See L.L. Bean Signature’s facebook fan page here.

Never thought I’d see the day, but finally we are here. A hip L.L. Bean line of clothes and accessories for both men and women. And their website says the precollection is already sold out.

Some twenty years ago I bought a pair of their wellies, and wellie, they’re still totally intact. However, they’ve been restyled so they’re much hipper than when I bought mine 20 years or so ago. On top of that, they’ve got some leather totes to die for. So, I’m thinking they know what they’re doing. Maybe Cathy Horyn, the New York Times fashion critic, will be able to update those paddock boots she gave up on a long time ago, but paddock boots w/style this time. Seems perfectly appropo.

For a preview of their preview check out a facebook group Bean has partnered with, Tremor Effect, who get to have a first peek at the collection being shown in limited release on 3/15/10 at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine.

Meantime they’ve got a pretty sweet video on the www.llbeansignaturesite.com
that’ll have you coming back for more.

Bookmark

Tavi Gevenson, 14 year old internet fashion blogging sensation (image British Vogue).

When I put this piece together, I was watching Law & Order, the one where the Mom of a family of 10 adopted special needs children is murdered and the Dad, the day after, puts the family on a reality show. It ends with a dead locked jury so the suit is thrown out and the reality show host creates a new format with a new judge he has picked to decide on a whole other set of criteria (that the reality show host set forth), which didn’t have much to do with the mom who got murdered in the first place.

Burberry Prosum streamed their collection live as did others. I hope this trend continues.

It’s a seemingly far fetched possibility, yet the lines are getting pretty blurred in most everything, on an everyday basis between truth and fiction. Thank you cyberspace, cable television, Judge Judy and American Idol. The old adage believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see is never more true than this moment in history. With fashion, live streaming a runway collection has brought fashion so close to the masses that the mystique of the shows is gone with some designers making their clothing available, on the spot, straight from the runways. As a consequence how fashion is getting covered during these shows has changed too. It’s big business for the publications and all of them are all over it. Twitter has added a great element to following the shows so you’re never very far out of the loop. The fashion folks have been great about announcing the live streaming collections so if you can make it, you’ve got a front row seat, complete w/ 140 character tweets describing insiderey elements to a designer’s collection. Better than being there, almost.

In the process some fashion bloggers have become the latest internet sensation…deserved or not, it’s the novelty they offer and the demographic they speak to the industry is after (Tavi, above). Nonetheless, they are all the rage. Fashion itself was the least of the news, and in some cases rose to that level only. Where the medium became the sole message.

Balenciaga, left, Vivienne Westwood Red, center, Rodarte, right

That said designers at first blush were all over the place for fall 2010 (of course with the massive amount of coverage, most bad some good, what else is going to be your takeaway?). Taking a closer look myself, I was able to determine there were two significant profiles to emerge, a more feminine, almost girly one vs a more severe serious minimalist female with a third, and oddly enough lesser, one based solely on a creative expression serving to feed the sensationalism that speaks to a visual medium vs the female body.

Haider Ackermann, left, Lanvin, center, Prada, right

Beyond that, you will have lots of fab coats to choose from, fashioned leather to die for, fur (faux and real), velvet, feathers and, ladies, get ready, the waist is back. While the controversy over models on the catwalk being too thin has the industry putting models with slightly more meat on their bodies on the runway this season (thankfully) the designers have created overall collections that are more body conscious. The heavy layers of the past, while still there in some collections, focus more on the fact that women have waists and curves whether a more feminine or severe look. Turns out we’ve all got curves.

Well, you don’t say. And high time designers you figured that out. Of course some managed this obvious reality better than others. John Galliano for instance for Dior is apparently being criticized for an overtly romantic collection yet women love it. And Lanvin, who doesn’t do anything for the sake of sensationalism, turned out a unique body conscious yet easy collection for women. It combined successfully the best of both worlds, tailoring and draping. So you have a professional look that is feminine. He worked at that. Then you have Balenciaga who turned out a tremendously creative collection inspired by artists (and packing materials) but it has nothing to do probably with what women want. No matter, it makes a statement, if that is what you want and will be worth something in the aftermarket collectors have discovered on ebay and in vintage shops. Rodarte falls into this category as does Issey Miyake and Prada.

It’ll be interesting to see what the retailers do with what’s been handed them. Hopefully they’ve learned something from the past few years….worst thing they could do is badly knock off what they’ve seen on the runways using some unknown factory in India. With so much talent unemployed, it’s not necessary to use half measures. I guess we’ll see.

3/09/10 12/:53 p.m. Update:

Raf Simons for Jil Sander, Phoebe Philo for Celine, and Stella McCartney have all turned out highly minimalist collections, which most definitely has strength and I for one love the simplicity and strictness (tends to be more my style of dress); however, I see this as being specific to their design aesthetic vs a strong trend; infact, I will stick by what I’d alluded to above: that there is some nice combo of feminine and minimalist which Lanvin and Haider Ackermann as well as in New York Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan and Michael Kors spoke (did not forget you New York). (images to come).

Bookmark

designer Narciso Rodriguez

An outstanding round table hosted by Charlie Rose “Fashion Week Update” includes fashion critic Cathy Horyn of the New York Times, designer Narciso Rodriguez, CEO of J. Crew Mickey Drexler, and Elle Magazine’s fashion editor Roberta Myers.

The discussion is some of the most relevant I’ve heard about fashion and the state of it in well over a year. It’s frank, it comes from different perspectives and it gives some pretty clear direction in terms of where or how a company needs to position itself for future growth and some of the problems you’ll encounter along the way.

For an extra, extra treat, Mr. Rose ends the discussion with an interview he had with Alexander McQueen in 1997….this is a must see. The internet has changed how fashion and the market has functioned, forever. Time to get on board with it and start to understand how to salvage creativity and still earn a living, or become public and still be considered creative, and how the fashion editors fit in and will continue to fit in.

Great job.

Bookmark

Alexander Wang…………………….Carolina Herrera………………Prabal Gurung FW 2010

Bookmark

Today creativity suffered a severe blow with the death of Alexander McQueen. A true visionary, McQueen never failed to delight and to inspire the senses. In a world where there is too little of pushing the envelope and too much of going with the sure thing, McQueen always took the more difficult path. There was none other like Alexander McQueen.

His 2006/7 Autumn/Winter collection deeply informed my first trend newsletter, Trendcites, which has been on my site since. As such that is the collection I want to feature here as a tribute to his storied and brilliant career in fashion. Ironically that show was his tribute to Isabella Blow, another industry stalwart credited for discovering the brilliant Alexander McQueen and who had committed suicide a few months prior. But it was his Spring/Summer 2010 collection that he went live with in a collaboration with Nick Knight and ShowStudio that showed just how much Alexander McQueen was going to lead the fashion industry out of the woods. I guess he has left it to the rest of us to figure it out from here. R.I.P. Alexander McQueen. You will be deeply missed and never forgotten.

Bookmark

Could not help but notice:

Effeti Kitchen……………………………Dior Haute Couture 2010

Motivo-Ceaserstone ……………Mickey Rourke Golden Globes 2010

Bookmark

“>Apple’s Classic 1984 Superbowl Ad

A number of trend forecasters, myself included, are jumping on the “act local” bandwagon. I say this at the same time I am encouraging small business in particular to consider the BRIC countries for export to help them through this sluggish economy.

This notion, acting local, is the single biggest factor to my launching a manufacturing business in St. Louis, MO. For My BFF is a pet bed and accessory company attempting to manufacture product right here on US soil, in my backyard, creating jobs and pumping money into our local economy. It’s a noble exercise and one based as much on faith as research. To say I’ve come across a closed and tight fisted community is an understatement, but that’s due more to our economy than my company. If anything, I have not been discouraged to continue on by our community’s leaders. People by and large want to see me make it but I do have to do the heavy lifting in the beginning. That’s just the way it is and I’ve accepted the challenge and picked up the gauntlet. So far so good.

But to all of you out there, as this is a blog that speaks about a range of topics which more or less highlights trends, be they socio-political, design, business practices, or color they are trends that you are supposed to be considering when you are planning next steps.

And going local is going to be a big movement. I’m sure you wonder about that given the size and nature of Wal-Mart, the power and influence of brands like Oprah and Martha Stewart, but that in and of itself speaks to the movement. These very institutions while enormously influential in our daily lives for a very long time have also created a sort of lock step life, a homogenized society because we’re all listening to a few voices, buying the same things, and going to the same places. Where’s the variety, where’s the innovation, where are the opportunities for millions of Americans to do it for themselves, to grow, to prosper themselves instead of making someone else very very very rich while they’ve lost their homes, their retirement accounts, their health insurance and their dignity?

Now if the emotional side of this argument isn’t interesting enough for you, I found this post at a fellow competitor’s blog and feel it’s only good business to link you to it. If you are looking for a way forward, know that there are more than a few of us who are in the same business and are on the same bandwagon. Besides, PSFK has an infographic and specifically talks about how the money flows when people shop local.

Then there is this article from the L.A. Times about trends for 2010 wherein Faith Popcorn speaks out about the movement to act local, “In fact, trend forecaster Faith Popcorn has made the concept of localization the cornerstone of her predictions for 2010,” say the authors of the article (see page 3).

For me when I think a trend is strong, strong enough for people to make money on, that’s usually where you will find me in action. So I don’t just forecast it, I get myself in the middle of the movement…thus the creation of For My BFF in St. Louis. It has a social component to it as well which again speaks to the need of the community.

It’s a little like Bill Gates (dare I speak about myself in the same vein as him?) who in speaking about innovation which is another very hot topic right now, illustrates how innovation works by talking about the things he is doing right now (The Gates Notes) that employ innovation as a tactic for finding solutions to societal ills such as discovering vaccines for malaria or creating a new educational system that will work for the future of America and keep it competitive on the world stage. Others write about innovation and dissect what it is, which depending upon who is doing the writing (that link is an excellent description of innovation called “Design Thinking”) or explaining, can be helpful or in fact damaging. Nonetheless, innovation is a key tactic to employ in your strategies for creating business in 2010 and beyond. It’s not a me too world anymore, it’s a “let’s break the mold,” kinda world.

It’s not for the fainthearted either but let’s face it, in a world where the status quo threatens our very existence instead of extending it, thinking outside the proverbial box has become a mandate for creating a sustainable future (and why I invoke the now infamous 1984 Apple Superbowl ad above…afterall look what Apple has accomplished since the breaking of that ad, need I say more).

Bookmark

Is that a self promotion or what? Well, I think it’s more of an observation.

Part of what I do is to get a view of more than one angle of society and industry as well as demographic. So it affords me the opportunity of comparing (sometimes) one set of mores/attitudes from one group vs the other….

Some of my observations which I think point to more significant data:

1) The social media guys are happy, somewhat insulated & employed. Suddenly they are the new messiah of the world.

2) The mainstream media is having a very bad moment and they aren’t happy, their news is sad and they are sad, their empires are falling.

3) The fashion industry is in some pretty dire straits. Even with sales figures, at least at the lower end, showing some resilience for holiday, they still face an entirely uncertain future. Their industry too falls into the category of empires falling….print media for them doesn’t have the sway it used to; those in control are working fast and furiously to catch up with where they think the rest of the world is. Problem is those decisions are still being made by the same minds that got them to where they are right now, so their attempts while in some cases noteworthy (Showtime and Alexander McQueen’s live streaming Womens SS 2010 video), it’s still pretty tepid. Sending school aged bloggers to sit in the front row of fashion shows? Back in the Day (that would be yesterday), people would accuse such gimmicks as a ratings scheme. And I can tell they have a lot to learn about Social Media. The best of the best on Twitter and Facebook have a personal style and interact with their followers. Fashion is still shouting about how beautiful they are, still shoving celebrity down our throats. That’s still the old way whether using it on Twitter, Facebook or your own website.

4) If it’s true what they say, you are what you eat, then the same can be applied to you are what you read and I’m feeling the need for reading some Henry David Thoreau (a whole book and not a 140 character or less quote from it).

5) I tweeted that content isn’t king, but that context is king and I find that depending upon who is doing the definition several very important verbs and nouns take on some pretty different meanings: and that would be transparency, authenticity, and engagement. Meaning I guess definition is in the mind of the teller. The efforts though, in the first part of January have been
noteworthy though in trying to understand it. That’s a good thing.

6) Design is on hold (no significant developments, not in any industry), the information mill is full of drek and that includes the ivory halls of mainstream media who supposedly do an incredible job of sussing out the “hard news and real facts,” and my theory of this period being like the wild, wild, west is sadly on par. As consumers of anything, I hope we can soon start demanding quality and not quantity and while giddy (myself included) with excitement over some of the new tech directions and developments, lets hope it doesn’t color our standards for fill in the blank subject matter at hand.

There are several reasons for my writing what some may deem a stinging blog post. One is that there is an article being tweeted in large numbers right now that lists the qualities and skills required for the next generation of journalists. While I have my criticisms of Mainstream Media, I also know some of these people have worked incredibly hard and long at their professions and just because someone understands SEO, doesn’t and won’t ever make them a good journalist. Somebody’s drinking too much Social Media Koolaid.

The other reason is that we are in a vicious cycle of supply vs demand with no real leadership taking the reigns to set the ship aright. On the one hand, the banks seem to be coming out of their freefall but are coming back to repeat the sins of the not so distant past and reaping the rewards while Joe Schmoe is still trying to dig himself/herself out of the trenches….what’s that about? I’d like to start seeing news about entertainers, sports figures, celebrity journalists, talk show hosts or anyone that Joe Schmoe collectively has made very very very rich and what they are doing to help create jobs so that said collective can continue to make them rich. I want to see who is doing what by name and actual numbers to improve the current condition our condition is in. Because I posit that those who are still making money by and large are clueless to what a significant number of people in THIS country are going through right now.

Let’s get real here, the consumer is still the one who holds the key to making things right and while I see all the social media geniuses out there right now capitalizing on this new movement (while they are making money), I see them being focused on social media specifically. They don’t know enough about any one industry except tech to help industries outside the tech industry become successful with it…ergo the insulation. More people in general, marketers specific to their industry, need to have a voice that is not cluttered with SEO, analytics, and ROI and more on strategy per se to show how it does work and can work for small businesses, personal brands, corporations not there yet, and so on. (although honorable mention has to go to the CMO’s who are tweeting in a personal style but for their companies on Twitter right now….).

Let me be clear here, social media is part of the marketing matrix, not all of it. Designers still need to design good things and know what their customer wants, CEO’s still need to lead with vision, and bankers still need to help their customers make money.

While we are getting back to basics, lets get back to some of these.

Bookmark

And you can review it yourself at Prada’s website. or “>here

The set is the most dynamic. Hip indeedy and supported the mood for a 90’s/70’s Ashton Kutcher cum Jude Law look with 3/4 length coats and big buttons, high collars and wide lapels in an edgy beige or black vinyl, pop culture prints, and a beige wool. For a Milanese house though it all had a very British tone mixed with a lot of androgeny.

Kudos on the first live stream. Again, the set was to die for…and at one point, very clear lyrics, in an almost syfy voice, announcing, “time to forget a dead empire and build a living republic, time to forget a dead empire and build a living republic.”

Head’s up fashion industry. Prada speaks.

Bookmark

Happy 2010 everybody. Happy New Decade, one that I predict will bring prominence to the individual. Not in a reality show kind of way but in the way that is truly meaningful and reflective of how the average individual is impacted by the decisions often made by a few individuals behind closed doors. Transparency, authenticity and engagement will be the rule of the day.

I am optimistic about 2010 itself simply because it’s also an election year, something that always motivates change for good.
Job Creation and solutions to the currently unacceptable high unemployment number in the United States will finally become Job 1 for the country’s leaders. If not, the Democrats are sure to lose their majority rule.

Social Media, already an exploding industry, will become formalized this year and I for one am very excited about it. The doors to so much will open as a conseqence of this movement for it’s sheer simplicity for reaching across the globe if for no other reason.

Luxury Fashion will reinvent itself because it has to and there is too much money being left on the table. Fashion has become democratized as a consequence of the web but also because of designer brands creating limited edition lines going into such places as Target and even Wal Mart–that’s unlikely to change. While some think haute couture is less defacto of luxury fashion, I think it will rise to a new prominence…it’s one of the few ways luxury can in fact distance itself from fast fashion. But new technology will allow for more instant and more improved results and services.

This decade will finally bring a new emphasis back to the boomer and marketer’s will begin targeting them once again with less emphasis on youth and more emphasis on reaching and speaking to the full range of demographics. Ethics (ageist discrimination) may be the initial motivation, but eventually it will be because of the bottom line. Boomers still are the wealthiest of the demographics and buy more than just drugs and financial services.

Speaking of which, financial services will be revamped….more of that focus on the individual. Much like broadcast television and mainstream media reinventing itself so too will the financial services industry. Serving the broader good will showcase itself back to the 60’s mantra of creating programs and policies where “all boats will be lifted.”

The anger and frustration that is throbbing beneath the surface of a self serving Congress, Mainstream Media, Celebrity Culture and CEO control will finally surface to the point that the person on the street gets their day in the sun and for more than the 15 minutes Mr. Warhol once declared. This time it will be to actually serve the person on the street and restore them to their rightful place in society. Systems like Twitter exemplify the emergence of the individual. People though like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett will be instrumental in making these things happen, even to the point of exerting influence in politics to create the change in focus. These two personify the movement. When they decide to focus on the average individual, they above all will benefit from it. The collaspe of institutions, companies, industries and governments at the end of this last decade has finally proven the individual has given up way to much power to the hands of a few and are back to claim it.

Ironically, while this report is macro to a fault, it’s all about things in importance being reduced to the most micro of levels: the individual.

Bookmark