As said in articles before, we are in this place between the old and the new. Our designs embody mindsets of the 20^th century because that is where most herald from. By “most” this means most of the public with purchasing power and most of the creative talent that is generating ideas.

We are seeing some individuals who are born purely of the 21^st century starting to create but they still are influenced by the 20s century. These young minds have yet to cultivate their own voice fully and, like most creatives, develop their creativity through inspiration from their role models. Yet the role models are of the 20^th century, so we must wait for the freshness to fully reveal, and, just as in the last century, this doesn’t really show itself until the second decade.

Until then we straddle the creative fence, seeing designers work with new materials and technology to perfect their vision through cleaner execution while staying within confines that bring in profit. Their buying customers, also a product of the 2lst century, have yet to fully venture forth. They await the new direction to take hold and, until the next wave appears, they go with the tried and true.

The resort collections so far reflect this with cuts that hark from the past more than the future. Karl Lagerfeld made a comment recently during the unveiling of his 2015 Resort collection about his decision to look even further back for inspiration, citing that many collections had a 60s/70s influence. Not that there weren’t elements in his collection that would hint of something similar, although it was noted by Style.com that the collection leaned towards Poiret’s experimentalism in mixing East with West.

There are other decades finding representation in elements (such as the variation of 20s drop waist in Louis Vuitton’s fit-and-flare skirts or in the 40s/80s cut pencil skirts from Tomas Meier) and undoubtedly we will see more. Our trends take cues from subconscious associations to bring about timely connections and these come from past experience, so we will always see some aspects that borrow from before.

Artists and creatives sometimes need to go back and repeat to find inspiration. This can be in redressing admired influences or repeating previously mined ideas. The process of repeating over and over until the mind finds a new “aha” moment is one of many techniques that all creatives know. And as we wait for a fresh unadulterated perspective to bring new inspiration the more seasoned creatives do what they do best. So, in the quest to bring something new without alienating the clientele we see repetition. We go back to the previous decades hoping to find a previously unseen path unexplored. We repeat in patterns and details with almost Zen-like machinated execution to get a new thought to come forth.

There is a lot of this machination in print and detail amidst the retro just as in the mid-90s when looking for new cuts and new ways to create that didn’t fall into the previously ambitious explosion of ideas the 80s gave. Chanel had a lot of this in the textural details such as ruffling or in the printwork and beading. Louis Vuitton also went there in the prints and geometrics. So here we are again, persistent, tenacious and jogging the mind, offering to the public the fruits of the creative process in progress.

With technology growing as exponentially and with new minds taking steps to enter the arena, the next few years are like a crescendo of anticipation building. Who will our next influential hero be? How will they help open the doors to our cultural evolution? And how much of it will be courtesy of existing talent? And will we see anything in these Resort collections that may give us clues? Stay tuned or check back later during the reruns. Fashion is exciting either way when paying attention.