SUMMER 2018: PRONOUNCED

Luxury Street

The most talked-about collaboration of the moment is the appointment of Virgil Abloh, the founder of streetwear sensation Off-White, as men’s artistic director of Louis Vuitton. This encapsulates the massive change taking place in fashion at the moment and shows how luxury brands are looking to the cultural energy and business model of streetwear to stay relevant.

The question everyone is asking is whether all this truly heralds a new age of luxury streetwear, permanently changing our understanding of clothes. Certainly a ‘Millennial mindset’ is taking hold across the luxury market. Generations Y and Z are now the main growth engine of that market, driving 85% of luxury expansion last year, according to Bain & Company. By 2025, they are expected to account for 45% of total luxury goods spending. Each generation has its cultural touchstones and Millennials are clearly more in tune with hip hop than red-carpet glamour. They want brands that reflect what they consider more authentic cultural associations.

What’s more, these generations were brought up on the internet; they live a socially networked life which streetwear, with its graphic visual approach and irony, can so much better reflect than formal fashion. We are also living in the age of drop marketing, with its constant flow of new product releases: street and athleisure are much better at providing a stream of novelty at Instagram speed than traditional luxury fashion. Most important of all, streetwear exists within a culture of collaboration, and collaboration models are one of the biggest factors driving innovation at the moment.

City view
We look at Lisbon, which has undergone somewhat of a cultural emergence over recent years, with international visitor numbers having risen by 12% year on year and creatives citing the city as ‘the new Berlin’. Updates, as ever, on London, Paris and NY.

Season in review
Autumn/Winter 18/19

Womenswear designer colours 

The designer colour choice for A/W18/19 delivered strong amplified messages with vivid colour reinforcing a powerful “Don’t-Mess-With-Me” attitude.

Menswear designer messages 

When a designer steps off the wheel and bravely presents a focused collection that is relevant and stands apart from the masses, we welcome it with open arms.  

Season in focus

Spring/Summer 2019

The latest additions to womenswear fabric collections 

Manufacturers have been working hard to combine the two talking points of the season – sustainability and relevance. In a way, they are polarised objectives, but by using new technology to find natural solutions, the results are surprisingly good!

Menswear fabric orientations 

The summer fabric mood took two directions: the sporting life – an active leisure or athletic style with tech performance at its heart or a more subtle game of smooth refinement in gentler colourations for fluid, sensual satins and filament silky looks.

Forward view

Autumn/Winter 19/20

Womenswear fabric and colour forecast 

As the feminist climate intensifies, the merging of men’s and womenswear collections escalates. Textiles will range from classic, non-gender specific designs to ultra-feminine florals.

Menswear colours, styling and fabrics 

A/W 19/20 remains colour intense from the deepest tinted darks, through warmly filtered reds and ochres, updated flat primaries to hyper-fantastical pastels.

Accessories & trimmings forecast

This season offers eclectic inspiration, turning around accepted codes and blurring still further different market segments.

Womenswear knitwear colours, yarns and styling 

The intertwining of radical technical advancements and the natural order of things points the way forward.

Menswear knitwear styling concepts 

Now we see what we have done to our planet, we are reflecting on our mistakes and, seeking redemption; we look for action aided by technology and natural resources.

Knit forecast

For S/S 2020, materials break boundaries and combine to create new tensions where an eco smart sustainable edge is at its invisible heart.

Design and lifestyle – fashion meets furniture 

In a year overshadowed by the #metoo discussion, data protection issues and political distress, designers and brands appear to be avoiding moral, social and political issues focusing instead on pollution, future cities and new branding opportunities.

PARTICULAR

We have crossed the frontier. 2018 will see major growth in the use of Artificial Intelligence as a tool to re-shape the fashion business with major AI innovations to be expected in predictive forecasting, capacity planning, merchandising, automated production and delivery. However, the possibilities with AI go much further than that as developments move its potential way beyond the mechanical into the creative. For example, Amazon is on the verge of creating the first AI designer, with the development of an algorithm that designs clothes by analysing images, copying popular styles and using them to build completely new designs. Meanwhile, enriched data will allow for new opportunities in customer relationship management, improving customer insights and, last but not least, much more reliable demand projection thereby reducing forecasting errors. Twenty percent of executives who took part in the Business of Fashion-McKinsey Global Fashion Survey believe that the use of AI to “reinvent design, merchandising and marketing” will be an important trend. However, there is still a significant number who remain dubious about AI’s lack of flexibility and intuition for it to be a major player in fashion’s deep creative process. This division of thinking is at the forefront of our A/W 19/20 forecasts where we ask the question: “Should the fashion industry be led by algorithms?” and make a strong case for accidental fashion. Above all, we look at fabrics as tools serving fashion as a whole, enabling designers as well as users to mash up looks, to create their own interpretation of garments.

City view A/W 17/18

Our city of the moment is Vancouver. This city, associated with an outdoor lifestyle and the launch of athleisure-wear the world over, is undergoing somewhat of a luxury boom.

Womenswear inspirations: Spring/Summer 2019

The season sees a strengthening of the movement towards responsible design, marking out a transparent production trail and asking ethical questions along the way.

Womenswear colours: Spring/Summer 2019

Our new summer colours continue to echo the mood of change in fashion and offer a palette that can explore different aesthetics and is adaptable and fluid enough to meet differing needs.

Womenswear Key Looks: Spring/Summer 2019

There remains an atmosphere of change and the fashion industry needs to be watchful of peripheral influences. Our attention for S/S 19 is drawn to both high and low stimuli at opposite ends of the design spectrum.

Casualwear colours and styling: Spring/Summer 2019

How do you feel? Really. How do your emotions affect your daily interactions, your choices, your life?

Menswear styling, colours and fabrics: Spring/Summer 2019

We explore themes that range from the melancholy and sensual, the nostalgic and child-like to untold tales found in historic interior references. We end with a vibrant and joyful theme that is indicative of hope.

Womenswear and menswear fabric and colour forecast: Autumn/Winter 19/20

Should the fashion industry be led by algorithms? We make a strong case for accidental design, wherein a designer wishes his or her work to achieve a specific goal, but ends up achieving another.

Print design forecast: Autumn/Winter 19/20

Design is the essence of fashion. Colour is the expression�of “Sein”. The capital of beauty should not be scraped o the floor of social media, but whole heartedly embraced and invested in. Felt, smelt, touched and heard…

Knitwear forecast: Autumn/Winter 19/20

Forms follow structures and natural shapes emerge from an interplay of ribs, and multi textured stripings re-delineate classics.

They called Rei Kawakubo’s exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of New York “The Art of the In-Between” and that’s exactly where we are in fashion and textiles at the moment. Of course, fashion is always in a state of flux otherwise it wouldn’t be fashion, but the changes we are looking at, now, are far more radical and convulsive than anything seen before.Technical innovation, digitalization, individualisation and democratisation are coming together for the ‘perfect storm’ that will tear down all the existing structures around which we plan, time and create textiles. We are stepping into a new moment of fashion freedom built around the unexpected and accidental.What’s interesting is that it is the haute couture, once the bastion of convention par excellence, that is pointing the way. There, we have already seen a breaking down of barriers, not only in who attends the couture shows but in the way France’s Chambre Syndicale has invited a roster of new names onto the official schedule in a bid to inject a more global viewpoint into the exalted world of haute couture. We also saw a breaking down of barriers in the clothes shown on the runways, with denim and sportswear, even recycled effects, popping up alongside the exquisite handcrafted gowns and luxe furs, which are the hallmark of the traditional couture ateliers.

The doors are truly opening onto a brave new world!

Publisher’s view

In the fashion business, we are pretty confident that AI could never replace us, especially on the design and marketing front – but could that confidence be misplaced?

Fibres & fabrics

At all the fairs this season, the issue on everyone’s lips was ‘sustainability’. Fabric producers are eager to show what they are doing to improve production in sustainable ways

City View

Updates on London, Paris and New York, with an in-depth look at Melbourne, Australia,  no stranger to being voted amongst the top five, most liveable cities in the world, and boasting quite the cornucopia of style, culture and creative hubs.

Talking points

We need to learn from the bravery of today’s design graduates. They embrace collaboration, they dabble, roam and explore, they work with scientists, or consult older masters, they are multidisciplinary and they push through walls.

Womenswear designer colours

The S/S 2018 catwalks mirrored the mood of the moment, confirming the desire for revolution and change through a series of feel-good trends that coloured everything from the season’s disco-diva, sports-themed silhouettes to razzle-dazzle fabrics.

Womenswear designer fabrics, silhouettes and styling details

The S/S 2018 catwalks convey messages that are, at first sight, complex and confusing. It is becoming increasing more difficult to pull out clear directions and this, of course, is a direct reflection of the disorder around us all.

Menswear designer messages

Expansive thinking is called for in a fashion world that has jettisoned segments and where deliberately disorderly assemblies of influences are adopted for the mainstream market.  

Womenswear fabrics: the last additions

We are all into sustainability and the importance of the circular economy, but we are also into embellishment and fantasy. Yes, there are plenty of muted mid-tones, neutrals and re-cycled hues, but there is also a lot of brilliant, playful colour.

Womenswear fabric and colour forecast

Lightness, fresh colours and flowers usually come to mind when one thinks of spring, but fashion collections are becoming both non-seasonal and non-gender specific so we look to antique Botanical drawings of unusual foliage and flowers as inspiration for S/S 2019.

Menswear colours, styling and fabrics

Evolving lifestyles, in hand with the athleisure movement, are encouraging a transition towards enhanced comfort. For S/S 2019, this comes through in the form of lighter, more fluid and supple fabrications.

Accessories & trimmings forecast and inspirations

Accessories wake up classics, conceptualise the future, make a digression on folk and ultimately transform the mundane into desirable objects. Thanks to accessories freedom of expression has never been so wide.

Womenswear knitwear colours, yarns and styling

Sustainability issues are increasingly embedded into the design process and S/S 2019 looks for ways to increase positive environmental benefits through informed fibre choices as well as intelligent material investigations.

Menswear knitwear styling concepts

Our themes are based around some very typical menswear values and looks. We open with a homage to mid-west, American pattern and a core of new basic colours: these are followed by more rustic and functional, muted neutral stories.

Design and lifestyle Foto 8

Intelligence + empathy + foresight = real innovation

They called Rei Kawakubo’s exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of New York “The Art of the In-Between” and that’s exactly where we are in fashion and textiles at the moment. Of course, fashion is always in a state of flux otherwise it wouldn’t be fashion, but the changes we are looking at, now, are far more radical and convulsive than anything seen before.Technical innovation, digitalization, individualisation and democratisation are coming together for the ‘perfect storm’ that will tear down all the existing structures around which we plan, time and create textiles. We are stepping into a new moment of fashion freedom built around the unexpected and accidental.What’s interesting is that it is the haute couture, once the bastion of convention par excellence, that is pointing the way. There, we have already seen a breaking down of barriers, not only in who attends the couture shows but in the way France’s Chambre Syndicale has invited a roster of new names onto the official schedule in a bid to inject a more global viewpoint into the exalted world of haute couture. We also saw a breaking down of barriers in the clothes shown on the runways, with denim and sportswear, even recycled effects, popping up alongside the exquisite handcrafted gowns and luxe furs, which are the hallmark of the traditional couture ateliers.

The doors are truly opening onto a brave new world!

Season in review

Spring/Summer 2018
Infographics of the development in men’s and women’s retail bestseller S/S 2017 offered very strong, in-store visual statements, but underneath these trend concepts and top line messages, what were the real success stories driving both newness and profitability? And how will these evolve for S/S 2018?

Menswear r-t-w designers
Today, in fashion, to be modern means a multitude of things. It can be to embrace cyberspace; it can be to wear vintage iconic prints and logos; It can be to capitalize on social media, and it can be to embrace unexpected collaborations.

Womenswear colours
Stories focus on moods that are soft, stable and cocooning or, conversely, are driven by vibrant, energetic and shimmering colourful stimuli.

Womenswear inspirations
The new generation of designers is rewriting the rules to tell personal stories and turn the spotlight on the things that matter. Impressive is the depth of their investigations as well as their new malleable thinking and flexible working processes.

Womenswear key looks
Shapes and fashion looks for A/W 18/19 primarily align themselves closely to the properties and behaviour of the chosen cloth.

Womenswear fabrics
Of course, there’s black and textures, but what’s so striking about this season is the determination of manufacturers to play with colour, shine, pattern and embellishment. Accidental fashion has taken root.

Womenswear trimmings and accessories
From the playful and virtual world of the future to the treasured masterpieces of the past, that remind us of our origins and heritage, designers want to inspire with stories that project a deeper awareness, personality and emotion.

Casualwear colours and styling
Technology disrupts work and play, becoming a driving force in how we live and how we dress. New advances in fabrics and technology are breaking down the barriers between work and leisure, casual and formal, old and young, art and commerce.

Menswear orientations
For A/W 18/19, there is a clear dichotomy in terms of fabric design and experimentation, the one playing with a pensive, subtle, invisible cloak of texture and pattern, the other taking a bold and extrovert approach.

Forward view

Spring/Summer 2019
Womenswear and menswear fabric and colour forecast (6)
Here, just this once, we will not be talking about fabrics for fashion, but rather fabrics for clothes that don’t dazzle, but actually help us navigate in a world that becomes more unfathomable by the minute.

Print design forecast
The emphasis is on unabashed, powerful pattern embracing sportswear for the street, rebellious and taking no prisoners. Prints are loud and proud on functional fabrics, with a militant message. Broken pattern for a broken society – the proximity to chaos calls for defiant combinations of theme and colour.

Knit forecast
This season we prefer to ignore the date, and instead feel for cross seasonality, or a trans-seasonal code that speaks to a multi gender constituency looking not to be boxed into types or fashion ‘looks’.

Future of making
We enter a wonder-world, full of radically new aesthetics and disruptive technologies, where designers are operating at the borders between creative human gesture, machine robotics and computer algorithms to explore material, shape and function.

New Morality

There are three big problems facing the world: the rise in anti-globalisation sentiment; the growth of popular nationalism; and the unstoppable loss of blue-collar jobs. These are creating a polarised society riddled with contradictions. There seems to be no middle ground, only conflicting opinions, studies, and data about all the big issues surrounding us. Our general insecurity has only been exacerbated by the unexpected, from Brexit and the election of President Donald Trump to the emergence of ‘post-truth’ society. We live in fear of what might come next.

It’s hardly surprising that in this divided and divisive world, more and more people think it’s time to speak out and pin their colours to the mast, on issues concerning gender, women’s equality, immigration, privacy and even democracy itself. And brands are following suit as they understand that basic CRS policies are no longer enough: they need to be seen to be socially and politically engaged on a genuinely effective level.

Corporate altruism is becoming more common, as car companies create and promote green initiatives, or beauty brands promote a “natural look”. There have been many notable initiatives: Nike moving its marketing money away from huge-name celebrities into community training initiatives and races; L’Oréal announcing in March it would support the C40 Women4Climate initiative, mentoring 500 women in 10 cities who are working towards possible solutions for climate change. So how’s morality going.

The question is how this ‘new morality’ will show itself in our textile and fashion business?

City view: Seoul & Reykjavik
Beyond the rapid influx of headlining international flagships launching in Seoul, there’s a thriving home grown fashion scene to be witnessed both on and off the Korean catwalks. In bold contrast to the hyper-paced development of Seoul’s sprawling metropolis, Reykjavik offers something of a sedative by comparison.

WW Haute Couture: the new face of couture 

After a distinct spell in the doldrums, the tide has finally turned and the rarified world of haute couture is once more lighting up fashion’s starry firmament.

Season in review: Autumn/Winter 17/18

Menswear designer messages

The winter menswear shows express two divergent sides of masculinity: one that is concerned with simple ‘anti-fashion realness’ while the other indulges itself in maximalist texture and a costume like flourish.

Menswear fabric orientations 

The money is on a true casual look with its feet in authentic craft, animated with texture and laundered finishes, or a classic redux where traditional sets come in lighter, finer counts.

Forward view: Autumn/Winter 18/19

Womenswear fabric and colour forecast

Self-expression, like an artist’s composition, can take many different forms. A/W 18/19 will offer a range of highly creative and innovative textiles for designers to create their canvases. This will include textured qualities in either a sombre colour palette of charcoal on ecru or in painterly blocks of rich colours.

Menswear colours, styling and fabrics

This season, the focus is on comfort as the overriding theme as relaxed fits, added stretch and softened, supple fabric handles all come into play.

Womenswear knitwear colours, yarns and styling 248
Women’s knitwear goes in search of ‘balance ‘ realised either in something natural and honest with a deep commitment to the origin and sustainability of the product or alternatively in the precise selection of colour and proportion.

Design and lifestyle – fashion meets furniture for 2018
At the last Salone del Mobile in Milan some of the most relevant design concepts on show were modular, recycled, recyclable, transportable and, with aesthetic concerns only a part of the input algorithm, visually innovative and in some cases intangible or even virtual.