2023 was all about quiet luxury, so will 2024 but in louder looks as it plays to both sides of the current Zeitgeist allowing consumers to look responsible as well as fashion conscious. Many are expecting the wholesome beiges we have seen all year to move to fermented hues as well as browns – versatile but also subtle and non-confrontational. We also feel that purple will be a sleeper. Nor are we writing off brights since we live in a polarised world and seeing the ever-growing influence of flashy dressing sports stars.
Just as in colour, not everything in styling will be sleek and minimal. At the last Paris shows, Miu Miu’s messy handbags stuffed with items symbolic of a busy woman’s life went viral. Get ready for a carefully engineered, lazy, lackadaisical look, adding zest to the current clashing wardrobe, where you put not just the wrong shoes but the wrong everything together i.e., a parka with an evening dress. The supersize phenomenon from silhouettes to jewellery will get bigger, particularly in menswear. Meanwhile, workwear will become the new streetwear. Nostalgia continues with an eclectic grandpa look rising to match last year’s coastal grandma story but will also get politicised as it forsakes the noughties for an edgy 1980s approach in hard angles, power shoulders, body armour, the protest mentality of Westwood and McQueen.
So, what’s the final verdict? There’s no doubt that the year is going to be challenging. According to McKinsey’s analysis of fashion forecasts, the global industry will post 2 to 4% growth – not huge but considering global instability, not bad either!
Let’s remember, too, that fashion never stands still. Physical retail will strive to become more enticing for consumers now rooted in a digital age. The new EEC directives will activate real and serious action in sustainability. AI will continue to exert its pull on the textile world from manufacturing to marketing. And, you never know, maybe the Paris Olympics and moon landings will give us all something to smile about.
In an interview, Matthew Drinkwater, head of the Fashion Innovation Agency at the London College of Fashion, says, “When it becomes really simple to generate digital imagery, tangibility of physical products becomes even more important to us.
Many things are moving in sustainability issues: legislation is continuing to grow; and hope for a better future keeps imagination and creativity driving innovation. Indeed, it is here where, for designers, the notion and tool of ‘Eco-design’ will intervene and play a huge role.
We have adjusted the focus of our inspirations this season to combine men's and women's wear. Our influences and perspectives come from the multitudinous, fast-paced change that is happening in the world around us now. We are preoccupied by the exciting, diverse, and thought-provoking questions that circulate. It is these stimulating conversations that we explore in our stories.
In times when dark reality looms over us, we seek solace and a sense of wonder in uncharted territory, in personal quests for new experiences beyond the familiar sphere of our planet and everything around us.
In the ever-evolving landscape of style and expression, modernisation has made sure that the most intricate of details, the most extravagant of designs have been slowly transformed into more sterile and minimalistic pieces. Yet despite this move towards the more simplistic, craftsmanship in fashion remains important, reminding us of the richness that lies in the details.
In an interview, Matthew Drinkwater, head of the Fashion Innovation Agency at the London College of Fashion, says, “When it becomes really simple to generate digital imagery, tangibility of physical products becomes even more important to us.
