Apparel Trend Forecast Report 2014 Essay

Since its beginning, the brand been characterised by its gender defying designs, mixing masculinity and femininity in a very contemporary way and creating the idea of a shared closet. “It’s not gender for me, it’s just clothing,” Jonathan Anderson said. “I feel that in a modern culture, if it’s about gender then it’s a very dated concept.” This had been particularly notable in his menswear collections due to society’s more typically conservative attitudes towards the way men dress. J.W. Anderson has been known to send male models wearing mini skorts, crop tops, leather dresses and ruffled knee-high boots down the runways. This uncompromising approach of avant-garde minimal androgyny is a solid USP and provides a niche within the ready-to-wear market. According to Anderson in an interview with The Business of Fashion; “I think the brand will always be about androgyny,” he continues. “I love the relationship between men and women — that coupling. Men with men, women with women, women and men, that kind of mixture of sex and sharing of garments — I think it’s normal. It’s about wearing clothes that tell a story and an emotion; it’s not so much about gender.”

People indulge in clothes shopping every day and often do not consider the changes that occurred throughout time that led to the development of mass produced clothing for both men and women. As a result of the Civil War, the production of clothing shifted from homemade clothing to clothing mass produced in factories. After the Civil War, Urbanization along with new developments, such as advertising and the new, wealthy urban class, increased the demand for mass produced women’s clothing and clothing stores that made clothing readily available.

The futuristic looks of 60s clothing were revived, as were the neon colors of the 80s, and the “hippie” style of the 70s (Korsnes n.p.). The fashion of the decade got many elements from previous styles, and many old trends were redesigned and made popular again. Thus, a lot of vintage clothing styles became very popular in this era. Because of globalization, designers based their items on various styles from around the world, causing the fashion of the 2000s to be more diverse, and become a mix and match of different styles. This increase in the variety of the styles made it easier to express one’s identity through fashion (Rindfuss

Throughout the 1920s through the 1950s Women’s clothing in America was affected by World War II, which lead to the exploration of different styles, the encounter of new trends and the exchange of ideas and new styles.

Fashion is very important in modern day society, and can be seen all around. Most of what people know about fashion today came from the fashion during the renaissance. From the vibrant fabrics to the spectacular jewels, renaissance fashion has been thoroughly threaded in the fashion of modern society. Modern day women often wear shorty, fun gowns, tightly fitting jeans, and lower cut tops. Popular fashion trends for men in modern society include saggy jeans, V-neck shirts, and stylish watches. “A fashion is merely a form of ugliness so unbearable that we are compelled to alter it every six months” (Oscar Wilde). Fashion in modern day society is ever changing, but most changes do not stray too far from the original product.

Materials such as wool, silk, and cotton had been used to manufacture uniforms for the servicemen and measures were taken to ration clothing for civilians. Women were more creative by showing their sense of style without expense or waste. Contrastingly, the highly competitive fashion industry today constantly drives to encourage and entice consumers to visit stores more frequently by aggressively merchandising fashion, indicating a shorter life cycle and higher profit margins from the sale of fast selling merchandise. Consumers today are more focused and demanding, forcing fashion retailers to instantly deliver the right product at the right time. Money worries, job-related challenges, and pressures about body image are concerns that directly impact fashion choices

Of the hundreds of named brand clothing that form part of the retail and fashion industry I chose to compare, for my analysis, Abercrombie & Fitch, Forever 21, American Eagle, and H&M. These stores are prominent, well-known for selling apparel, shoes, and accessories by the means of offering sales and promotions to their customers. This is a clever strategy for attracting customers, allowing them to believe that they bought goods at affordable, convenient prices – and not to mention the prestigious name prescribed to the clothing brands. Using keyhole.co as my main source, I obtained relevant and valuable information regarding the status of these brands. My intentions were to compare a period of 14 days, however, due to the limited access that I received from my free trial, the program only allowed me to see fewer of the dates than I anticipated. I want to take this opportunity and mention ahead of time that due to the various and distinctive products that are sold from these stores, when looking for the “spending capacity” I decided to focus on shirts/ jeans for men and women and compare the prices among them since each of these retailers carry those items and as a way to make this report easier to contrast and comprehend. Also, when approaching the section of “setting”, I screen-shotted some of the images on Instagram and made them into a collage to separate the type of clothes and trends that each of these brands sell currently. In the following modules

Given that Australia is the only advanced economy that didn’t fall into a recession as a direct result of the global financial crisis according to the Reserve Bank Chairmen and other leading economist, today, the Australia’s fashion industry is headed for a major crisis, affecting the established

The fashion industry is rapidly growing and constantly generating new fashion trends almost weekly. Fashion for some may seem ridiculous and unnecessary; but fashion is not just a meaningless usage of article of clothing or farcical materials sew together for coverage. There is more to fashion than meets the eyes, fashion is precious and significant. It is a reflection of self-image, it speak the ream about who we are and how we review ourselves. Not only is fashion the reflection of self-image but also the reflection of our history as Coco Channel have said, “Fashion is not something that exist in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.” Fashion

The Canadian Apparel Federation is facing numerous challenges as the apparel industry is very competitive and consumer tastes and preferences are constantly changing. Our study will present some of the major trends developing in the apparel industry and what companies can do to capitalize on the market and distinguish themselves from the competitors.

‘style, branding, colour and fashionability’ of the clothing as a tool for the audience to

The U.S. women’s apparel industry market is mature, given that the average growth rate from 2005 to 2007 was 4.66%. Within the industry, there are 6 categories of clothing in which companies compete: haute couture, designer, bridge, better, moderate, and budget. Each category targets customers with different needs and different price ranges, with haute coutre and designer clothing ranging upwards from $10,000 and moderate

The 1920’s, also called the roaring 20’s, was a time of change. During this time period the fashion for both men and women was changing immensely. The aftermath of WWI caused America to enter a vigorous era. As a result of the role of women during the war, many customs and morals were changing. The Stock Market started booming, many new dances and music came about, and women got the right to vote and enter the workforce. There was an uprise in almost every activity, and fashion was definitely one (Tirocchi, Anna and Laura). Although fashion varied throughout the decade, one could notice a drastic change from the prior fashion.

“Fashion used to come from one source at a time, be it the street, the runways or the entertainment business. The interesting thing about today is that influences come from high and low-everything from couture to Target.” –Michael Kors

(2012) This leads me to question if fashion apparel is competing with industry’s sportswear markets by compromising the performance enhancing qualities for garments that are simply just aesthetically pleasing. (Morganosky, 1984) elaborates on this stating that consumers are willing to pay higher prices for apparel with a high aesthetic value regardless of the low functional value. Ko et al. (2012) agrees consumers’ value fashion and quality however argues they are not willing to pay a high price for something new and innovative. (Dickson & Pollack, 2000) add to this statement in relation to sports garments with female consumers regarding aesthetic aspects such as style and brand characteristics to be more essential than the functional aspects such as comfort and other physical performance-enhancing features. Similarly (Eckma et al., 1990) reports on the evaluation of purchase behaviour in women’s apparel. Style was chosen as more important in determining rejection or adoption of the garments. A visual criterion seems to have the greatest impact on selection of apparel such as fashion-ability or popularity, aesthetic appeal, and self-expression (Eckma et al., 1990). Although it seems there is a divide in opinion when it comes to retail pricing the majority of research studies seems to suggest there is a major emphasis on the aesthetic appearance.