Party All the Time: Party People Influence Fashion

Faith Popcorn- Rise of the Solo Citizen

The Faith Popcorn prediction above is the inspiration for my post today. In summary, FP's prediction is that rise of single culture will have a huge influence on culture in the coming years. In younger generations, it's okay to be single and gone are the expectations to settle down and have a family before 30. This societal shift makes a lot of sense because in recent decades we have seen a trend towards ___ being the new ___. What I mean by that is, remember when 30 was "the new 20"? And soon, people were living longer than ever before and 60 became the new 40. 

What does this mean for fashion? Faith Popcorn mentioned in the prediction report that now that people are single, they have much more disposable income and are spending more on themselves. This may mean an uptick in luxury goods purchases, or even people investing in longer term items since there are no children to throw up on a nice silk shift.

The one trend that I have seen this prediction effect is "going out" clothing. The prediction report mentioned that the rise of singles means that people are dating and partying more than ever! So of course they need some fashionable clothing to wear to parties, bars, and night clubs. People are not staying home with their significant others as much anymore, and we began to see a rise in sequins, glitters, and all-around flash. A few short years ago, sequins were very in style. I attribute this trend to the rise of the single person. Around 2011, sequins adorned party dresses. Clothing that presumably singles would be wearing for a night on the town. Even though the sequin trend is not red-hot anymore in 2013, it has spilled over into other areas, such as eyeshadow. Wearing loose chunks of glitter on the lips or eyes have become popular in recent years.

As far as fashion goes, this prediction means that we can be ready to see more sparkle and shine as singles light up the night. We see this glitter trend come back for a little while each year around New Year's Eve as well which further solidifies that sparkle and glitter will continue to spark trends, as singles drink until dawn.

Cosmetics company Violent Lips has a line of lip appliques made entirely of glitter.

Party dresses like this iridescent sequined mini from Dress the Population are still popular with partying singles.

Pop megastar Katy Perry is no stranger to sequins and wears a lot of sparkle on stage and off.

3 Case Studies of Trickle Up Fashion

In the fashion industry, as in most industries, there are a few models that exist to explain the underlying theory of the industry. Theory isn't always the most interesting thing to discuss, especially in an industry as dynamic as fashion. But understanding theory can help us apply it to things we see in our daily lives.

The 3 main theories of fashion exist to answer questions about how high fashion interacts with the masses.

How does fashion reach the masses? 
Does high fashion influence wearable fashion or the other way around?
Does the influence of fashion happen simultaneously across price points, with no one group having the most influence?

Nobody can say for sure, but these questions correspond to the 3 theories of fashion: trickle down, trickle up, and trickle across. This post discusses trickle up, but it's important to know a little bit about how trickle up relates to trickle down and trickle across. In short, trickle across fashion theory suggests that trends happen simultaneously across social groups, with no singular group having more influence than the others. The oldest and most "classic" theory of fashion is the trickle down model, where couture influences the masses and in turn, gives rise to similar and more affordable trends for the rest of the population. In this model it's important to remember that designers invent the trends. Trickle down fashion has worked for many decades and we can see some truth in it. But this is where trickle up fashion comes into play. Trickle up fashion theory turns trickle down fashion upside down. Trickle up is the newest fashion theory and it states that actually, high fashion is influenced by the streets, what regular people are wearing, not the other way around.

Trickle up fashion theory can be seen when celebrities, or other early fashion adopters take on the look and style of a particular culture or subgroup. So what exactly does this mean? A recent example was the MET Gala, where punk was the theme this year. High fashion took on the persona of street fashion and used punk style as the theme for a high society gala.

Ginnifer Goodwin at this year's MET Institute Gala. Dark eye makeup solidified her punk look.

Another recent example is Chanel using the hula hoop as an inspiration for their Wind Power bag, debuted in Spring/Summer 2013 show, in October of 2012. Hula hoops have been a staple of raver and festival culture for many years now. In this instance, underground party culture influenced high fashion.

Although devoid of the bright colors and lights that are characteristic of raves, Chanel's Wind Power bag could be considered a subtle homage. 

An example of trickle up fashion that can be seen in the past is Gwen Stefani's obsession with Harajuku culture. Harajuku is an area of Japan where teenagers in the 80's started displaying their own fashions and created their own sort of society. Harajuku culture gave rise to many other subcultures in Japan such as Ganguro and Lolita. For Americans, many of us were introduced to Harajuku style for the first time when pop icon Gwen Stefani brought this style to the states around 2004 with the release of her solo album, Love Angel Music Baby. 

Stefani's entire 2004 solo album was based on this Japanese style subculture. 

All of these examples prove to me that trickle up fashion is quickly becoming the new model for fashion theory. Street style is forever evolving, and high fashion is obviously looking to the streets for inspiration. Subcultures like grunge, punk and harajuku have influenced larger fashion society, making trickle up fashion the replacement for older, more traditional models, like trickle down fashion.