Detroit, The Motor City, is famous for cars and manufacturing. The once industrial hub of America home to once corporate automobile giants General Motors, Ford and Chrysler is reinventing itself with creative industries. Detroitissimi at Pitti Uomo showcased the cities top fashion heads. BM-AC, Bosweel Millinery, Detroit Denim, Deviate, High’s Adventure Gear, K. Walker Collective, Modern Athlete and Stormy Kromer represented a new style of design and production from The Great Lake State. The collective heads shared a passion for quality and a dedication to a less but better model of clothing.
2023 closes. Hello 2024. What do I see as fashion trends in this volatile world?
The influencer movement has come under more scrutiny. The Ferragani Scandal in Italy, a loss of trust by followers. Finally, the increasing AI models used by brands and companies mean a reckoning could be on the horizon for this outreach strategy.
As luxury labels struggle attracting stressed buyers, expect a retreat in many areas. The creative head musical chairs will continue as brands move from conspicuous to quiet style.
Fashion magazines, once trendsetting curators, will continue their free fall still unable to adjust in the digital platform age. Has anyone bought Vogue’s Christmas Issue? Certainly there will be layoffs at publishing houses.
The retail scene is not going to escape, expect less physical stores while the online sites recalibrate. Shoppers should expect return and restocking fees for items sent back as online shops are no longer able to absorb shipping costs.
The Chinese apps grabbed the fast fashion baton and are racing around the fashion track. Temu and Shein have adjusted business models for young buyers to lust for a 1.99 t-shirt.
Sustainability gets the feel good headlines, but has yet to make a real industry economic impact. Big companies will continue practicing greenwashing paying lip service with peppered eco-slogans here and there in ads, but I suspect cash strapped consumers are not in the mood for paying more for better or helping the planet.
Always remember this in 2024: Fashion is cheap. One cannot buy style.
Shein, the Chinese based fast fashion brand is about to have an IPO worth billions. What does this say about consumers? Is sustainable clothing all false virtue? Buyers love following the lifestyle of buying sustainable clothing, but in reality they follow their pockets. They want the cheapest pieces online. It is any wonder there is so much confusion in the fashion business.
In our Before Tacky podcast we spoke about buyers want and what they really buy.
Bauyrzhan Shadibekov talks about Visa Fashion Week Almaty. The CEO discusses the elements of putting together a new professional fashion event from the Eurasia capital. On this episode of the Before Tacky podcast get all the details of an emerging creative style scene.
Cannes Film Festival 2023, a bold red carpet look based on the principles of a circular sustainability. Actress Eugenia Kuzmina graced the Croisette in a dress designed by Mira von der Osten for CRUBA.
Click on the video to find out what made the creation special.
Sustainable Fashion on the Red Carpet is subject of the next podcast. For the Cannes Film Festival, fashion brand CRUBA made a VCR Tape Dress. How did the bold woven look get created for Actress Eugenia Kuzmina? Stay tuned for the Before Tacky Podcast.
An excerpt from Before Tacky Podcast the team spoke about Instagram’s affect on fast fashion. Trying to live the large life while caring about sustainable fashion is a contradiction for the social media set.
Brands are brandishing green credentials for the sake of being caring, or at least on the surface. Green is the new Black Dress in fashion. Suddenly, designers and labels have become Earth Conscious. Walk down any main street or shopping mall, retailers are bragging about sustainable clothing lines.
During the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival, Fashion Reimagined unspooled at the New York cinema gathering.
Becky Hunter’s documentary follows rural born designer Amy Powney’s quest searching for sustainable materials. The London based fashioner practices what she preaches, all the more remarkable because in the times of long, at times untraceable, long supply chains.
“Passion is the bridge that takes you from pain to change”. Frida Kahlo. How does an independent label afford costs associated sustainability? As the story unfolds, compromising seems to be the easiest solution. Amy and her Mother of Pearl fashion label team go from supplier to supplier with with hens teeth questions and requests for green goods. The quest leads to a South American supplier for wool. The viewer has to give the fashion designer a high mark for effort.
Hunter and Powney are on a stretch of terrain going from compelling to bordering on molly coddled righteousness for a moral cause. A wool sweater from Mother of Pearl retails for $500, not exactly affordable for many consumers.
Is Fashion Reimagined a soft commentary on disposable culture? No. More, a personal story about trying to be true to ones beliefs in the face of globalization and harmful production practices. Given the headlines about disposable fast fashion, cheering a dedicated fashion designer searching for an ethical way to produce clothes may not be a bad thing. Meanwhile, go online to buy a Mother of Pearl sweater on sale.
