COVID-19 upended fashion trends, but will they last? History offers some clues - Fast Company

COVID-19 upended fashion trends, but will they last? History offers some clues - Fast Company
8 fashion trends that should disappear in 2021, according to our style reporter - Insider - INSIDER
Pierre Cardin, ground-breaking fashion designer, dies at 98 - CNBC
Twitter Reveals Most Popular Fashion and Beauty Trends of 2020 - WWD
The 29 Best Fashion Moments of 2020 - Vogue

Posted: 29 Dec 2020 03:00 AM PST

For years, I've resisted the lure of the sweatpant, from the velour Juicy Couture sweatsuits of the 2000s to the Lululemon joggers of the 2010s. But 2020 broke me. When the pandemic hit the U.S. and it became clear I'd be confined to my home, I stocked up on the softest, comfiest sweatpants I could find. I've stayed wrapped in their cosy embrace for nine months straight.

And I'm far from alone. The pandemic has transformed consumers' relationship with clothes. For one thing, we're buying fewer garments. Fashion industry revenues are expected to drop by a third this year, the equivalent of $640 billion in lost sales. When we do shop, we buy the most casual clothes we can find, like pajamas, loungewear, and, most notably, sweatpants. Purchases of sweats increased by 80% in April, and Google searches for the garment hit a 14-year high.

As 2021 approaches, there are big questions looming over the fashion industry. Will Americans give up their sweatpants when the pandemic is over? Or has fashion permanently shifted? The answer is still unclear, but for a hint at what we might wear after the crisis, we can look to the past.

The backlash vs. the lasting effect

Many designers—including Prabal Gurung, Tracy Reese, and Thakoon—have told me they expect fashion to come back in a big way after the pandemic. They believe people will want to shed the drab, shapeless loungewear and return to the world in glamorous, trendy outfits once more. "Fashion is a pendulum," says Steven Kolb, the head of the Council of Fashion Designers of America. "It goes from one extreme to another and that will happen again here."

This has happened before. During World War II, for instance, women wore jeans and overalls as they took over men's jobs. Then, in 1947, Christian Dior unveiled his debut collection, which featured figure-hugging jackets, fitted waists, and A-line skirts. It was a radically feminine look that repudiated the utilitarian, masculinized garments of the previous years—and that was the point. Around the world, women swooned over this style, dubbed the "New Look," which became a dominant fashion trend of the late 1940s and early 1950s. "Suddenly everyone was wearing corsets and full skirts because they could buy fabric and be fashionable again," says historian Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, author of the forthcoming The Way We Wed.

On the surface, it looked like the pendulum had swung in a big way. But Chrisman-Campbell says that when you look closer, the story is more complicated. The war years normalized women wearing pants and other garments that were previously reserved only for men. That trend persisted in the decades that followed. "After a crisis, there is a backlash, but there is also a lasting effect," she says. "Both of these can be true at the same time."

In the aftermath of this pandemic, it's likely that some people will reject the ultra-relaxed lockdown look, but the shift toward comfort may endure. "People are likely to really enjoy dressing up when they can go to weddings and parties after having been deprived of them," Chrisman-Campbell says. "But at the same time, a lot of these changes will stay with us."

The lockdown look isn't new

Part of the reason casualness is likely here to stay is because it's an extension of an earlier trend. We can see this in what's deemed appropriate to wear to the office, from suits in the '90s, to khakis in the 2000s. In recent years, some workers—particularly white men in the creative or tech sectors—have felt comfortable wearing hoodies and joggers to work.

During the pandemic, it makes sense that we leaned into this look, as many people wanted comfortable outfits to wear as they worked from home. Crucially, the supply chain was already set up to easily churn out more of these garments. When designers like Misha Nonoo and Thakoon realized consumers wanted sweats, they were able to pivot to making them because the materials were widely available and factories knew how to manufacture them.

It's not the first time this has happened. During moments of crisis, fashion pivots to meet the needs of the moment, but it tends to draw from trends that already existed. In the French Revolution, for instance, you could be attacked for dressing like a wealthy aristocrat, so women shifted toward wearing simpler white gowns. These looks actually first emerged in the 1780s, the decade before the revolution, but it suddenly became more politically expedient to wear them. On top of that, it was harder to get the materials needed for more lavish gowns. "If these historical examples are useful to us, then we would not expect a completely new fashion once we come out of COVID, but rather an exaggeration of trends that were already in existence before March," says Valerie Steele, director of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology.

More sustainable clothing

Historically, major world events have changed aesthetic preferences, but they've also shaken up manufacturing. During World War II, for instance, women simply couldn't make the same dresses because manufacturing plants were deployed to produce cotton uniforms and silk parachutes.

[Source Image: Leon_Cheung/Blendswap (globe base mesh)]

We're seeing a similar disruption take place now. The lockdowns forced factories and stores to shutter for extended periods of time. As a result, many designers have chosen to make fewer collections and to stretch out a single collection across many months. Consumers, for their part, just aren't buying as many clothes. Chrisman-Campbell believes these shifts might hasten another trend that was emerging in fashion: sustainability. "A pandemic, like a war, will accelerate trends that were already underway, and also disrupt the normal workings of the fashion industry," she says. "A few years ago, we were all talking about how fast fashion was bad for the planet and workers. These issues have been heightened and focused by the pandemic."

Achim Berg, McKinsey's head of the global apparel, fashion, and luxury group, says the fashion industry has been working to become more sustainable over the last decade, but there's been a narrative that big change takes time. The pandemic has upended this argument. "Industry experts have said we can't force consumers to change their behavior and we can't count on the government to provide support," Berg says. "Look outside: We can do a lot."

All of this is likely to affect how fashion plays out over the next few years. It's possible that consumers will adjust to owning fewer clothes. And those who want to wear more dramatic, glamorous pieces might choose to use clothing rental sites or buy secondhand, two business models that have emerged over the last decade.

But ultimately, FIT's Steele says the next phase of fashion's evolution will really come down to our individual choices. Moments of global crisis create the opportunity for major change, but how it plays out depends on the values of everyday consumers. If the pandemic puts an end to the wild overconsumption that has been a hallmark of the fashion industry, it will be because you and I make the deliberate choice to buy less. "In a funny way, it's us, the ordinary people who have more power in the fashion industry than celebrities, designers, or those who decide whether we go to war," Steele says. "It really comes down to what consumers are doing. If they happen to have money to buy clothes, the future of the industry depends on the values that matter to these people."

8 fashion trends that should disappear in 2021, according to our style reporter - Insider - INSIDER

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 02:58 PM PST

Some of the biggest fashion trends of 2020 included tiny handbags, corsets, and low-rise pants with a visible thong.
Although celebrities embraced a lot of these looks, I found many of the styles to be overhyped and overworn.
From tiny sunglasses to even tinier handbags, many of the worst fashion trends of 2020 were rooted in impracticality.
As we move into a new year, I rounded up some of the most popular styles from this year that I hope will stay in the past.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

The year 2020 was marked by challenges, but people still expressed themselves through style.

From the resurgence of nostalgic looks like tie-dye and tiny sunglasses to textiles like colorful leather and crochet, this year saw a variety of memorable fashion trends, many of which were reminiscent of a bygone era.

As Insider's style reporter, I even put some of the most popular fashion items of the year to the test, including the internet-famous Jacquemus tiny purse.

While this year proved how fashion remains a source of creativity and comfort, even in unprecedented times, it also brought its share of impractical styles — like kitten heels and exposed thongs — that I wish would disappear in 2021.

Pierre Cardin, ground-breaking fashion designer, dies at 98 - CNBC

Posted: 29 Dec 2020 04:18 AM PST

Designer Pierre Cardin poses during the Pierre Cardin Paris Haute Couture New Collection launch at Maxim's on November 26, 2013 in Paris.

Richard Bord | Getty Images

Pierre Cardin, who during his more than seven decades in fashion brought geometric shapes to haute couture and put his name on everything from clothing to furniture to perfume to pens, died Tuesday. He was 98.

His death was announced by composer Laurent Petitgirard, perpetual secretary of the French Academy of Fine Arts.

Cardin died in a hospital in Neuilly in the west of Paris, his family told Agence France-Presse.

Cardin went from the world of bespoke high fashion for private clients to ready-to-wear designs for the masses.

"They said pret-a-porter will kill your name, and it saved me," Cardin once said.

The son of a wealthy wine merchant, Cardin was born near Venice on July 2, 1922. He and his family moved from Fascist Italy to France when he was 2.

Cardin was only 14 when he started as a tailor's apprentice. At 23, he moved to Paris, studying architecture and working with the Paquin fashion house and later with Elsa Schiaparelli. In the French capital, he met the film director Jean Cocteau and helped design masks and costumes for the 1946 film "La Belle et La Bete."

He moved to Christian Dior in 1946, working as a pattern cutter on the feminine "New Look" fashion of post-World War II. Four years later, he opened his own fashion house, designing costumes for theater.

In 1953, he presented his first women's collection and the following year, he founded his first ladies boutique, Eve, and unveiled the bubble dress. The garment, a loose-fitting dress that gathers at the waist and hem and balloons at the thighs, won international acclaim. Soon, his fashions were being worn by such bold-face names as Eva Peron, Rita Hayworth, Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot, Jeanne Moreau, Mia Farrow and Jacqueline Kennedy.

Pierre Cardin at opening of Musee Pierre Cardin on November 13, 2014 in Paris.

Pascal Le Segretain | Getty Images

In 1957, he traveled to Japan, becoming one of the first European designers to explore Asian influences. He later was a pioneer in getting China to break out of its drab, militaristic Mao Zedong look.

Also in 1957, he opened another Paris boutique, this time for men and called Adam, and featuring colorful ties and printed shirts. He later made the iconic collarless suits for The Beatles and helped dress such clients as Gregory Peck. Rex Harrison and Mick Jagger.

"Before me, no designer made clothes for men, only tailors did," Cardin said in a 2009 interview posted by Agence France-Presse. "Today the image of designers is more focused on men than on women, right or wrong. So I was right 40, 50 years ago."

In 1959, he shocked the fashion world by presenting a ready-to-wear show at a department store, Printemps in Paris. Following the show, he was expelled from the elite Chambre Syndicale, the French association of haute couture designers. (He was later reinstated.)

French fashion designer Pierre Cardin who opened his own fashion house in 1950.

Reg Lancaster | Getty Images

Over-the-top fashions from out of this world

With the advent of U.S.-Russia space race in the late 1950s and '60s, he launched the "Cosmocorps" collection — over-the-top unisex fashions from out of this world. His Space Age look included helmets, google, tunics and thigh-high boots.

"My favorite garment is the one I invent for a life that does not yet exist, the world of tomorrow," he said.

Or as he put it in the 2009 interview with AFP: "Fashion and design are not the same. Fashion is what you can wear. Design can be unpleasant and unpopular but it's creative. So design is where the real value lies."

By the 1970s, he became a pioneer in branding, putting his name on practically everything, including cars — American Motors Corp.'s Cardin AMX Javelin starting in 1971 — perfume, pens, cigarettes, even sardines. He was dubbed a "branding visionary" by The New York Times, which noted in a 2002 piece that some 800 products bearing his name were being sold in more than 140 countries, bringing in $1 billion a year.

In 1981, he bought one of Paris' best-known names, Maxim's restaurant, reportedly for more than $20 million.

"I've done it all! I even have my own water! I'll do perfumes, sardines. Why not? During the war, I would have rather smelled the scent of sardines than of perfume. If someone asked me to do toilet paper, I'd do it. Why not?" he said in the 2002 interview with the Times.

He loved to use geometric and weird designs. He developed a fabric, Cardine, for embossing abstract shapes on garments. One of his residences was the Palais Bulles (Bubble Palace), a bizarre collection of circular structures — a la "The Flintstones" meet "The Jetsons" — overlooking the Mediterranean near Cannes.

At his Palais Bulles, Pierre Cardin celebrates his 80th birthday and 50 years of fashion designing in May 2003.

Alain Benainous | Getty Images

He also owned and restored Marquis de Sade's castle in Provence, where he hosted concerts and opera performances. "Cardin has perfect pitch of the eye," Architectural Digest said in a 2007 story about the restoration of the chateau, originally built in the 15th century.

Cardin, despite being gay, had a five-year affair with Moreau, "queen of the French New Wave cinema." During the affair, he maintained a relationship with his longtime artistic director and life partner, Andre Oliver, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Oliver died in 1993.

Cardin's fascination with space took him to NASA, where he tried on an Apollo 11 space suit in 1971, two years after the first lunar landing. In 2019, 50 years after the first lunar landing, the Brooklyn Museum staged a Cardin retrospective. In the catalog, he was asked about his vision of fashion a half century into the future:

"In 2069, we will all walk on the moon or Mars wearing my 'Cosmocorps' ensembles. Women will wear Plexiglas cloche hats and tube clothing. Men will wear elliptical pants and kinetic tunics."

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Twitter Reveals Most Popular Fashion and Beauty Trends of 2020 - WWD

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 10:08 AM PST

Fashion and beauty trends looked different this year due to the coronavirus pandemic and subsequent stay-at-home orders, and many people took to social media to talk about their new preferences for comfortable clothing and at-home beauty treatments.

New data from Twitter shows that the most popular fashion trends of 2020 fell in line with working remotely and quarantining, with tweets about ath-leisure and loungewear styles increasing.

Twitter's data reveals that tweets about pajamas in 2020 increased by 66 percent, followed by joggers or sweatpants increasing by 56 percent, "baggy" clothing rising by 20 percent and hoodies climbing 15 percent.

Although people were stuck in their homes last spring, Twitter saw a higher tweet frequency about fashion with an 8 percent year-over-year increase in April. This year, Twitter saw four tweets about fashion every second, with tweets about shoes every two seconds, accessories every four seconds and shopping every four seconds.

Each month also saw dramatic increases in tweets about fashion and beauty trends. In April, Twitter saw tweets about hair dyeing — likely because of hair salons remaining closed — increase by 759 percent. During the summer, tweets about athletic apparel increased 28 percent in July as the weather got warmer and tweets about outdoor brands jumped 182 percent in August as people were increasingly gathering outside or looking to outdoor activities.

The resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement in the summer also impacted how users were tweeting about fashion. Twitter saw tweets on racial equality increase 423 percent as shoppers took to the platform to discuss the importance of shopping at Black-owned brands. The Black Lives Matter movement itself saw a year-over-year increase of 5,454 percent on Twitter.

As people started their holiday shopping in early October, Twitter saw that tweets about small businesses increased by 570 percent as consumers were looking to support smaller brands amid the pandemic.

Charli D'Amelio, James Charles and Addison Rae Among Top Growing Creators on Twitter

WATCH: How to Create Runway Ready Nails at Home

The 29 Best Fashion Moments of 2020 - Vogue

Posted: 28 Dec 2020 07:01 AM PST

It's an understatement to say 2020 was a tough year for fashion. Department stores closed, indie labels shuttered, and consumer spending tanked. At times, the future of the industry seemed incredibly uncertain. Many of us even questioned its relevance: In the midst of a pandemic, a social justice uprising, and a looming climate crisis, what's the point of new clothes?

This wasn't the moment to throw up our hands in defeat, though. Designers who embraced change and viewed 2020 as an opportunity to redefine fashion's importance, rather than diminish it, delivered some truly unforgettable moments. They gave us new ways to engage with fashion—through video games, livestreams, augmented reality, and even DIY experiments—and, in many ways, helped bring the business back down to earth. For the most part, we all experienced those moments the same way: safely behind our screens. It was a unifying and humbling exercise, and a reminder of what—and who—fashion is really for.

Despite the ongoing struggles, we're confident fashion is changing for the better. This year accelerated many of the trends that needed to happen, especially when it came to inclusivity, diversity, and sustainability. As we look to 2021 with hope and optimism, we're revisiting the moments that shaped 2020 and continue to push us forward.

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"winter clothes for girls" - Google News