r aw
2015 Fashion & Lifestyle Trend Forecast
In RAW, we encounter the hyperreal. We see the seams of an encoded reality – beckoning numbers and letters, mad ciphers and symbols. We are linked; at times, hyper-connected to the machines of our own making. Self-designed, self-magnifying systems that amplify the noise of our everyday details. The din of data culture grows deafening. In our quest to control and understand reality, we break it down and we bleed information.
The coarse noise of the city is suffocating. We move against strong waves of urban sound; technology’s recurrent smart tones and ringtones booming as we quicken our strides to steady the beat. The landscape is grey, punctuated by small pockets of organic life and lost ritual. Unable to slacken the feverish pace of our hearts and minds, we plunge deeper into the matrices of a mechanized reality.
Even as the Amazon Age continues to shift momentum in favor of online shopping, the majority of shopping still takes place offline and in the store. By the end of the 2013 holiday season, in-store shopping garnered 265.9 billion to only 46.5 billion online. Despite the ease and convenience of a one-click shop for all our necessities and luxuries, consumers clearly still favor finding and trying on merchandise in-store.1 We crave texture, sound, and touch. Even as we spend more time on our smartphones, the physical world continues to spin and demands to be heard. We are caught amidst the furies of escalating global temperatures, rising tides and growing populations worldwide. The intricacies and interdependencies of this human biosphere are at the forefront. Hybrid vehicles, environments, workspaces and playcations become more deeply intertwined. The sound and fury of hyperconnection has taken hold.
Š 2015 Beth Lauck What Next