Fashion diktats: Who decides what Hot is?

Can’t say I am an avid follower of fashion and its ever changing trends but I do have a reasonable interest, as much as any other person who wishes to be well informed in order to stay well dressed and in tune with current styles.

As seasons and styles keep changing and rotating, one question has always stumped me. Who or what determines what will catch on? How can one ever predict what will fly off and become the catch of the season where suddenly every designer, every design house and every designer store will start sporting and carrying merchandise of the same style.

The Hot trend this season is undoubtedly the Neon colours.

Typically bright colours are sought after during summer, but this year neon seems to have gone viral, bright mango yellow, indigo blue, parrot green, shocking, hot pink and purple are in fashion.

Be it western wear, skirts, tops or Indian wear salwar suits, dupattas to accessories like head wear, trinkets, nail colour, even footwear and bags. There is no doubt that neon colour sparkles up any outfit, it adds a dash of colour, a jazz and makes a happy note. Neon has lasted through summer and is dominating the autumn trends as well.

Fashion is cycling and all designs go through traditional, static to modern and dynamic approaches. Sometimes graphical prints or animal prints prevail and at other times traditional block designs are sought after. Styles too keep getting shorter or longer — short kurtas, long anarkalis. Colours go from bright to pastels and now to neons.

There is no way of saying how fashion houses keep their design secrets, since no sooner there is a trend, everybody does the same thing. Fashion forecasting is a technical matter that helps the industry gear up to the changing moods and interests of the customer which will determine the purchase behaviour of that season. Fashion is also demographic and follows the culture, beliefs and geographic locations.

Since the world is united through the internet, there is much less lapses in fashion cycle these days. Earlier if a certain fashion was introduced in say Paris it would have reached India later during the fashion cycle, but now the adaption is happening almost simultaneously.

As an illustration if the west is using neon to make tank tops, India is using neon to make dupattas and sarees.

All seasonal events also adapt to fashion trends. This Navratri season, since long lengths are trendy and anarkalis are still the in thing, one can expect to see plenty of long flowing skirts with plenty of pleats and the neon colours like hot pinks, the lime greens and the blazing oranges to dominate.