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Future trends Posts
Web fashionistas just a click away from mainstream acceptance
October 19th, 2009
I was really interested to see an article in the Times (www.timesonline.com) on the increased importance of blogs within the fashion industry.
This is a sector I have been strongly associated with for many years, so my interest was tweaked.
It wasn’t that long ago that Sir Philip Green, CEO and supremo of Arcadia, owners of Top Shop, Miss Selfridge and other leading retail fashion chains, dismissed offhand a new social networking website called Mint, setup by fashion students. If he couldn’t see an immediate financial opportunity, forget it.
So it was interesting to see Sir Philip invite fashion bloggers to its HQ for a preview of its Autumn / Winter lines. This is part of a broader trend in which retailers have been forced to find new ways of influencing key opinion-formers on the internet, which is the sector’s fastest growing sales channel.
According to Leon Bailey-Green, founder of the Online Fashion Agency ‘right now, bloggers are ruling the online fashion space. Arcadia are thought to be punching below their weight online – for example, ASOS, the fashion retailer that operates entirely online receives more visitors than any of Sir Philip’s brands.
As frivolous as a bloggers preview seems, fashion experts are unanimous in their increased importance, which began at the top end of the market. Two years ago Chanel invited bloggers to Paris for a VIP tour of Coco Chanel’s apartments. Its now, common for bedroom bloggers to have their own section at fashion shows, elbow to elbow with conventional fashion media.
More importantly, it is estimated that 40% of all fashion sales are influenced by the internet (15% of actual fashion sales are online), so retailers increasingly see the need to win hearts and minds online.
This is a problem because consumers are notoriously fickle and disloyal on the internet. Over 60% of consumers have increased their use of price comparison sites, and 45% said that they would leave the website immediately if it failed to show them what they wanted on the first page, according to Avail Intelligence Trust Index (http://avail.net/en).
So it seems that retailers really do need to take fashion bloggers seriously now and will find it difficult to get their attention when they become mainstream. It will certainly affect sales.
Well that’s official then – I’m Gastrosexual
September 22nd, 2009
OK – I enjoy cooking. In fact I love it.
Being in the kitchen, conjuring up a new dish is my idea of heaven. Going to North End Road market (or when feeling flash, Borough market), seeing what’s available that day and whisking up a meal from scratch.
Yes – I’m the new Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey of West London rolled into one. At least in my head I think I am anyway….
It seems that I am by no means alone.
There’s a new breed of male that has been identified by researchers as ‘Gastrosexual’, according to Future Foundation, the future trends research company. And we’re not talking about being the ‘Barbeque King’ either.
It seems that men are confidently claiming the kitchen as their own, which has historically been the woman’s domain. Gastrosexuals are masculine, upwardly mobile men, aged 25-45, who are passionate about cooking and the rewards that it might bring.
These men are all around us it seems. 52% of men say they see cooking as a hobby and not a choice, and 53% claim to cook from separate ingredients almost every day. Women seem to love it too – 43% saying they see it as being perfectly normal for their partner to be the main cook, and 34% saying that men were much better at cooking anyway.
So why the change from traditional stereotype?
It seems that there are three main reasons for the trend:
1. Cooking for passion. Men who have a real interest in different cultures and cuisines. Those who have travelled a lot and are happy to use their knowledge to re-create what they have experienced. These men get a real buzz out of cooking.
2. Cooking for praise. The Gastrosexual is at the forefront of the new dinner party and cooking at home has become a strong emerging trend during this recession. These men will be cooking to impress.
3. Cooking for seduction. We now live in a singleton society (at least we do in the UK), By 2006 only 26% of homes in England consisted of couples living with children (as opposed to 51% in 1961). These guys cook to seduce. And it seems to work.
For full details on the report, follow this link http://www.futurefoundation.net/
Innovation of the year! Is this a post recession trend?
August 24th, 2009
It all started when I was handed a flyer when rushing for the Tube (subway, metro) near to where I live in West London. Some guys were strategically standing in my path (the same way as ‘chuggers’ do) giving out flyers. My first reaction was, as always, to avoid them and (in a very London way) to keep my eyes down, avoid any eye contact whatsover and get to the Tube by the shortest possible route.
I could’t avoid the flyer though and just pushed it in my pocket. I short while later, when looking for something else, I found the (offending) flyer. Zipcar.
Hmmm.
Later that evening I rushed past the same guys still handing out flyers, again doing my best at avoiding them and making eye contact. On my walk home I passed a smart VW Golf with a small sign next to it which said simply ‘ZipCars live here’.
My interest was tweaked, so I got online to find out more.
Well, the net result is that I no longer have my gleaming Beamer but have chosen to use ZipCar instead. It’s brilliant. And I am sure that this recession will lead to a lot more people doing the same as me. I save a fortune AND I become a carbon footprint saint….
Just think – you find a car very near to where you live using the Zipcar website, access the car using a credit card type devise, find the key, use it by the hour, day or longer and just return it to where you left it. No insurance, no lease, no congestion charge to pay, no tax disc or residents permit. No searching for a parking space late at night. AND just think of the environment!
So when I realised how much I was paying for NOT using my car, ZipCar made complete sense.
I think it’s a great innovation that can only be a winner – in fact everyone seems to win. Obviously it’s of no use to someone living out in the country or miles from anywhere, but for city dweller it’s perfect.
I see this as a very real post recession trend. I wonder if it’s taking off elsewhere. It deserves to.
Us Brits lose our appetite for eating out
July 27th, 2009
I love looking at trends and other pieces of information – I’m a real junkie for this in a nerdy sort of way, ever more so during this rollercoaster time we’re in. So when I saw an article in the Times recently on changing eating habits, my interest was tweaked.
I guess I’m a fairly good example of someone who lives a reasonably affluent lifestyle in West London. Nothing over the top (I can assure you), but I do enjoy a bit of retail therapy, have the occassional overseas holiday and eat out 2-3 times a week. Well that’s what I did anyway.
For some reason I’ve changed my habits and I am not on my own. This recession has affected people in different ways – some have lost their jobs, others have had salaries cut, whilst all of us have had to change the way we live.
Some of us have flocked to retailers where we would never have dreamed of entering before. In 2007 in Germany for example, the more affluent German shoppers wouldn’t be seen dead in Aldi or Lidl, but now they see it as ‘chic’ to show off their austerity by using Lidl shopping bags to carry their Prada purchase.
But the trends for change in this recession have been most marked in the way we eat out. Certainly in the UK, and especially in London, eating out has become a way of life, and has been one of the big success stories over the past four decades. But this recession has brought the phenomenal growth in informal eating to an abrupt halt. Research published by Allegra Strategies has shown that UK spending on infornal eating – typically where a meal costs £20 ($30) or less has fallen for the first time in 40 years.
The research has shown that in the UK, 15,000 jobs have been lost in this sector and they continue to drop. The report says that the trend is supported by a huge array of offers from supermarkets such as ‘feed your family for a fiver’ or ‘dine in for a £10′ currently being promoted by Sainsburys and Marks + Spencers.
The report says that people are cutting back in all areas – from sacrificing a morning coffee to visiting restaurants less frequently – establishments that typically charge around £20 have been hardest hit. These include the Chinese ‘ethnic’ category as well as Indian establishments.
The report concludes that restaurants will have to become more consumer-focused as customers won’t forget what they have learnt in the recession. Eating oout may have become an everyday experience in the good times, but post-recession people won’t pay over the odds for a meal.
People may still continue to eat out but the overall value of the meal will no doubt decline – instead of buying fish and chips, peope will perhaps buy sausage and chips at half the price. Prices are definitley down across the board.
Trend predictions for the post recession landscape
June 23rd, 2009
I had to share some thoughts and comments that came up recently in a meeting on future trends – in particular in relation to what the social landscape may look like once we come out of this recession.
Sure – some is a bit tongue-in-cheek but there are some interesting nuggets too. So here is what I found out;
When an expansion turns to bust, the fashions, attitudes and styles that accompanied the good times suddenly start to seem out of date. Consciously or subconsciously people start to dump them to reflect the newer, more sombre mood.
The crash of 1929 put an end to flappers and the minidress, replacing them with a decade of decadence and Jazz.
The recessions of 1973-75 marked an end to the hippy era, to be replaced by Punk and skinheads.
The recession of the early 1980’s and 90’s didn’t just kill off the steel and shipbuilding industries – it killed off disco and big hair.
So what for the 2007-2009 post recession phase?
- ANGRY BECOMES THE NEW MOOD. Expect the Emo youth trend to become something angrier and darker.
- AGEING FASHIONS DIE. Expect noughties fashions to become rapidly unfashionable as women continue to wear them into their 30’s and 40’s. Low rise jeans can’t be that sexy if your Mum wears them too…
- UNEMPLOYMENT BECOMES COOL. Being out of work loses its stigma and becomes a mainstream lifestyle among the young. In the 1980’s recession cool bands such as UB40 became ‘de rigeur’. (a UB40 is a UK government unemployment form for those of you not familiar with the UK).
VIVA LA REVOLUCION. The recession of 1990 saw the collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe and the end of socialism as a standard philosophy in Western Europe. This time round recession is a direct result of a major failure of capitalism.
Expect radical socialist and extreme beliefs to make a comeback amongst young people.
- A NEW GENERATION GAP. By 2010 expect youth to be in revolt over what they see as capitalisitic greed of older generations born in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Expect a new gap to open up between those who tasted the riches of capitalism between 1993 and 2007 and those who have to look for their first job in 2009 or later.
Lost money on your house? Serves you right you filthy fascist speculator pig…..
- GREEN ISSUES GO ON HOLD. Green was a major issue in the 1980, and Germany in particular was concerned about the effect of acid rain and its effect on its forests. The recession of 1990 ended all that as consumers focussed on protecting their income and families.
Expect the environment to take a back seat for a year or two, despite Obama’s endeavours.
- INTO THE NEW DECADE. Expect the noughties mood to crystallise as the decade disappears over the next year, and for people to become increasingly nostalgic for the time when wearing white earbud headphones was trendy, and people had money, credit and prospects.
WE OFTEN ONLY RECOGNISE A ZEITGEIST AS IT PASSES