As we begin the new decade, let’s look back at where we’ve been in fashion and style.
2010 began the decade with skinny jeans, tunics, floral print dresses, midi and maxi skirts, motorcycle jackets, western shirts, overalls, jogging pants, flat boots, stiletto shoes, ballet flats, and athletic wear.
Women’s Wear Daily looked at trends that shaped the 2010s and found dad jeans, sneakers and logo-laden everything, as well as the impact of the British royal family’s popularity as Kate Middleton revived interest in style not seen since her late mother-in-law Princess Diana.
WWD noted that with logomania, athletic-leisure led the decade style-wise. From the health and fitness movement “to 24/7 access to just about anyone on Instagram and Snapchat, a relaxed culture ensued, giving launch to the decade’s most comfortable fashion trend: ath-leisure.”
Street style photography gained prestige and ubiquity in the 2010s thanks to the proliferation of social media. “The images of street style circulated on fashion blogs, web sites and Instagram more so than actual runway looks, spawning a budding class of influencers that today are industry powerhouses.”
Ironically, the anti-trend was the one of the most pervasive fashion trends of the 2010s. The decade saw a number of these subcultures enter the widespread cultural lexicon, most notably “normcore”, streetwear and Gen-Z Internet culture.
Normcore delivered color palettes of white, beige, gray and black, with almost no logos. “The trend’s main style icons were Jerry Seinfeld circa his Nineties’ “Seinfeld” TV days replete with dad jeans and chunky sneakers, and Steve Jobs’ uniform of Issey Miyake black turtlenecks, Levi’s and gray New Balance sneakers.”
Other quintessential normcore looks included white sweat socks with sandals, Birkenstocks, baseball caps, windbreakers and tracksuits. (OMG Birkenstocks!)
The decade ended with Trendsetter proclaiming the looks of 2019 with oversized jackets and shorts, revival of animal prints, puff shoulders, neogothic and tartan plaids.
Where does this leave us as we move into the new decade?
The most popular coat of last season and now continues this season will cost you less than $140. Yes, that’s right: The puffer took over New York City and Instagram is made by Orolay. And Lucy has one of course! The coat is called the Thickened Down Jacket and it’s just the thing for those brutal winters upon us.
“Chinese manufacturers recognized the U.S. market opportunity to sell products directly to U.S. consumers largely through Amazon. Their most successful move into the U.S. market is Orolay, the brand behind the massively successful “Amazon Coat.” The company sells its coats through the Amazon marketplace, as well as directly through its own e-commerce platform. Seventy percent of the company’s overall revenue for 2018 came from U.S. sales, and most of those came through Amazon, Reuters said.”
But how did this unlikely coat take over? Fashion lovers united with word-of-mouth in one of those lightning-in-a-bottle moments. Everyone you ask about the coat says that they practically chased a wearer down the street to ask where they found the cute and cozy puffer. As such, the most popular coat of 2019 (and beyond!) was born.”
This just shows how fashion and new style happen. It is no longer runway and famous beautiful women sitting in the front rows breathlessly waiting to order the next best thing. It is now on the street and through social media and, of course, the burgeoning Influencers that the next best thing explodes onto the market and takes off.
As we move into the new decade, we are pleased to find emerging designers sensitive to environmental issues building brands with conscience.
Read this Vogue story about Amy Yeung who describes Orenda Tribe, “her label focused on repurposed and upcycled vintage pieces, as her “soul journey.” In 2015, the Indigenous creative launched her brand after quitting her 30-plus-year career designing for fast-fashion brands; Yeung’s true passion had revealed itself while she was raising her daughter, Lily (who is now a model). “I was trying to teach my daughter to live sustainably, to be a good citizen, and to protect the earth, but I was designing for big-box fashion,” she told Vogue. “I had that moment where I just needed to be more authentic.”
The fashions are beautiful and unique and build upon the Native American culture in extraordinary ways.
https://www.vogue.com/vogueworld/article/orenda-tribe-amy-yeung-indigenous-vintage-fashion
Someone once said to us that she didn’t understand why we liked fashion and that it was no big deal. But she is absolutely wrong. Each and every day what you wear speaks volumes about who you are and how you want to be perceived. Fashion is linked to culture and reflects the social order of its time. We recently saw the newest version of “Little Women” where the extraordinary costuming aligns with the social order of the day.
There is the great scene in “The Devil Wears Prada” where Meryl Streep looks Anne Hathaway up and down and describes with distain how little she knows about the color of the sweater she is wearing and how complex fashion and design decisions are.
We are never bored with reading about fashion and design. And this in not to say that we are looking only at Hermes bags. We look at everything that is out there on the market. Fashion is a huge global industry, not just financially, but in terms of its environmental impact. As world leaders and thinkers meet this week in Davos, https://www.weforum.org they are right to look at industries that could and should change to circular production modeling. “The circular economy is a regenerative model, in which manufacturers find ways to use materials and goods for much longer, creating more than one product lifecycle.”
When Lucy and I worked in Haiti, we saw first-hand the mountains of clothing of all descriptions sent to Haiti after the earthquake by well-meaning NGOs. Sadly, much of it ended up in landfills and that is true across the globe and economic spectrum.
We find ourselves thinking twice about buying something that is not long lasting, that will end up in a landfill. We are moving toward sustainability and thoughtful fashion more so each day. We trust you are as well.
Ciao
Lucy and Claudia