#TALK: Who sets the trend in fashion?
For awhile fashion has been lead by trends created by designers and celebrities but with the wave of citizen fashion that comes through the form of blogging, has the tides changing a new shade of blue. The landscape of fashion is definitely changing and no longer the same – magazines references fashion influencers as style icons and even Dolce & Gabbana had Cameron Dallas open their Fall 2017 show (read up here) and 2014 DKNY took to Instagram with Cara Delevingne to find influencers to shoot for the campaign. And yes you could see it from the view point of finding talent on social media might be a cheaper or easy resource to access but beyond that fact why does the marketing team make that choice? Now these examples may not show influencers or citizens taking charge of fashion trends but shows our opinion or input is highly valuable. We’ve seen influencers move from just an Instagram it girl to power house fashion machines such as Chiara Ferragni who is not only a blogger but a successful designer and spokesperson for Guess. This not only is happening fashion but in the beauty blogging community plenty of brands have teamed with key influencers to create product. It’s a pretty interesting playing field at the moment and times are changing.
Obviously there has to be a balance and it can’t be all in either – fashion bloggers aren’t always right and let’s be honest neither are the trends we see come forward each year. But that’s okay – because fashion is experimental and in the end of the day it is to please the general public or clients who purchase those brands. I really enjoy seeing brands taking risks and trying out new ways to promote their brand – it’s quite inspiring and gives me that fuzzy feeling of inclusion. Makes you think “hey high end fashion can be inclusive at times and that’s great!”.
Yes there is an idea that the rise of the fashion blogger’s influence in fashion is bad and destroying a once strong relationship design houses had with trends or the tide of fashion movements but shouldn’t it be welcomed and not shunned? Any community is stronger when working together and I believe brands like Dolce and Gabbana and DKNY are taking the foot in the right direction. As many fashion houses have done more than 100 times over use celebrities as the faces of the brand – what is the difference between the fan base of Jennifer Lawrence and Chiara Ferragni? If anything wouldn’t a fashion influencers audience be more fashion focused? But these questions I do not have the answer for but all I have for you is a thought of how are these trends happening now and do the fashion house have full control as before? Let me know in the comments below!
My final word on this is that I feel the brilliant creativity of design houses still have a strong hold over trends in fashion and in the beginning are the masters of it. It’s kind of as if their vision for a trend or iconic piece is a family heirloom which they hand down to the runway, the runway hands down to their clients and the clients wear it and next everyone else in their community is inspired. It’s pretty interesting seeing where trends originate from and how long it takes for them to take flight.