A Mystic Meg Moment

For the previous nine months it’s been hard trying to picture where I’m going to be in the upcoming 6 weeks, let alone 6 months. If my Boris Bike adventure (adventure makes the venture sound a lot more playful – in reality it was closer to a journey of merciless peril) is anything to go by, it’ll be into an early grave,  with the taxi driver whom I rendered into a cardiac arrest dancing all over it.

However, despite my inability to look into the future as accurately or with hair as good as Mystic Meg, I have been fortunate enough to gain insight into what array of trends you could be donning in the upcoming 6 months.

Thanks to the friendly folk at Avenue 32, I bring to you the top 10 trends to look out for the next season. Sadly I can’t predict anything that has more of an impact on your life other than what you might be wearing, however it’s the best I can offer (the only other thing I can definitely predict is you won’t be finding me on a Boris Bike around Islington anytime soon – Taxi drivers of London you can breathe a sigh of relief)…

 

1)      Team America

Evolving from the lux sportswear that has been trending this season, it’s time to pick a side and them then on whether it’s wearing a basketball vest or baseball top next season.

 

2)      All Faux One and One Faux All

With fur being such a marmite topic in fashion, you’re either covering every inch of your body in it, or tipping the red paint over it (the fur not your body), however, next season fashion is playing it safe with having faux fur take to the stage. Not a fan of the counterfeit feel? Well rumour has it the synthetics used to create the faux fur has developed so significantly it leads to the illusion of real fur- with no animals being harmed in the making. Lovely.

 

3)      Tarte Tartan

From traditional to abstract, artistic license to British Heritage, tartan is being hit at from all angles next season. So whether you’re punk or proper – you can make of it what you will.

 

4)      Song of Folk and Fable

Think the tales of Brothers Grimm… its Hansel and Gretel meet the designers such as Temperly, however hopefully more

 

5)      Sweet and Sour

Being an advocate for colour it’s a relief to see some vibrant eye candy sauntering down next seasons runways, with sultry sweet and vivid tones, these opposing attributes will provide both warmth and spirit to next season’s looks.

 

6)      That 70’s Show

Time to look in retro-spect. This isn’t playing the game of dress up though, apparently the 70s look for this season is a sexy one (So not your typical image of your Dad in flared trousers, sorry to conjure that).

 

7)      Knit-Wit

It’s set to be the new statement piece for next season. As much as this information may send a buzz of excitement through you – with the prospect of being in fashion AND in warmth, it may very well also put you in debt with the knitted masterpieces setting you back between 700-1200.

 

8)      The New Normal

If you’re a regular reader of this little blog (hello Mum, Pilks and Hardy) then you’ll be fully up to scratch on what the trend of ‘Normcore’ is (just scroll down if not). Quick 101 though, it’s the idea of dressing down (shaving off some minutes getting ready in the morning) and blending into the crowd. It’s casual camouflage.

 

9)      To Infinity and Beyond

Completely opposing the trend of normcore discussed above, inter-galactic is also set to hit the shops next season. I always did like Buzz Lightyear

 

10)   Black is the New…. Black?

Mainly focused as an evening trend, black is making a comeback.

If any of you feel the need to get ahead of the game on next seasons trends then search Avenue 32 (http://www.avenue32.com/) hosting an array of designers that will offer something you keeping with these trends. In the meantime you’ll find me dressed in my space suit in preparation for the upcoming season; I feel this trend is the one that will wear better against the roads of Islington whilst aboard my Boris Bike.

The Normcore Movement.

For years fashion has been an extrovert and outlandish realm, it’s always been about turning those heated bulbs of the spotlights and making sure they focus on you. If you look back to my very first blog post, I mention that at my first fashion week I witnessed one girl standing in the middle of the entrance to Somerset House, in the most ridiculous outfit she could clearly pull from designers whilst wearing shoes with platforms so big you could start building the foundations to a small house with them... but all eyes were on her. It was a battle of the bloggers to get her picture, with brawls and riots taking place to get to her. So I just stood back and merged into the background, in my charity shop bought shirt and wax jacket, kind of hoping that if I tried hard enough I’d eventually merge with the bricks behind me. Having never been one for show (I used to make my mum park round the corner from my school when she dropped me off, as our car was a red that was so vibrant animals actually ran away from it) yet having always been interested in fashion, I have often wondered where I can buy this jarred self-confidence from.  However, little did I know then when I was trying to become half girl, half wall that I could soon count myself as part of a new fashion movement slowly taking over known as ‘normcore’. 

I’ve googled extensively where the name ‘normcore’ actually came from for this emerging trend. Is it a combination of normal and encore? Or a way of expressing being normal from your very core? Nobody actually knows, and It’s a pretty shit word. I find it hard to take a motion seriously when the name sounds like it’s been put together by people just shouting words at each other and hoping for the best. However, the idea of ‘normcore’ is the idea of blending in. It’s about the rejection of the exhibition that fashion can lead us to and becoming a ‘blank canvas’..... It’s so uncool, it’s cool. It’s function over fashion, it’s choosing to not make a statement so much so that you are making one…. make any sense? 

What is it that makes ‘normcore’ what it is then? Think your Dad dressed for doing house jobs on a Saturday. It’s about the non descript, the completely ordinary, the un obvious and the practical. For example of this idea slowly seeping it’s way into fashion; heels are a out this season, and there is nothing more fashionable than keeping your foot horizontal. As Stella McCartney delicately puts “there is something about having the confidence to wear a shoe that is not 10 inches tall that sends a message” and that sums up normcore, it’s having the confidence to not have to be extravagant and far out in an industry that relies on being so, and it’s that that proves just how fashionable you actually are. 

With fashion being a pretty fickle industry, where majority it’s not what you know it’s who you know and what you wear, it’s somewhat refreshing for a movement to be going forward that focuses on substance over style rather than the other way round. In an age where the idea of ‘fashion’ has become overwhelmingly popular, where we are drowning in celebrity endorsements and trends, style has become what I like to call ‘photocopy fashion'... we just reproduce it rather than discover it.

However the movement of normcore opposes this. It’s the same as how minimalism came about as a reaction to abstract expressionism, just because you don’t paint the most intricate picture doesn’t mean you appreciate the subject any less. It’s more than a fashion trend, it’s a remark on the idea of fashion itself, and sewing the seeds that perhaps you don’t need to be obviously fashionable to actually appreciate it.

Birkenstock is footwear brand of the year, Veronika Heilbrunner regularly wears running tops and nike socks, and Steve Jobs is a normcore icon. It may have a uninspiring title, but the concept itself is the total opposite, and turns the idea of fashion on top of itself. Making me wonder not am I fashionable enough to be in this industry.... but am I normal enough to prove my worth?

So move over Lady Gaga in your carcass adorned dress and shift aside that peachy bum Kimmy K and your Louboutin dressed feet; and hello Adidas socks, hello black polo necks, hello comfortable footwear.... and welcome to fashion.