Halloweek in Edinburgh brought fashion’s trendiest styles into the limelight, from micro-shorts and puffball skirts to leopard-print camis. But where do these trends come from? Are the designs of infamous high-street brands like Zara inspired by the enticing fashion runways, or are the looks of influencers more important?
Historically, famous fashion weeks such as Paris, New York, and London created hubs for global designers to present eye-catching collections on elite runways, paving the way for the season’s peak fashion trends. From this, more affordable high-street chains popped up, looking towards Dior’s or Louis Vuitton’s garments with desire, reflecting their visions within their own collections. This was before high street brands shifted to fast fashion and Vogue magazine was replaced by Instagram.
In recent decades, globalisation and continually developing technology has knocked the fashion world on its head, due to cheaper and faster manufacturing and transport. No longer does Britain’s population wait eagerly for the release of a new collection in store, saving pennies in a piggy bank to replace their unravelling sweater. Now, we see an event in our calendar, find the perfect ‘fit’ online, click ‘buy’, rack up credit card bills, wear it once, give it to charity and repeat. The high-street and fast fashion industry has fuelled a cycle of regular, trend-fuelled purchases, ending with landfill.
So where do our trends come from? The collections of revered design houses from Chanel to Vivienne Westwood still hold significance on the global fashion scene, but with a smaller application to every-day fashion trends. With collections such as Juun.J’s ‘WORKOUTURE’ of oversized bomber jackets and fishtail skirts, runways offer an insight into the art and creativity of fashion design, but often shroud how we can weave them into our everyday wardrobe. This is where influencers come into play.
Through influencers, the colours, patterns, and silhouettes popular on runways become transformed into everyday outfits that the general public can envision wearing. Therefore, influencers hold the most significant weight over our purchasing choices as we doom-scroll through social media, with runway looks going unnoticed.
In turn, from these visible trends, high-street fashion brands develop their next designs. Take micro-shorts for example: first appearing in Miu Miu’s AW23 collection, why didn’t we see their rise on ASOS until summer this year? Because it wasn’t until July that model Bella Hadid first sported micro-shorts, and August when Tik-Toker Addison Rae stepped out in her own. From then, the high-street knew micro-shorts were here to stay, ushering them into our baskets.
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash
