Dominant Trends

Last week for my personal studies I had been asked to go away at the weekend and look for dominant trends in six different fields, Colour, Garment, Pattern, Graphic design/illustration, Environment/Interiors and Message/Idea. My first uni seminar this week was based around this idea of 'dominant trends'. In groups we discussed what we had found to be the dominant trends in each of the areas we had been asked to research into and shared our ideas. I am lucky enough to have access to WGSN through uni, so this was a great resource when completing this task. I also used Vouge.com and a range of other magazines alongside WGSN to gather information.

In our groups we were asked to place each of the dominant trends we had found into categories.
Mega Trend: Global forces of development and evolution that impacts anything from business to cultures for example, urbanisation, recession or an ageing population.
Macro Trend: 'The most important trends', these are large scale sustained shifts in consumer change an example of a macro trend could be 'Healthy living', or 'The outdoors'.
Micro Trend: A small trend, which can involve just 1% of the population. A micro trend can often be part of a wider macro trend.  
Fad: A very temporary, short-lived trend. A fad quickly gains popularity however declines quickly also.

In this blog post I will share a few of my preferred, most interesting findings which I have displayed in a mood board-esque style.

I began looking into colour trends as I felt this would be the easiest and most obvious trend category to work with, after all colour is everywhere. My findings proved that momentarily blossom pink was a dominant trend colour. I feel it is the perfect colour to guide us smoothly through the transition from summer to autumn. I decided to place this colour trend in the micro trend category as I consider it as more than a fad, as this colour makes up part of the 'pastel' colour palette which is also a dominant trend which we have seen year upon year.

Colour Trend: Blossom Pink 

Next I began searching for dominant garment trends, to which I felt the turtle neck was a strong contender. This garment grew as a trend last year and often appearing on a chunky knit jumper, I believe the turtle neck will stay a dominant trend again this season, due to it being so practical during the cold months. I placed this garment trend in the micro trend category as although it gained popularity last year it has managed to remain popular into this A/W season, whereas a fad would lose popularity and interest in a significantly shorter time frame.

Garment Trend: Polo Neck 

When researching examples of trends which fell into the 'Environment/ Interiors' category I came across the pendant light. The pendant light has appeared not only within homes, but has also been a major trend within visual merchandising. I placed the pendant light trend in the fad category because I feel that it reflects the economic downturn, being a fad which has stemmed from the mega trend, 'the recession'. The pendant light is minimalistic and bare so became popular within the recession as it was cheap due to its simplicity. As we overcome the recession I believe this trend will begin to decline, hence why I have labelled the pendant light a fad.

Environment/Interior Trend: The Pendant Light

Hopefully I have managed to give you an insight into dominant trends and types of trend through this blog post. There are more trend related posts to come in the near future, so its worth keeping an eye out if trend is something you're interested in!

Love, Isabella x

Photo Credits: Google images, Pinterest