News & Blog
A contribution by DMI trend analyst Carl Tillessen about the new essence of existence and fashion
We were so looking forward to the time after the pandemic and now this: war in Europe, bottlenecks in the energy supply and the highest inflation in 71 years. We all feel like we are out of luck and ill-fated. And that for a very long time.
Yes, in essence that’s it: “body and fabric”. JW Anderson sends these two basic ingredients, from which all fashion is created, down the catwalk before he starts his actual show. A naked body and a fresh roll of fabric – that is the tabula rasa, the blank slate on which fashion can reinvent itself once again. “How do we package people?” asks JW Anderson, as if all that were completely open-ended again.
Greta Thunberg speaks for her entire generation when she says, looking back: “We have become more aware that life is short.” The realisation that our time on earth passes far too quickly is anything but new, but it is particularly relevant for us right now.
Carolyn Mair, Professor of Fashion Psychology, also observed during the pandemic how consumers “recognise that life is precious, whereas they might previously have taken things for granted. They are seizing the moment.”
Summarizing the development, Mark Holgate of Vogue said:
»We’re heading into a reset, where all the din and clamor and sheer noise of fashion today doesn’t matter a jot if the clothes aren’t exceptional in their thought and craft. In other words: focus on design, not creating distraction!«
Mark Holgate, Vogue
All this refocusing – on the essence of fashion, on the material as a starting point, on the product itself – is reminiscing. This is what fashion is all about right now: taking people on a journey through time to phases of our lives and theirs when we, and everyone around us, were so much more carefree than we are today.
17 July 2023, 14.00 – 21.00, MOC Munich. Get informed and inspired at Munich Fabric Start with DMI: you can find out how you can make this work for you in a personal conversation with the DMI analysts at the DMI Lounge in room K1 in front of Hall 1 at Munich Fabric Start.
Modularity is not a new concept. For decades, it has shaped architecture, furniture and industrial design. Applying it to soft textiles, however, opens up an entirely new discussion.
Creativity and curiosity have always been our driving force. Our work evolves through prototypes—never finished, always raising new questions about materials, processes, and possibilities.
Both the fashion and textile industry often celebrates creativity. Yet many of the industry’s creative decisions are made long before a designer ever begins designing. Colour being one of them. The thing is, by the time a designer selects yarn, someone else has already determined the available colours, sequences and combinations. Choice exists, but only within boundaries.
“Through hands-on experimentation, I explore the potential of new surfaces and alternative forms of leather, aiming to reconnect human life with the natural world as an interconnected fabric.”
