New style?

Style magazines and fashion columns have already started predicting what will be hot for the coming season. Yet again, styles and trends are repeating themselves. Whether it’s boating or safari, block colours or crazy patterns, the rules don’t change fundamentally and we just end up having a revised, updated version of the last year’s fashion. Same goes for macro trends. Over the past ten years we’ve seen a resurgence of 60s mini-dresses, 70s wide-leg trousers and 80s stripes and shoulder pads. No real newness, just the past with a modern twist. Can fashion brands really drive style innovation? Is there a genuine need for a new millennium style? Designer brands such as Prada, Miu Miu and Hussein Chalayan have introduced new materials and production techniques to deliver exquisite pieces of design. Comme des Garçons explores new ways of integrating fashion with architecture and visual communication. But the only innovation in look sits in different combinations of elements we’ve already seen. Fashion brands should look back at what makes them unique, and use their brand to inspire a genuinely new style.

23 May 2008, posted by Giorgio Rondelli