Hey guys,

I haven't posted in aaaaaaaages, I'm doing a fashion forecasting project and here is my trend report, my editorial and flash to come soon (plus street style pictures and a fashion shoot)

Much Love <3


¬My Trend- Nextism
It is 2015, and the human race has invented 5G, 4D, microchips that can be used to pay for items instead of a card, phones that are just LCD glass screens and cars that hover. This may seem a bit far-fetched, but imagine how much technology has evolved since 2010, and the grasp on the speed of high tech contraptions tends to become a bit clearer. It is already possible to pay for things using a smart phone; so surely it will not be long before it is an eye or finger print alone that determines entire account details. Plus modern technology has much more of an artistic influence than it ever used to; be it designs for cases/covers; or layouts and colour schemes within the gadgets themselves. Whether it is fashion, art or science, Newism has been a big consumer trend for a while now. But the next big thing is well overdue. The future needs to make way for Nextism to take centre stage.
To some, the British fashion industry lost its shock factor after the 1980’s/90’s. Designers like Vivienne Westwood are still successful and setting the trends, but shock and awe is directed at Japanese/Chinese designers, brands, and in particular street style. Many niche fashion magazines like Dazed and Confused are becoming more art orientated than ever-with the most recent issue revolving around Chinese fantasy.
What drives Nextism is the notion of taking innovative and absurd fashion and technology from Eastern society and bringing it back to Western culture. It is exciting and refreshing; it will breathe life back into the United Kingdom. It will give Britain its edge back, but it will have extreme amounts of fun in the process.
Nextism is heavily influenced by technology, the shapes, the innovation, the brains behind the innovation and the countries responsible for the brains; and countries in the East, like China or Japan, seem to be leading away. Western society loves gadgetry from overseas and as more and more are buying into Iphones and Ipads, the most logical step to take is truly buying into the Easts eccentric and totally staggering fashion. The concept behind Nextism is taking the brightest and wackiest minds from British fashion design (cue John Galliano) and combining them with the graphic, brightly coloured shockers from Japanese brands like Comme des Garçons (founded and run by Rei Kawakubo). Inspiration has also been drawn from many modern devices around at the moment; from Ipads to electric cars to 3D televisions. The story for this trend is taking the quiet, the subtle and the generally quite small and reconstructing it into something big, loud, and good old fashioned in-your-face. It is oversized, it is bold, and it is a little bit absurd.
The ideal consumer is a very creative, eccentric, unique individual who is not afraid to stand out and go above and beyond what is socially acceptable to be fashionable. This consumer can be male or female, but the trend’s end result will most likely be womenswear. This consumer can be any age, so long as they are capable of using modern technology like phones, laptops, ipads, macs, etc, and are confident in using various social networking websites like Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Blogger, Pintrest etc. This demographic is young at heart, with spare cash and an incentive to be one step ahead of everyone else. One vital characteristic, however, is the target market will need to be self-motivated, ideally within art, design and media, where they can use the clothes to reflect the characteristics of their business; but it is not a corporate look. This creative industry can be something broad, for instance media, design, fashion, film and TV, or something more specific like photography, architecture or interior design. They have to have the time to social network, as well as use all these high tech gadgets and devices that will be coming into existence from now until 2015. Finally, they need to have the money for all this expensive gadgetry, fashion garments and accessories; so their business needs to be successful.
In terms of colours, initially quite child-like colours seemed to be the most appropriate choice for the demographic (i.e. young at heart), but they proved to be too primary- like yellow and red- and were described as ‘retro’. This message was not supposed to be portrayed. To counter this issue, mood boards were constructed with some inspirational magazine cut outs, and significant colours were chosen from that. The end result was equally bright and vibrant, but with a more secondary impression- like purple and orange. Plus, the secondary colours depicted a much more modern and high-tech message, with colours the target market would easily be able to decipher and personally identify with. Coloured knits and faux fur emerged as a pattern when researching into fabrics- Dazed and Confused and LOVE magazine are just two publications that encompass Nextism and wool and fake fur play a big part in their photo stories.
The shapes in the silhouettes are very dramatic and geometric, and incorporate the concept of technology, fashion and art coalescing into one aesthetic. Sleeves and hems do not sit naturally on the shoulders, elbows and waists; the wearer automatically demands attention with the daring colour palette and immense mass of material surrounding them.
Nextism can be seen to filter  into a more achievable and relatable version on the high street, then spreading into more creative outlooks, like interior design (something for Ikea to really experiment with), automobile colour forecasting, and eventually, brand new technology.