Julie has posted a color and textile trend report based on what she learned from the Premiere Vision Autumn 2007/Winter 2008 Trend Forecast. She says in part:
Textiles and fabric forecasting is a serious business and Premie¨re Vision lives up to its name as the “first look” of what is to come for the fashion industry. While the many vendors were probably the stars of the show for the hundreds of designers and buyers that flocked to the showrooms, it was the Trend Tasting seminars that opened my eyes to a few glaring fashion truths. As their press release says “It is to professionals what Paris is to Fashion; a trends’ capital where the colours and materials of a whole season are decided eighteen months in advance.”
Here, Julie provides a revisionist perspective of color
…your designs are always limited by your materials. So when in “The Devil Wears Prada”, we learn about how cerulean came to be on a poly blend sweater it was patently false for Miranda Priestly to have started with Oscar De La Renta. In fact, she should have started with Sabine Le Chatelier, the associate fashion director of Premiere Vision to whom the President David Faure directed us when we asked for trend reports. It is also illustrative to interact with the trend report for this current season to see just how dead right these Premiere Vision professionals really are in their predictions and suggestions.
Being a colorly clueless person myself, her entry was interesting to the extent that I actually cared. I just say that because I know so many of you don’t care either and draw your inspiration from whichever muse that moves you. Still, there’s one trend I do watch, that being socio-political overtones (no surprise there). The language used to describe silhouettes, shaping, finishes and color tend to mirror the undercurrent of social complexity and anxiety. For example, it’s one thing to read poll results that show that over 67% of the US population is against the war in Iraq and quite another thing to read the manifestation of dichotomy in color and trend reports. Julie says
The rhetoric used to describe the forecast was one of opposition with offensive resistance squaring off against enveloping roundness for a mood that left no room for the indecisive…I believe these moods are two very different interpretations of how one reacts to urban environments and unstable world political situations. One either hopes to stand against adversity, offering resistance through pieces that are basic and strong (a mood I have indulged in with my winter wardrobes) or seek out protective pieces that soften the blow. In recent years we have seen many people taking the resistance route, but now as we face another year of warfare, another year of economic adversity, and another year of political turmoil the world over I can see how many of us will turn to enveloping roundness to protect ourselves against the storms.
Click through for video, interviews, color cards and in depth reporting. Infomat has also generously provided coverage.
I used to think that colour trends happened along more “by accident” rather than by careful and deliberate design. Then in 1982, I attended a talk by a member of the Colour Marketing Board, a group that plans the colour trends for at least 10 years into the future. If anyone questions the wisdom of this long-range planning, consider the amount of wasted resources if the textiles that are produced had no buttons, thread, or zippers to co-ordinate. Ditto with home dec fabrics, wallpapers and paint, as well as auto upholstery and automotive paint. Our speaker said “every colour has its day” and he was so right!
Well, you learn something new everyday. I did not know that color trends were planned. That far in advance too, Wow!!!
I hadn’t ever thought about the zippers or button issue!
But really and truly it was an amazing event in that as a regular consumer of fashion I had no real appreciation for just how interconnected the many aspects of the business really are and just how complex.
I do sincerely wish that more thought was given to these sorts of questions by the wider fashion press. But until then I am happy that little ol’ me gets to go!