is likely to be by Kylie Jenner, maybe better. Charles Jeffrey went so far as to dress men in cage-like suits of armor over diaphanous dresses, their faces painted like statues. It should also be pointed out that men wearing women’s clothes on the runway or in fashion in general is nothing new. Marc Jacobs has been known to rock a lace skirt, and Thom Browne, arbiter of cool suiting for dudes like the Cleveland Cavaliers basketball players, has put male models in dresses on his runways too.”

Label No. 21 also offered a men’s t-shirt that said “Girl”, which they featured in their spring 2019 show.

Thin men

The whole concept of feminine men goes hand in hand with featuring models that look more like women models in the 1980s in terms of shape than like a classic man. We could see this in countless runway shows and much more in ad campaigns, including DSquared2 pre-fall 2018 , Stampd SS 18, Dior Homme SS 18, Robert Geller SS 2018, Luigi Bianchi Mantova SS 18, Massimo Dutti SS 18, Uniqlo U SS 18, DSquared pre-spring 18, John Galliano AW 18, Sandro AW 18, Raf Simons SS 18, Chalayan SS 19, Alex Mullins SS 19, Namacheko SS 19, Lemaire SS 19, Dries Van Note SS 19, Alyx SS 19, Theory AW 18-19 and almost all of LFW SS 19.

It is quite a big trend to have men showcase clothes who are extremely thin and barely fit.

Hats and coverings

In our trend forecast, we mentioned that the trend of having men cover their heads will continue. And this was very true, with many brands featuring even many such looks, some of which featuring all-covered models.

Some examples include Astrid Andersen AW 18-19 (many hats and even cagoules), The Soloist AW 18-19 (also many cagoules), Moschino AW 18-19, Palm Angels AW 18-19 (cagoules with spikes and sunglasses), Sean Suen AW 18-19, Walter van Beirendonck AW 18-19, Emporio Armani AW 18-19 (helm-like pieces), Prada AW 18-19 (all models had their heads covered), Valentine SS 19 (all models with head coverings), Xander Zhou AW 18-19, Les Benjamins AW 18-19, Undercover AW 18-19, Julien David AW 18-19 (masks covered the models’ entire faces), Icosae AW 18-19 (face and head coverings), Dyne AW 18-19 (all looks featured hats), John Varvatos AW 18-19 (all looks featured hats), Thome Browne SS 18-19 (again, all looks featured hats), Boss AW 18-19 (hats were a big part of the collection), Christopher Raeburn SS 19, Prada SS 19, Ambush SS 19.

It may seem in a way natural to have hats and other head coverings in autumn and winter collections, but this year there was a big insistence on this concept. Having each and every model from a collection with their head covered is not just a style trick, it is a statement.

As a side note, we believe that this trend will continue and turn more into the military and war trend.

70s

In our article, we mentioned that the 50s and 70s will be a big inspiration for the fashion weeks of 2018. It seems that the 70s were more of a muse than the 50s, with their flared pants, earth tone colors and relaxed cuts. Examples include: Casely Heyford AW 18-19, E. Tautz AW 18-19, Missioni AW 18-19, Palomo Spain AW 18-19, Bode AW 18-19, MAN SS 19, Kent & Curwen SS 19, Just Cavalli SS 19, Undercover SS 19, 3.1 Phillip Lim SS 19, David Hart SS 19.

Soviet

The soviet aesthetic did play a rather important role in the fashion presented in 2019, but not as much as we expected. However, there were still many examples of mainstream soviet-derived fashions, such as Stella McCartney’s SS 19 collection.

A Fashion United article also talked about this trend, saying “Nostalgic trends, originally created by designers in the USSR, are becoming increasingly popular in the global fashion industry.”

Colors

We wrote in our forecast that the biggest trending colors would be black, dark blue, orange, khaki, beige, pink and white.

And, indeed, these shades were dominant on many runways. Moreover, black was such a strongly used color, that it did not even wait for any runway show to start, as starlets and actresses wore black clothes on the red carpet at the 2018 edition of the Golden Globes, which took place early in the year.

The palette we mentioned can be seen very well in the Brooks Brothers AW 18-19 collection, but these colors can be seen in various combinations in many other collections as well. Examples include: Berthold SS 19, Ermenegildo Zegna AW 18-19 (beige and neutrals), MSGM AW 18-19, No. 21 AW 18-19, Christopher Raeburn AW 18-19, Yohji Yamamoto SS 19 (pink, orange black), N. Hoolywood SS 19 (orange blue, gray, occasionally pink) and more.

As an editorial commentary, it can be said that most colors used by designers these days are rather “off the rack” and not very motivated and intentional. Financial reasons may be behind it, but creative ones surely dominate as well.

Also, blue was a dominant color at Baselworld. According to a statement from the organizers, Blue Baselworld “blue surpassed all other colours in the sovereignty of its presence in the world of watches in recent years”.

Beards, long hair and more

In terms of styling, we have already mentioned that the feminine look is dominating. We could see many men with long hair such as in the Rick Owens SS 19 runway show or in the Acne Studios SS 19 runway show. In terms of facial hair, we can either see clean-shaven men or men with bushy beards (in minority though) – no scruff.

Combinations

Some collections even featured more of the trends we mentioned at once: For example, What We Wear featured the exact color palette we mentioned and an athletic aesthetic. The Kiko Kostadinov AW 18 collection featured men that were soviet, girly and thin. Xander Zhou’s SS 19 collection featured pregnant aliens, combining the idea of feminine men with space. It can be said that the Chinese designer does not want to base his collections on trends, but he was very on trend. Also, Dries Van Noten’s SS 2019 collection featured a color palette consisting of black, orange and blue with a 70s twist, presented toothpick models.

Couture come-back

In the trend forecast, we also mentioned that we will also see a slight come-back of couture. This was surely present, but to a very small degree (Dolce and Gabbana AW 18-19 and Giorgio Armani AW 18-19). We’re definitely expecting to see more of it in the future.

Some trends (which are not our favorites) seem not to go away. In 2018, we could also see lots and lots of oversized, overlapping cover-up clothes (Marni AW 18-19, Gmbh AW 18-19 and more).

With some exceptions, fashion today is not at a cultural and aesthetic peak. The colors used are not the results of long thought processes, the details are not always aesthetically motivated (and pleasing for that matter) and political agendas seem to be dominating the field, which generates an impossibility to create great clothes.

As we’ve said before, we have now come at a cultural standstill. In brief, this idea can be summed up by one of Nietzsche’s famous quote, “When you stare into the abyss the abyss stares back at you.”

Fraquoh and Franchomme