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Fashion Observed


Trend observations with a sociological eye from afar...

by Darryl S. Warren  

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Information Age Overload

Our social networks are indeed a marvel of mankind’s ingenuity in an ability to confirm our status as a social animal. We have found a way to transcend distance into real-time exchange not only of ideas and sentiments, but to illustrate them as well. Not since the advent of the telegraph and the telephone have we seen such an influential mode of communication development, and with each step the immediacy enhances with more enriched communications that become more sophisticated with each incarnation.

How does this translate to fashion and trends? The speed and amount of information shared influences inspiration. With increased speed a designer has more opportunity to create with better relevance. As more information comes available the designer has more choice of what to include as source inspiration. Too many choices are not necessarily a good thing.

In fact there is a theory called the Choice Overload hypothesis that has been explored and studies since the fourteenth century. A more recent series of experiments in 2000 by Ivengar and Lepper reinvigorated interest of the possible consequences. The results showed that when too many choices were offered it attracted more interest but sales in fact dropped compared to when offering fewer choices. This contrasted with a study in 2009 by Scheibehenne, Greifeneder & Todd, who found negligible differences in their results but did find that having more options within a single category made choosing more difficult as it took more time and effort to decide and led to more second-guessing and less confidence n our decisions. They also found that we tend to interpret subtle differences in a large selection as a hallmark of higher quality, and like both the centralization for making comparisons and having the options available as insurance in case we do change our minds.

Their conclusions were that choices with trade-offs not related to the purpose of the product made the choosing difficult and that too much information is not favourable i.e. decreased satisfaction and increased buyer’s remorse. Too many choices when we walk in without knowing what we want actually is distressing. As a result, we have come to depend more on recommendations. We look more to what is popular, what is “liked” more by our peers. We seek opinions. The critic takes on more influence to lead us out of the avalanche of choices into steering us towards, what we trust through our assumption of their qualifications and good taste, a better choice. In short, we explore less. We miss things.

At issue now is, given the economic uncertainty, how many will be persuaded to pay attention. The answer may be in the scope of PR initiatives, and the fashion world has been more involved in wider forms of expression to better get your attention ion how creative their vision can be. For instance, there has been a rise in online releases of concept films showcasing collections in a cinematic format, with too many to mention on here. There have also been more designers’ work featured in museums and galleries as of recent. Gaultier has a retrospective currently showing at the Montréal Museum; later it will travel to the Dallas Museum of Art and the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Hussein Chalayan has an exhibition tribute at Les Arts Décoratifs in Paris. Yohji Yamamoto has a retrospective of his work at the Victoria & Albert Museum. Vivienne Westwood will have a shoe exhibition at the Bowes Museum in Durham.  Of course Alexander McQueen has just had the Savage Beauty Exhibit (of which a petition is circulating to get that one touring; see link on sidebar to add your name) break record attendance as the eighth most popular exhibit at the Met in Manhattan and for being the most popular of all presentations by the Costume Institute.  

Will the infusion of fashion into our cultural stream sway our population by propelling more interest into fashion? And how will current economics affect what will come in September? Given that the last major economic downturn in the late 80s culled the numbers of designers showing, will we see less designers presenting? Or will designers pair down their collections to appeal to a narrower target market in response? And will dialogue within our social networks shape our thinking? Will all this address the problem of too many choices or exacerbate it?

Lots of questions, lots of information. We’ll just have to see come September. Hopefully the answers won’t overload our senses in the process.

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