Here we are at 2020. It is not only a new year of possibilities, but a new DECADE. That just blows my mind. I cannot help but wonder what will happen between 2020 to 2030. Who will be the fashion icons? What brands are going to sky rocket into madness? What will be the new advancements in fashion? I let my imagination run wild and made 5 predictions.
1. Fast Fashion Gets Beheaded
Slowly since it’s birth, fast fashion has been studied and documented as a major source of climate and human catastrophe. From ruining the environment, to devastating the economy, to degrading human life and fair pay, fast fashion has a target on it’s back. For many years we have already known it’s terrible effects and continue to remain complicit due to it’s meet of demands for cheap clothing. But I believe something major is going to happen, something that will enrage humanity all together as it goes from social media to news platforms. Fast fashion will be damned along with any brand associated with it. Strict laws will be in place, and there will be no possibility for illegal production.
2. Sustainability Becomes Normative
With increased awareness and moral consciousness, I believe consumers will begin to make more informed decisions on what they pay for because they know the consequences if they continue to support unsustainable fashion. Quality will be a very important factor like before, and people will only buy clothing that are sustainable to our environment. With this movement, brands and stores will notice reduced sales in cheap clothes, and will have to make major changes to their stock and means of production. Thrift stores will expand and have a bigger space in the fashion industry than ever before.
3. Men’s Fashion Becomes Fluid
For a long time now, women have been able to bend gender and wear clothes that are traditionally masculine, while men are chained to traditionally masculine clothing (wrote about it here). But I think this decade will stop the double standard as masculinity will expand and cross over into femininity in mainstream ways. So we are going to see men in skirts, dresses, bobs, heels, lipstick and rompers and no one will bat an eyelash.
4. Fashion Goes Abstract
Fashion has been dominated by simplistic shapes, like the t-shirt, skirt, sweater, pants, etc. Deconstructing these templates, you have cut outs that are rectangular, square, or circular. Recently, we have been getting more creative in manipulating or destroying shapes, such as adding slits or frills. In this new decade, I think shapes will go beyond simplicity. Clothing will become more complicated, detailed and structured.
5. Technology Advances for Clothing
I think for many reasons, technology will rapidly be incorporated into fashion and improved. Whether it will be for harsher climates, for specific activities or the extinction/banning of certain fabrics (such as furs), our clothes will be made with more impressive composition due to the demand and the creativity of the human mind. Maybe they will create a fabric that water cannot penetrate, or a material that can keep the human body warm in -30 degrees Celsius weather ( I sure need that now).
It is so exciting to see as a fashion lover where we can go from here. It will not be downhill I promise! Let me know which prediction boggles your mind the most, or which seem like a reach. And if you have any predictions yourself, share it with everyone in the comments down below!
