Unwind Your Mind: Final Trend Boards

After weeks of work, my trend boards are finished. There are 7 in total: theme, mood, color, looks, accessories, fabrics, and non fashion. My overall theme for the boards is "Unwind your mind: comfort in a concrete jungle."

Living in a city gets hectic sometimes, and my trend focuses on the need for peace within chaos. Sometimes we need to turn inward and recenter ourselves before we get back to our crazy lives. Unwind your mind's looks are about loose and luxurious fabrics and shapes reminiscent of bed time. The colors are soothing and peaceful, no neons here.

As you follow the journey of the boards, consider that because more people are living in cities than ever before unwinding your mind now and then becomes ever more important. Naps are on the rise, and nap pods have cropped up in some cities to give worker bees a brief escape from the office. Being stressed is horrible for your skin, heart, and overall health. As stress levels of city dwellers rise, I really see finding inner peace catching on in metropolises across the globe more important than ever. Enjoy

Unwind Your Mind: Mood and Theme

In the 1950's, a new American dream was born. People no longer had to deal with the dirty overcrowding of living in a city. They were afforded the luxury of moving to the suburbs, with a yard, a wife, and a dog. For many decades, this was the dream. Everyone would live in a house with a fence and a garden. These days, this is no longer the case, especially for my generation. It seems we have decided to return to the early 20th century and stay in the city. While city living is attractive, it has some definite drawbacks.

Although housing costs are often higher in major cities, transportation is usually easier and cheaper. Many people's jobs are also located in offices within major cities, so living there makes for an easier commute to and from. Aside from the practicality of living in a city, there is also glamour that comes with living in a city. Songs, TV, movies, and other media are constantly romanticizing city life. Cities are the cultural hubs, containing the most cutting edge in food, fashion, and other industries. In cities you can have adorable serendipitous moments that wouldn't happen in rural areas.

Despite these advantages, city life also has side effects. The problems with early city life are still in place in many urban areas. Cities are often plagued with more crime than outlying areas, simply because the population is more dense and it's easier for criminals to hide amongst others. In addition to crime, cities have other problems such as cleanliness, crowding, and more people trying to live from fewer natural resources. Perhaps the biggest problem with living in a city is the loss of privacy and relaxation.

In the hectic times we live in, people rarely stop and unwind. This is the inspiration for my trend boards. I feel that an urban getaway will start to come into fashion. Loose and luxurious fabrics, hoods, scarves, and other elements that strive to create a small piece of comfort in a concrete jungle will come into style. 

The Ostrich Pillow may become a hot trend in the coming years, as people seek an oasis away from strangers and coworkers but don't have time for a nap at home.

Hoods and scarves provide comfort and warmth in winter months. Like a hug for your head.

Materials like down evoke a feeling of calm and relaxation.

Fall/Winter '15: Unwind Your Mind.

Nicole Richie: From Party Princess to Polished Poise

What makes a trendsetter? These days, it seems like almost anyone can be considered a trendsetter.

With the rise of the Internet, people have faster access than ever to what everyone is wearing at every event. And it's just not celebrities anymore that are in the public eye. A quick social media comb-through reveals hashtags like #OOTD on Instragram, an acronym for outfit of the day, where fashion-minded people can explain what they're wearing today. Sights like Polyvore and We Heart It also let users create and share fashion inspiration from multiple sources and price points.

Despite the rise of the regular populace sharing their outfits on a daily basis, most people still look upwards to celebrities to set trends. Celebrities have the money to spend on trends that most other people do not. If something becomes unfashionable in a few years, celebrities don't mind because they can afford to keep up with the trends. With a little ingenuity and creativity, regular people can indeed be trendsetters in their own circles, but celebrities are being watched constantly. They're photographed everywhere they go. It would make sense then, that they would become style icons. This post focuses on celebrity trendsetter Nicole Richie. Formerly awkward and chubby friend of socialite Paris Hilton, the public has watched Nichole Richie transform over the years. Today, Ms. Richie is a mom and a style mogul.

Nicole Richie wasn't always a trendsetter. After a hard partying youth coupled with some trouble with the law, Richie seemed to settle down around 2006, around the birth of her first child. She launched her own jewelry line, House of Harlow 1960 in 2008. House of Harlow, named after Richie's daughter with husband Joel Madden, has been wildly successful. Affordable enough for the masses, but worn by celebrities like Madonna and Kim Kardashian. House of Harlow makes jewelry, shoes, sunglasses and bags. Richie's own line is modeled after her urban hippy style. Richie is often seen in loose flowing clothing and lots of jewelry. Despite her laid-back style, Richie always looks polished on the red carpet, proving that easy going girls can also rock a beaded gown. Richie's overall look is easy cool, which makes it an enviable look for girls everywhere.

If I had to speculate, Richie's target market is females, 22-35. Girls younger than their early twenties probably wouldn't invest in the costume jewelry. Some of the pieces are heavy, with materials like resin and leather that would not appeal to younger markets. Although Richie likes to pile on her own pieces and wear many at a time, there are also more delicate and subtle pieces in the collection that could work as statement pieces for someone not as ready to embrace the bohemian lifestyle. The target market is definitely free spirited girls who aren't afraid to take risks. The collage below was created in Photoshop and it illustrates many facets of Nicole Richie's life: casual mom to red carpet poise. Richie wears a lot of her own jewelry in her everyday life, which helps solidify the brand identity.

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. 

Screenplay

You can now view and download the full text of my screenplay, Dog Piss and Bong Water 07. Enjoy.

Chapter 4: Consumer Vs. Big Business

Throughout this small capsule of blog topics I’ve investigated two groups that seem to be polar opposites of each other. As the social anthropologist I’ve attempted to give insight into each of the distinct target markets I have chosen. I’ve explained the differences between the two and how each of these groups benefits the advertising world in different ways. In today’s social anthropology blog I delve into a massive topic that could spawn hundreds of blogs devoted to it. Today I attempt to explore the differences in consumer advertising versus business advertising. More specifically, I’m interested in the success of emotional advertising. Does a corporations’ attempt at do gooder ad campaigns actually work in swaying public opinion?

Consumer advertising is clearly very different from business advertising, even on the surface level. Consumer advertising usually works to sell a single product, or line of products. The consumer knows who makes the product, but they do not know much about the corporation itself. The corporation remains faceless because the focus is on the actual product. For example, you see a commercial for whitening toothpaste. You know the toothpaste is made by Crest because they keep telling you over and over in the commercial. They do this so you can remember the toothpaste you want from the commercial is a Crest tube and do not confuse it with the similar Colgate whitening toothpaste. I’m an Arm and Hammer toothpaste fan myself, but both of these companies make a decent product. Anyway, after the commercial you may remember the product and the company that makes the product, but you often know little to nothing about the actual company. What are the company’s values? What is this company’s history? It doesn’t matter, just buy this toothpaste. Consumer advertising is all about selling an item to a consumer. The company itself is not really that important.

Business advertising on the other hand, works to sell the actual corporation to the consumer. It sounds more abstract because it is. They’re trying to sell you on the company itself, not on the company’s products. The specific product advertising may come before or after this type of advertising. Businesses normally advertise the corporation after a giant catastrophe or PR disaster. British Petroleum is a recent example of this. After a disastrous oil spill they spent billions cleaning up not only the actual mess they had made, but the ruined relationships with consumers. For many months after the spill there was advertising geared towards showing how they were decent people. It wasn’t enough that they had to clean up their mess, they wanted people to know they were cleaning up the mess.

Does this type of cover-our-ass advertising really work? It’s hard to say. The advertising may have worked or the whole thing may have just been healed by time. The backlash for BP was bad for a while, but as most high school students who have been the victim of gossip know, it eventually goes away. People continue to buy gasoline at BP, regardless of the immoral things they have done in the past. Sometimes companies will hype themselves in advertising without a major scandal. Last summer I started seeing commercials for Dow chemical corporation. Many people would have no idea what this company even does. They manufacture chemicals used by other companies in many items that we interact with everyday- cleaning products, shampoos, food preservatives, plastics, etc. Dow’s advertising was geared toward reminding people that they use science to make innovations that help our day-to-day lives. But Dow chemicals does not sell to consumers directly, they sell hundreds of gallons of chemicals to other businesses that use them in their products. Consumers would use these chemicals indirectly but they would never purchase a thousand gallons of propylene glycol for themselves.

So why was Dow suddenly promoting themselves to a small-scale consumer market?  I believe the answer is that they wanted to cover their ass, but in a more subtle way than BP. In recent years, there has been a huge push for “green” products. There has been a public backlash against chemicals. According to the consumer chemicals are bad, cancerous, and the public no longer wants them. Plastics are evil and environmentally toxic. Chemical companies were becoming as vilified as other industries. Dow began this campaign to remind consumers that perhaps chemicals weren’t so horrible after all. Dow didn’t have a major scandal on their hands, but in this case self-promoting advertising was used to try and change a consumer’s mind about an entire industry.

The success of businesses promoting themselves (rather than specific products) through advertising still remains to be seen. It probably doesn’t help a ton, but it can’t hurt either. Maybe if the company has a couple advertising dollars left in the budget at the end of the year and no new products to roll out it would be beneficial to remind consumers that they’re buying from a trustworthy, ethical, company.

In the past few weeks I have explored target markets that we are all pretty familiar with. I thank my few readers for becoming engaged in this series. In the future, I plan on getting deeper into target markets and furthering my blog career as the Social Anthropologist.