On the Nature of Trends

Maria Mackinney-Valentin
2010

Udgivet af: Kunstakademiets Designskoles Printcenter
ISBN/ISSN: 87-92016-18-9

The Ph.D. dissertation On the Nature of Trends: A Study of Trend Mechanisms in Contemporary Fashion was motivated by the concerns that trends might be expiring as a phenomenon due to the acceleration of the fashion cycle. The purpose of the research was to determine how and why trends in fashion change, and whether the increase in decentralization and democratization in fashion had altered trend mechanisms. This endeavor demanded a clarification of the terminology concerning trends as well as establishing the historical framework of the fashion systems that to a certain extent constitute the premise of trend mekanisms. Through a mapping of almost two centuries of literature on trend mechanisms, I organized the material in an attempt to determine the analytical potentials and limitations of the material. The result was five positions: Social mechanism, neomania, market, seduction, and zeitgeist. These positions were gathered in a toolbox that was applied to a case, the retro trend as it operated in the Danish fashion magazine Eurowoman in the first decade of the 21st century. To strengthen the focus, I concentrated the attention on three versions of the retro trend: Granny Chic, Glam, and Mix. These three versions were analyzed using the five positions and the result was an updated toolbox. In the analysis, four issues – dichotomy, point of origin, hierarchy, and line of development – were raised that were considered limiting in the positions. In an attempt to resolve these four issues, an addition to the toolbox was made in the shape of the rhizomatic position. This position attempted to describe trend mechanisms as a spatial dynamic rather than a temporal trajectory. The sixth position was inspired by the rhizome as botanical term and philosophical concept as formulated by French philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995) and psychoanalyst Félix Guattari (1930-1992) in A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia(1987). The main potential of the Rhizomatic Position was to understand trend mechanisms as an organic dynamic that moves rather slowly according to spatial dimensions of variation, expansion, conquest, and off-shoots instead of changing according to a rapid series of revolutions at an ever increasing pace. In that sense, trends were viewed as moving according to new dynamics rather than going out of fashion. Thereby the Rhizomatic Position resolved the issues that were raised in the analysis of the retro trend and thereby the five original positions were strengthened and a contribution was made to consolidating the field of trend studies.