How runway shows and their avante garde and exaggerated looks affect your everyday clothes.
We’ve all seen a picture from a runway and thought: who would wear that? At times even the models, whose careers rely on them being unattainably attractive, can’t seem to pull off these wacky designs. When these weird and wonderful outfits hit the catwalk it’s easy to think of high fashion and high street fashion as two separate entities, but if you can learn to read the subtleties from the most popular fashion shows then you’ll be on track for the next year of fashion trends.
Nothing starts nowhere
“But what you don’t know is that that sweater is not just blue, it’s not turquoise, it’s not lapis, it’s actually cerulean. And you’re also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar de la Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns.” Meryl Streep’s famed monologue in The Devil Wears Prada captures this concept perfectly, it may take time to get down to high street prices but every colour, cut, and fabric has its roots in a top designer’s collection.
We may have attributed this year’s pink craze to the 2023 release of the Barbie film but much sooner, in 2022s autumn/winter fashion shows, designers such as Chanel included multiple pink pieces in its show and Valentino went so far as to have a completely pink venue with monochromatic pink outfits.
What to choose?
Of course, the answer to this question is anything you like the look of! Fashion shows are inspiration for your style, to see clothing be pushed to its limits so you can be inspired to try wearing your clothes in new ways. But if you want to predict which styles are going to stick, then its best to watch as many shows as possible and look for common threads. You can often find livestreams of fashion shows online, London fashion weeks will be shown under Vogue World for example, and you might want to look at this handy website: Thesocietyfashionweek.com/fashion-week-dates, so you know when all the upcoming fashion weeks are.
Finding the right piece
Being ahead of the curve leaves you with one problem, you might be too early to a trend to find an affordable version of it. Shops like H&M are known for runway knockoffs, but it takes time to get to them. It’s the curse of being too fashionable, so it’s best to keep an open mind when looking for clothes that fit your inspiration and get savvy and experimental with what you can find. Our biggest tip is to shop vintage, though this may seem counterintuitive shopping for your new look through old styles, fashion regularly takes inspiration from eras gone by. You might just find the fabric, silhouette, or colour you’re looking for by looking back.