New movements in style involve technology, animals and modernism

By Caroline Brown

Illustration by Eleanor Qu

What are the trends in fashion, art, and architecture? What is trending in social media? Our world has become obsessed with the term “trendy.” Trends are a forecast of progress and of what will come to cultural fruition in the near future.

During the seminaries at Eco-Fashion Week in late October, the marketing director from Worth Global Style Network (WGSN), Carly Stojsic, presented WGSN’s three macro-trends for autumn/winter 2014: “hack-tivate”, 21st Century Romance, and anthropomorphism. WGSN is a world-renowned trend forecasting company that was established in 1998. Its philosophy is to provide businesses with inspiration, change, and a forward-thinking mentality.Their clients are businesses from all types of sectors — including Apple, H&M and Nickelodeon — because WGSN provides trends that encompass society as a whole.

The hack-tivate macro-trend is derived from the necessary precedence of reclaiming products back to their organic state, and then repurposing and repairing them using technology. It is a socio-movement with positive emotions of energy, fun and enthusiasm. The movement focuses on the skeleton of a product. It exposes its insides, then creatively rebuilds it to have multi-functions using Google sourcing or apps. The attitude behind this movement is that if we can’t access or open what we own, then it does not belong to us.

Upcycling, reimagining, and sustainability are other important characteristics. The movement obtained a lot of momentum with the Fab Lab phenomenon, which originated at MIT with the name “Center of Bits and Atoms.” The Fab Lab has spread across the world to places like Norway, India and South Africa. A Fab Lab is a digital fabrication workshop with invention and social fabrication imbedded into its mission. They take apart technology to its core, and rebuild it for a more functional use.

[pullquote]The movement focuses on the skeleton of a product. It exposes its insides, then creatively rebuilds it to have multi-functions using Google sourcing or apps. The attitude behind this movement is that if we can’t access or open what we own, then it does not belong to us.[/pullquote]

The second trend that Stojsic spoke about was 21st Century Romance. This trend comes from the literary term “magic realism” and the cultural term meta-modernism. The former aspect plays with the concept of adding a touch of magic to everyday products, while the latter oscillates between contradictions. The difference between 21st Century Romance and the previous Romantic Period is the evolution of technology and how it has become deeply integrated into our lives. This techno-romantic period plays on this antithesis of nature versus technology to create a strong emotional reaction. A great example of this macro-trend is Erdem’s spring/summer 2013 collection. With the help of technology, he uses textile techniques like lucid layers of transparency organza or floral embroidery with a 3D effect to elevate his clothes into another dimension that creates a hypercraft.

The third macro-trend is anthropomorphism, products that take on human emotions and personalities, or animal characteristics. This trend focuses on a cross-fertilization of creature and comfort with an emphasis on touch. The revitalization of fur (e.g. fur iPhone cases) gives evidence to our need to humanize our products, but this trend evolves past that. It stresses a hybrid of technology, humans, and animals to signify honest and fun emotions. Mixing and matching high and low fashion will evolve into dressing to convey one singular emotion. The resurgence of animated graphic clothes, reflective of pop art mania, is an example of using an eclectic wardrobe to express a modern theme.

The trends presented at this seminar all had a unifying message: technology is not something that separates us, but something that has become a part of us. Whether it is through magic, contradictions, personification, or repurposing from an original organic state, one thing is clear: technology is no longer an accessory, but an extension of humanity.