Fashion now, trends tomorrow

Today, I have many things to say about them. The last week I was in the IX Fashion and Communication Conference organized by Centro Universitario Villanueva in the Dress Museum, about “Trends, the new present of de fashion”.

According to Francesco Malatesta (Hallman and Burke), the trends we will wear are the result of the focus, cycles and communication of fashion market. He explained the difference between Anna Wintour, Karl Lagerfeld or Madonna as fashion icons. They have very much influence in the society. Anna Wintour is not designer, or stylist, or personal shopper. She has built an icon above her own criteria. She builds the trends, she doesn’t fallow them.

Lagerfeld knows the lifestyle and its evolution. And Madonna is able to reinvent her own image in trend. They have always been loyal to their own identities. It’s an image according to the personality. This is the difference between fashion icon and fashion victim. The victim lost its identity to consume the fashion.

Also, the trend is what, how and when we consumer the fashion. People have the power to reject or ignore the trends. Trends cannot prosper without social power. Technology and connectivity are trends icons to develop products. More important trends are the result of people. An example is the study carried out by Alianzo, which analyses the World’s Top 11 Apparel Brands on Social Media:

• Abercrombie & Fitch
• Gap
• Next
• TommyHilfiger
• H&M
• CalvinKlein
• RalphLauren
• Uniqlo
• AmericanEagle Outfitters
• Victoria’sSecret
• Zara

We have reached a conclusion through our study: “Facebook is the most important social network in this kind of industry. Almost 132 million unique users”. The social media have in their hands all the possibilities of triumph for the brands.

According to the Alianzo’s study, Victoria’s Secret, Zara and H&M gather the 54% of the total audience. Apparel Brands are not very active in generating content on their profiles, with an average of 2 posts/month.

In general, focus their content strategy on links to their products to try to sell online. Twitter becomes the most active brand with an average of more than 100 tweets per day. And Youtube generates the best engagement to the brands. To sum up, the dates confirm that the success of trends depend to the social power. New is in the social media. References:blogs.alianzo.com