10 Trends on the High Street

TRENDS have many angles for discussion. As with any trend, one must be quick to pick it up and discard it just as quickly. Here are 10 for you to consume.
 
Number 1 
Mixing your wardrobe with high street and designer brand pieces. With luxury continuously on sale, women are investing in their wardrobe. It is a reason to rejoice the recession. 

Number 2  
Pop-up-tastic shops (formerly known as guerrilla stores).  The concept is bold, fun temporary re-invention. Established brands can take risks and be edgy without committing much capital and without diluting their brand image. It offers a chance for the timid to engage with a brand that they may feel is out of their league and it allows the brand to be friendly and extend that invitation to garner a new legion of loyalists with whom they wouldn’t otherwise mingle with. Pop-ups are win, win for everyone, including the journalists that have some optimistic to write about.

Number 3   
The recession has chased bling into hiding. Display windows are showing restraint; presenting less theme, more space between the noise and spotlighting moments of cross merchandising heaven.

Number 4  
Over the knee boots. Little boots = living life in the moment. Very tall boots = a reflection of the muck that is life in a financially driven world….the fashion designers are indicating we are in it deep.

Number 5  
We are also blessed with fabulous military detailing in the Autumn collections. Epaulettes, insignias, structured shoulders and brass button clothing are right on trend. No one does this better than Temperley. Their new Alice By Temperley brand will compete with the high street brands. (I want a jacket in grey!)


Number 6  
Roger Vivier is loving the patent leather revival. Any colour, except black will give you a retro-modern look. Best used sparingly, ladies.

Number 7  
Cashmere is mingling with the wool in the high street shops. As luxury dips in the high street pocket with sales, the high street is reaching up into luxury’s with cashmere. The smart retailer will explain the difference between baby and white cashmere and that the ridiculously cute Hircus goats roam the high steppes of Asia to win the extra pounds from their customers.

Number 8  
Specialty retailers are catching up with department stores and finally building in their visual merchandising zones. Visual marketing via a post-rationalise poster sites are now being integrated in the enveloping retail experience and gondolas of merchandise no longer have the sole purpose of propping up products. Because, many brands get their start from a capsule collection, each fixtures needs to convey the essence of that fledgling brand and that is best conveyed with the brand’s own imagery. The philosophy here is any opportunity to get a marketing message across should be taken, but it is now integrated. With over 10,000 messages in anyone’s day, the majority of ads that win your attention are simply beautiful and calm to look at. 

Number 9
 The hierarchy of retailers in the sea of fashion can be described like the cartoon where the medium sized fish eats the little fish, then promptly gets eaten by the bigger fish. Only the little fish and the medium sized fish are happy to be eaten. Department stores once started with categories with the message of a one-stop shopping experience.  As time passed, specialty and luxury brands were established within department stores. Brands now dominate the department stores within open boutiques. One couldn’t survive without the other, although the luxury brands would like to think they can. Specialty stores in our little story are the medium sized fish and for a while they have been championing young designers, whom will graduate into the next ‘own bought’ brands within department stores. So what is the trend? 

The trend is set by those who figure out a new way to attract the media and customers. There are two trends most admired in this sea. The first is Sir Philip Green’s success at bringing in Kate Moss’s style into Topshop. The second success is H&M who are bringing even more fame to the establish high-end designers, making designer wear accessible to the high street consumer. Designers are now courting H&M and I bet they are enjoying it.

Number 10

There always must be balance. An anti-trend to the cool we are magnetically drawn to. 
It is almost December and red and green in primary colours are in season. Notice I didn't say in fashion.

Rushing to a lecture on Space and Time yesterday, I wedged myself into the elevator at Goodge Street station. A sight of heels and lace patterned tights in matching Pellegrino green was mesmorising.

SINGING TO SHOES

Some stories are so sweet that to not share them would be selfish.

Recently, I found myself at a dinner party discussing mens shoes. The conversation was rather amusing. He wanted to buy a new pair of shoes that he would love looking at. The spoken adoration for these shoes that he had yet to find, was a descriptive search for future and enduring happiness. It was a shoe bonding moment with mutual respect and how could one not encourage such passion.

I had forgotten completely about the conversation until I received this message.

"I must have been six years old when I got a new pair of Clarks sandals. Single buckle, domed toe, chestnut brown, room to grow. I loved those new shoes very much. I loved them mostly because they were new but being only six this was my first infatuation and it was serious (only ever beaten by my first crush... Shirley Bassey, Jeez, I am gay).

I talked to those shoes all the time telling them how much I loved them. One day, during school assembly, I was yanked out by my ear and marched to the head-teacher's office for causing a disruption. My crime; Singing to my new shoes. My punishment: No singing to shoes in school and no milk at break-time. I haven't sung to a shoe since."
 

Inspired to find those shoes, that certain happiness and move beyond the unnecessary repression inflicted at a young age, he wanted to go shopping. More importantly, I was needed to guide this quest. Laughing out loud, how could I refuse. I was also six when my innocence and love for a pair of Wonder Woman underoos was squashed by a teacher in front of my classmates. Damage control can come at any age.

Cloth bags, shoe trees and a beautiful Barkers pair later, the dream of obtaining boxed happiness is complete. My smirking apologies to his flatmate if songs of shoe adoration waft through the air in the coming weeks.