fashion - sustainable
Marketing & Development
Report 034 / 2020-10-19
Image @leilapolman Mourning her father. Picture by @theladyinblu
In the last decade, consumers used to follow trends that are designed to make companies big money, and their own expression is lost in the process. We highly over consumed clothing as a result of an increase in trends, leading to a large amount of pollution. The economic high speed train never allowed us to break free from this situation. The trends and subliminal rules set out by the mainstream fashion industry made us unable to experience mood dressing.
Mood dressing is the act of dressing yourself according to your current mood.
The feelings of the wearer are projected and communicated to the outside world through their clothing and enhance their individual mood. If someone is feeling soft or romantic, they might wear something soft like a mohair shirt. If someone wants to shine, they wear glitter. Dressing yourself to express your feelings and individual qualities seems highly logical.
This is not a new concept.
Wearing black while mourning, or wearing white to signify virginity (such as at a wedding ceremony) is a very traditional thing to do that goes back hundreds of years in the western society. Many traditional mood dressings can be found in different geographical locations and cultures.
The coronavirus stopped the high speed train we were in and allowed us to return to expressing ourselves as an individual.
The big hit of the lockdowns at first was a substantial change to our usual lives. It was a total shock to our system, being left alone in our apartments, in a very small world. We could explore everything without adhering to the ‘rules’ of society that we used to live in. A stubborn consumer was born, who is never again going to follow the trends and rules of fashion companies. The individualism of the stubborn consumer is reflected in their clothing.
In The World After, second hand clothing will have a much larger presence than before.
The trend to buy second hand and vintage clothing was already going mainstream, but ever since corona emerged we have started to see more and more second hand appreciation. Even Gucci, MiuMiu, Tommy Hillfiger and Zalando are investing heavily in their own vintage clothing platforms.
When buying second hand clothes, there is no marketing and no direction given to you by the big fashion companies. The second hand clothing market is full of a very broad amount of styles and time periods. Shopping for second hand clothes immediately makes you go back to mood dressing. This is even expressed in the latest fashion shows, where random styles and moods took the main stage.
Mood dressing is now, and the near future, a top contender in vintage and new clothing.
