I’ve always been a trend-watcher, even though I don’t necessarily jump on a lot of trends myself. It’s more of a fascinating phenomenon to me. Trends and fashion can reveal the values, emotional needs, or enjoyments of a culture at a particular time.
Sometimes I jump on a trend because it happens to be exactly me (see boots + leggings above)! Most trends never penetrate beyond my watchful eye.
So, even though we just released an episode of the Roundtable where I got to talk about trends, I have much more to say about what I’m seeing and predicting for fashion and scrapbooking over the coming year than what I said on the show! Do I think everyone should jump on these trends? Not necessarily. Will I? Probably not so much — maybe just a hint of influence will seep into my creations.
It’s fun to look at, though. And if nothing else, you might get a kick out of these college photos of mine…
A Move Toward the 90′s
Amid all of the different vintage eras, including a bit of 80′s influence (skinny jeans are the new stretch jeans), we’re just now starting to see some trends from the 90′s! I’m definitely not saying that all of fashion will emulate 90′s fashion. I’m just saying that that decade is having its influence in a few ways, and thankfully, with a whole new twist.
Here’s a quick list of what we’re already seeing and what we’re about to start seeing –
- massive hair accessories
- one-piece outfits
- small, tight floral patterns
- traditional, conservative, feminine florals
- a softer and brighter version of jewel tones
- fashion vests that are about form, not function
- plaids in feminized forms
Massive Hair Accessories
That’s me on the left. I dressed up in some borrowed apparel for a skit so that I could make fun of the fashion that was so prevalent at my university at the time.
Remember those huge hair bows? They’re only a little different from the hair accessories you might happen to be wearing right now!
- In the 90′s they were just scrunched up sheer fabrics. Now they’re much more intricate in flower shapes of different materials and include bling and feathers.
- In the 90′s we wore our giant hair pieces at the back of our heads on top of big, permed, pulled up, teased hair. Now we wear them at the very front of our heads to the side, just over the ears.
Both the old and the new are very feminine and very showy.
Also note the one-piece outfit I’m sporting in the above photo. So many of the girls wore these at the college I attended. I affectionately thought of them as feminine clown outfits designed to communicate to the guys that you can bake really excellent cookies. I never owned one of these myself, though I do bake a good cookie.
We can expect the large feminine frilly accessories to continue to dominate scrapbooking products and pages for a while. I’m predicting pre-designed album and mini-book covers to debut some time this year.
The One-piece
That’s me on the right, wearing my favorite outfit at that time. It was a one-piece (with shorts) with a sweatshirt around my waist to emphasize my hips and some leggings. In my mind this outfit announced, “I’m a dancer.” I usually wore it home from my dance company rehearsals over my leotard, which gave me an excuse to lounge in it almost every day from about 4pm until I changed for bed.
One-pieces disappeared after the 90′s — it’s one of those trends you swear will never come back, but somehow it does. It did last year and will continue for a little longer, though not a lot of people are willing to take it on.
Small Tight Floral Patterns
Woah-ho, holy busy patterns, Batman! If I had to identify the biggest trend of the early 90′s — at least where I was living — I would say it was small tight patterns of the floral variety on soft flowing fabrics.
Is there just one solid dress there in that picture of thirteen females? We’re not going to fall all the way overboard with these patterns this time around, but they are definitely going to show up any time now. Think short flowing mini-skirts instead of the long dresses. Maybe button-up blouses with lots of detailing.
And I think we can expect to see these patterns popping up on some of our scrapbooking patterned paper, too.
By the way, in case you’re lost in all the busy-ness of that photo and trying to figure out which one is me, I’m the red-faced one in the blue flowered dress at the front, left of center. I have a habit of initiating Charlie’s Angel poses for photos.
Traditional Conservative Feminine Florals in Softened Jewel Tones
In a backlash against the outrageousness of the 80′s, 90′s fashion became ultra-conservative. The florals were so, so conservative! The floral I’m wearing on the right of this picture is a prime example. I’m shocked to see this type of traditional floral showing in upcoming spring fashions this year!
But it makes sense — we’re definitely in a very feminine mode right now with the big flower accessories on purses, over-sized necklaces and hair pieces. It also makes sense when you think of the popularity of vintage styles lately and the influence of television shows like Mad Men.
If you’re not sure about the feminine slant, take a look at the Pantone color choice for 2011.It’s a pink! The jewel tones of fall and winter 2010 will soon be almost pastel-ish — but bright — when the spring lines start releasing.
A Brighter Outlook on Patterns
If the florals are getting you down because you’re not a floral fan, look for animal prints in decidedly non-animal colors — pinks greens, and purples! Camouflage won’t just be in greens and khaki’s but pink, too!
Plaids and vests
While there are a lot of other 90′s trends I don’t expect to make a comeback, I am predicting plaids and vests. But the plaids won’t be the lumberjack flannel plaids we wore twenty years ago. The plaid pattern will now adorn feminine cuts of clothing.
And the vests will be soft and decorative with more frilly trim than the embroidered heavier vests we saw last time around.
So those are my trend predictions for 2011! What are yours? Let me know by leaving a comment!
This Week @ Paperclipping
- Paperclipping Video Tutorial – Scale and Proportion in Scrapbooking
- Paperclipping Roundtable – Hook Drugs
- Paperclipping Digi Show –
- Daily blogging! – I’ve been posting most every day since Christmas. It’s a trial run. If people seem to like it I’ll keep it up when I can. If you haven’t been around to see the daily blogging, scroll click on the home page of Paperclipping and scroll down and see what you think of it!
Coming Up!
Other than the design course for the Paperclipping Members we have a couple other fun things coming up! Both are free –
- Paperclipping Live! – The next Live! show will be on January 18th at 6:30pm PST. Mark your calendars and then click on the Live! button at the top of the website to join us on that day!
- Monthly Challenge – We’ve resumed our monthly challenge! The challenges give you a chance to apply the concepts and ideas on my video tutorials and blog posts. You don’t have to be a Paperclipping Member to participate. At the end of the month, my Challenge Coordinators will choose someone for me to highlight here on the Paperclipping blog.
You can see the challenge in our community site by clicking here.