California Apparel News

While some apparel companies are focused on forecasting the trends six months out, the Worth Global Style Network (www.wgsn.com) has its sights on Autumn/Winter 2008 and 2009.

Sally Lohan, the company’s West Coast editor, gave a very broad view of what consumers might be hankering for in the next 18 to 24 months in an overview presented June 11 at the Standard Downtown Los Angeles.

“Our trends cover a wealth of inspiration,” said the editor, whose London-based company offers subscription-based online research, trend analysis and news for the fashion industry.

WGSN’s long-termview on trends is a conceptual look at social and cultural phenomena that shape consumers’ tastes globally.

As the seasons move closer, the trend analysis gets more detailed, establishing product-specific trends and highlighting key colors, shapes and styling for men’s, women’s and children’s apparel.

The company, established in 1998 by Julian and MarcWorth, recently launched a close-toseason forecasting service that looks at trends three to six months away.

“It is no longer unusual for designers and buyers to be working on three seasons at once,” Lohan said. “They can be looking far ahead to consider emerging trends and consumer attitudes; looking mid-term for developing seasonal ranges; and, increasingly, looking to fast turnaround and fast-fashion items.”

For Autumn/Winter 2008 and 2009, WGSN sees four conceptual trends that are wide open for interpretation.

Curated

Most consumers can’t be satisfied just by having lots of things, but sustainable businesses offer an ambience of escape and addiction. They will have carefully designed products and services that bring the world to consumers.

Key words are “skilled,” “idiosyncratic,” “intelligent,” “re-enacted” and “personal.”

“Seijo Ishi Select is a great retail example of the curated trend,” Lohan said of the Japanese company. “The store has taken the convenience store and elevated it to make it feel like it is a new food retailing division of LVMH rather than a spin-off from a suburban Tokyo grocery store.”

The interior has elegantly directed spot lamps, soothing wood tones and textures.

Retailers need to offer an edited selection of favorite items and a special ambience.

Another aspect of this trend is reformulated versions of old things with new elements. To celebrate Sir Laurence Olivier’s 100th birthday, the Brighton Festival showed a digitally remastered print of the actor’s 1944 film “Henry V,” paired with a live performance of William Walton’s original orchestral score.

The Orangerie museum in Paris is reinventing one of its more famous exhibitions that took place in 1934. “The Painters of Reality in France in the 17th Century” is resituated in its political and intellectual context.

New frontiers

Consumers are searching for innovation, stimulation and how to make a difference. They are embracing controversy and change.

Boundaries such as age, convention and location are becoming irrelevant as consumers search for a progressive, sustainable way of living.

Key words are “community,” “exploration,” “progress,” “pioneers” and “independent.”

One example of this is the “Edible Estates” project launched by Fritz Haeg in nine cities in the United States. Haeg turned unused front lawns into vegetable gardens, highlighting the artist’s concern with land use and food production.

Another example is “Cornhenge,” the last phase of a corn-planting art project at Los Angeles State Historic Park near Chinatown. Tall, round bales of harvested cornstalk fiber formed an organic sculpture with skyscrapers as a towering backdrop.

Hand-in-hand with this concept is the “greentailing” trend, which is popping up around the world.

Harrods, the venerable English department store, urged customers this spring to find their green thumbs by working in the flagship’s rooftop allotment gardens. The patches of dirt produced vegetables immediately sold in Harrods’ food department.

WGSN sees landscaped gardens fronting supermarkets and big-box retail stores being split into smaller edifices that provide a village environment with big windows letting in nature.

Disturbed

WGSN’s trend observers have tapped into artistic creators who produce materials that stem from a sinister inner world and mutated beings. The mood focuses on freakish themes and opening up the inner depths of our subconscious.

Artists who fall into this category are American director David Lynch, Mexican film director Guillermo del Toro of “Pan’s Labyrinth” fame and Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

Key words to bear in mind are “mutate,” “obscure,” “confrontational,” “darker” and “bizarre.”

“It is a world that is both deeply strange and unapologetic about its oddness,” Lohan said. “The Gothic trend we have seen of old is developing into something more substantial yet less obvious.”

Elusive

This trend highlights the temporary nature of our world, where things are always changing.

Key words here are “light,” “fleeting,” “flow” and “evolve.”

“We place value in the beauty of transience, particularly in relation to nature,” Lohan said.

“We have looked at artists and thinkers who reflect the constant evolution of seasons by letting unpredictable forces take control as well as those who experiment.”

The WGSN trend team looked at light as a medium and how it changes things by reflecting, fragmenting and refracting.

This theme led them to artist Scott Wade, who lets the black windows of his Mini Cooper get dirty and then uses them as a canvas to create temporary art works, and artist Tim Knowles, who attaches pens to the tips of tree branches and allows the changing movement of the wind to dictate the final composition drawn on a white canvas.