A trend can be defined as a general direction in which something is and as a point of view that is held by many. Fashion is of course, the best examples of what trends are. We can clearly see style trends if we look at any era from the past. During the 1970s, flower prints and bell bottoms were in, while during the late 80s and 90s, baggy, dark sweatsuits with neon accents were in. However, trends are not limited to fashion – not by far. In fact, fashion is a reflection of everything that is going on. It also makes for a useful tool when it comes to understanding society as a whole: its political leanings, its moral positions and pretty much everything else. Fashion trends don’t stand alone: they go hand in hand with the trends in every other field: technology, home decorations, kitchen appliances, gardening, architecture, food and more.
These days, one may often hear the phrase “trends are very slow”. But what does that mean?
To understand this, we need to understand the breaking down of trends into two categories: small trends and big trends. Small trends are simple fads: they come and go quite rapidly. For example, mood rings were such a fad. Big trends, however, are the overarching trends, they are the general stream which defines and give contour to what is going on. For example, the “flower power” or the “disco” trends were big trends: they encompassed a vision that was reflected in almost everything: it affected the way people dressed, the way they socialized, thought, decorated, worked, ate, prayed and so on.
Today, we are seeing the big trends slow down very much. To get a good grasp of this idea, think of it this way: if, in the year 2000, you would have had a lamp from 1985, the lamp would have been quite old-looking and some would have clearly called it “vintage”. The same goes for furniture, clothes and home appliances. However, if in the year 2020, you have and use a lamp, a piece of furniture or even clothes you bought in 2005, the difference is not that big. If you think about it, many people claim that they feel that the 2000s went by so fast, they didn’t even notice them. One of the reasons people think this is the fact that trends have slowed down. The difference between the year 2000 and the year 1985 is of 15 years and the difference between 2005 and 2020 is also of 15 years. However, the aesthetic, political and tech differences vary greatly. In the year 2000, a movie from the 1980s was clearly “an older movie”, however, in 2020, a movie from the 2000s is not considered an old film. Surely, things change, people dress a bit differently, technology is at a different point and so on, but overall, we don’t really perceive the year 2005 in 2020 as having been very long ago, yet, in the year 2000, 1985 seemed quite a while back.
Seeing things from this perspective, we can definitely conclude that trends have definitely slowed down.
Entering the 2020 decade, we’re very likely to see some major changes take place. Most of these will come due to the technological advances we are currently seeing spread, which will have a trickle-up effect on everything else. Otherwise, while we will definitely see a grand renewal of many things, it is very likely that, after that renewal, trends will become even slower than they are today. That does not mean that there won’t be new clothes, new furniture and new gadgets every season, it simply means that the overarching philosophies and aesthetics of these will last for long periods of time. We will most likely not see so much radical change happening so quickly as it used to; we will use things for longer periods of time, wear clothes for more years and decorate more rarely.
The fact that we are becoming more and more separated is also a contributing factor to the slowing down of trends: if we are going to live in a world that is highly interconnected, but in which people don’t share much outside of their close group, we will need a “watered-down” version of the mainstream. In this sense, small trends may become very important, but they won’t really define the entire spirit of a time.
We can never know for sure how trends will evolve, but, currently we are noticing a slowing down of trends not just in fashion (where many designers are trying to create “timeless” clothes – which is very much on trend), but also in other fields, including in the way we perceive the world, in the way we think and in the way we relate to ourselves.
Fraquoh and Franchomme
Further reading:
The Evolution of Men’s Fashion Trends in the 2010s
Trend Forecast: Fashion Weeks of 2020 (Trends for 2021-22)
Trendy and Weird: A Collection of Strange Fashion Trends From the Past (I)
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