The role of youth culture in fashion
This is the first in a four-part monthly series on trends by trend-watcher Interfashion Planning. ― ED.
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Victoria Kim
By Victoria Kim
It is always the younger generation that has been in the spotlight where street fashion is concerned. Crazy-colored hair and leather jackets decorated with beads are symbols of youth. It also seems that it’s the privilege of the young to try new things and show off their sense of style.
For older people, it is intriguing to look at what younger people are wearing. Sometimes we expect to see only new looks among teenagers and young people in their early 20s. But that’s a misconception ― the idea that the younger generation aspires only to new and fancy styles.
This point becomes obvious when we listen to successful designers who mainly target young customers. Then we discover another important fact.
Black and white are teens’ favorite colors, for a very practical reason: They are easy to mix and match.
A preference for simplicity has also led to an increase in sales of simple, not-so-special T-shirts and snapbacks. Success in sales depends on how a fashion statement represents young customers’ feelings and thoughts. We know that simple fashion items can succeed, but only if they deliver the right message.
Just look at some of the items that have been popular among teenagers for a while.
In the fashion world, items often become popular when they make bold statements about social and cultural issues.
For example, the line, “get your freak on,” meaning “let’s have some fun,” frequently appears in hip-hop lyrics. And the steady growth of sales of hoodie shirts with that line written on them reflects the influence of hip-hop music on youth fashion.
However, sales of those hoodies drastically declined after the Sewol ferry disaster. This shows that younger people are greatly influenced by their peers.
Courtesy of Interfashion Planning
It also shows that they do not project selfishness all the time, just as they do not look for something fancy and new all the time. Considering that, what matters is not the fact that sales dropped off, but that we need to understand why it happened.
That is, it is necessary to comprehend the meaning of any message written on a monochromatic, 100-percent-cotton, basic T-shirt and how the shirt delivers that message.
Fashion designers and manufacturers would be better off finding out how to come out with a simple item with a witty statement printed on it, rather than putting every ounce of their effort into developing brand-new materials and trendy colors and patterns. Designing a new style is like designing a new thought, as if the designer were a philosopher representing the spirit of the age. Young people are the ones who lead such changes, and they exercise an enormous amount of leverage in the fashion industry.
Witty, bold statements printed on simple silhouettes are popular in fashion week as well. “Undercover” by Jun Takahashi, a hip designer in Japan, has received ardent support from younger people for its challenging witty style. The recent 2015 S/S Collection represents the brand’s philosophy and reflects the values of the younger generation with thought-provoking words printed in neon colors on simple silhouettes.
As you can see, purchasing power in youth fashion mainly stems from young people’s desire to show that they are unlike any other generation. They want their fashions to reflect their lifestyles. Customer and brand are able to communicate effectively when they begin to feel and share each other’s emotional temperature. We need to think seriously about young consumers’ preferences when it comes to communicating and presenting their ideas. That is because the younger generation still leads the majority of consumer markets, including the fashion industry.
Victoria Kim is manager of the global trend business department at Interfashion Planning, the nation’s first trend-watching company specializing in various sectors including cars, electronics, beauty and architecture.