T he prominent focus is the examination of the details in looking for clues on the future. That is, that focus has been the tradition of trend sites and fashion publications looking to secure your faith in being prepared for better choices to remain fashion forward.

The problem we have is this holding pattern that is unfairly blamed on designers. They have a duty to balance their vision of the future where they want to lead you with the cultivation of security in creating items that will be sound purchases. Time and time again this blog has take the duty to remind all that fashion is a business, and good business requires producing products that will be sound investments, especially when finance has been a subject of concern this past decade.

With this concern, the penchant to experiment has been delicate. The need for fashion progress and evolution is tempered by strategic design directions that motivate the public to purchase. the return of oversize that was the hallmark of the 80s is a logical direction as most of those clothes are now gone or retailored so that few have access to these and thus the supply chain no longer has to worry about vintage encroaching on profit margins. 

To be sure, there are underlying reasons to return to this comfortable cocooning that this blog has covered previously, surrounding our need to security as fear infantizes us. But other designers are not quite on board with this approach, instead choosing to return to security in form that the 90s brings. The Helmut Lang-inspired lab cut coats and 70s streamlined cuts that became 90s hallmarks speak familiar language to the existing shopping public, so it remains. But we are defining boundaries through the self-examination of our design approaches as we become aware of our enduring embrace of retro as inspiration; how fitting that seam detail comes through in the 2016 Resort collections. These acknowledge the subtlety of detail as prominent in design focus while announcing the lines we draw in our lives. We categorize and compartmentalize to better undestand, and i our currrrent introspection this is a necessary step before we strike boldly forward into the unknown.

There are other telltale signs of acknowledging our awareness, and that will be discussed in the next blog...as our way of drawing a line in the sand, so to speak.