The transition of fashion trends from the runway to masses

Unless a person has a complete aversion to fashion, trends do influence the choice for making a purchase. It wasn’t until I visited swank designer stores in Dubai did I realise that the print I liked on a shirt being sold in a New Delhi flea market was originally a Versace print or the shoe I saw and fell in love within a small store back home was originally a Louboutin signature design.

 All this information left me thinking how does this work? So, I did some digging and found that fashion trends are actually a serious business involving economics, psychology and an array of other factors that contribute to carrying a trend from the elites to the masses. How did it all begin in the first place? In the name of clothes, human beings started wearing leaves at first and leaves didn’t have any designer label or brand value.

The era of Queen Elizabeth First or the Elizabethan era (1558-1603) transformed the idea of clothing from a basic necessity to the status symbol. The kind of clothes one wore, was a depiction one's wealth and stature in the society and it included the cut of clothing, fabric and usage of colour. Based on the major impact this era left on the implications of dressing, it is referred to as the foundation stone of fashion. This is where the psychological aspect of fashion fits in; if you are wearing a trend set by the queen, it reflects your wealth and high social standing. It's that simple, we follow trends so that people can admire us.

It was in the 19th century that the term ‘Haute Couture’ came into existence. Charles Frederick Worth often referred to as the father of fashion revolutionised the fashion industry by it. He was the first one to sew branded labels on clothes produced by his fashion house and to showcase his clothing through live models. There is also an aspect of belongingness attached to trends, which brings forth the economical aspect of trends; the theory of conspicuous consumption given by the economist Thorstein Veblen which states that people buy luxury products to showcase their economic power. That is exactly what Queen Elizabeth First did and that is what we do today; wearing a designer label is a status symbol, a depiction of wealth in our society.

The economical aspect associated with fashion trends focuses on maximising the profitability of fashion businesses. All major fashion houses launch multiple trends in a single year so that the early adopters are forced to give up the products of the previous season and get the latest trends or they will be labeled as fashion disasters with obsolete fashion sensibilities.  This juxtaposition of psychology and economics contributes massively to create an influx of money to the industry. Hence, trends are born and that too very frequently.

In the year 1990, the term fast fashion was given by the New York Times to describe Zara’s strategy of bringing runway fashion trends to its stores within a period of 15 days from its launch. 30 years later, fast fashion has become even faster because of social media. Influencers and fashion bloggers have totally changed the game. They have incorporated that personal human touch to it and have made it accessible. Sharing their flea market shopping hauls and making them look stylish and trendy, they have made fashion trends an approachable phenomenon for the masses. 

Its simple economics- demand and supply. As the demand soars, from stores like Zara, these trends trickle down towards economical retail chains and ultimately to smaller sellers, and that is precisely how runway trends reach to the masses.