Trends and Nostalgia

Imagine a swimming pool at a hotel nestled in the hills of a far out desert landscape in Nevada. The pool is surrounded by all types of people. Some icons like Peter Gabriel, Keith Haring, Christina Aguilera, Marty McFly, and maybe Che Guevara. Not to mention there's also the goth kids, skater dudes, and book worms that you knew from high school. They're all there mingling together doing cannonballs and floating on blow up animal rafts. It's a big family where they are all forced but try to get along. This is the pool of trends: Past and present. 

Many fashion forward clothing companies, shoe designers and commercial media creators seem to have a pool where they grab, stir and mix ingredients together to pull out new and innovative products. This pool is surrounded by Icons, movements, and cultural revolutions of all sorts that blend together to make this one unified look that may only last for a few seasons until it moves on to something new. However, its hard to ignore that the "new" is built on these past innovations and trends in steps; sometimes gathering a look or pattern from a top trend 10 steps down the pool staircase. Very few successes have been created in a vaccum. It is wise to think that nothing is original and there is always a reference point to inspire an idea, look or feel. It's just the way it is. It's cool. 

Take the demin jacket for instance. It has moved it's way into being a cultural norm to represent a relaxed, highlight to any wardrobe from rebelling punks, beat driven hip-hop, to high-end designers across the globe.. I stumbled upon the history of the jacket and found this quote that says it best. 

"While the Levi's denim jacket has evolved since then, the functionality and innate coolness of the piece has earned it the status as an all-American rebel's outerwear of choice. "By the '50s, wearing denim was often associated with juvenile delinquency," Panek said. "Jeans were even banned in some schools, and denim became the nonconformists' uniform of choice." From James Dean's iconic denim-jacket clad character in Rebel Without a cause in the '50s to Rihanna's deconstructed versions today, jean jackets buck convention, express individuality, and epitomize anti-establishment cool."

So something that was once a cultural trigger and fashion stereotype has become cool and very acceptable in our culture. It took a few years but It just took a few people and possibly companies like levi's to build it into something that is a key and lasting fashion trend.

Here's is another example: Let's look at the Fisherman's Jacket. Nostalgic function meets gracefully with fashion.  

The fishing jacket originated and was rooted as a super functional way for fisherman  in swashbucket rickety old ships to keep their panties dry and safe from the harsh elements out at sea. These guys were the wild burly dudes pulling up nets, gutting fish, and steering boldy into and away from the unpredictable stormy seas. They made a living that way and out at sea I can tell you the last thing they were thinking about was if their coat went well with their skinny jeans and matched their thrift store Sperry's. It was just the norm and part of their everyday marine hustle.  But their coats worked well...well enough to be inherited through decades with little change. If a 5 year old child were to draw a fisherman, I bet he would be wearing some sort of rough representation of this jacket. My point being it is recognizable passed down and iconic in the fisherman lore and persona. 

As we can see the jacket really hasn't changed much at all besides a few fitting fixes and minor details (hood interior, strings, color). The designs have turned into something that was in essence made for total function into a super fashionable in-demand item. Brilliant! But in reality they just borrowed a past idea and blurred the lines between fashion and functionality.

This is just one example to illustrate a point and to bring to light an ongoing innovation going on today. There are many more examples of this from shoes to camping lights. WHAT'S NEXT?