With 2013 as the dawn of a new era, slowly but surely we see the contours of a new world appearing. Where we previously talked of a complex, multi-layered reality with a fourth and even a fifth dimension, we’re now seeing that the boundaries between these layers and dimensions are becoming obscured; they are blending together and we’re becoming accustomed to all these dimensions and are slowly beginning to see and feel a unity. The time is now ripe for a new kind of sensation, design and form language.
A hybrid, modern dialect is developing that creates exciting innovations. The trends for winter 14/15 and beyond demonstrate this. For young people, the boundary between on and off-line has been diffuse for some time. Young people are continually ‘in-line’ and switch between real and virtual reality and between live contact and social media, without a second thought. That is the new reality.
Another aspect of this new reality is that everything around us will start to communicate.the internet of things is there to facilitate our lives, to provide care, to deliver efficiency and to approach and serve us as consumers in the most personal way possible. The down side is that these data make it possible to anticipate personal needs for a purchase, for example a flight ticket. The more important this is to you, determines how much you pay…
** The visual vocabulary of the new era is formed by the seamless transfer of technology and crafts **
As people, we are finding our way in the new reality. We try to keep going, make the right choices and find a balance. We’re searching for a human dimension as counterweight to this virtual and technological dominance. We see that archetypal human needs currently form the most important consumer motives. the consumer is becoming ‘conshuman’ and is evolving from prey to partner.
BIOTOPIAN PERSPECTIVES
My trend concept biotopian perspectives for summer 2014 is about this human dimension as a response and counterweight. We identified a need for calm, absorption and contemplation, a longing for light- heartedness, pleasure and optimism and a strong desire for cohesion and connection with each other, with our culture and with nature. We also saw the trend for exploring boundaries and investigating the new possibilities and technologies created through this exponential phase of science, technology and creativity.
THE VISUAL VOCABULARY OF A NEW ERA
We’ve now arrived at the point where we can start to adjust cautiously to all these new possibilities, perspectives and ideas. We’ll become aware that on-line and off-line will merge together and the boundaries will also become obscure. This is where the innovations for design, fashion, food and retail for winter 14/15 and beyond are concealed.
We see hybrid forms of fantasy and reality, the virtual and the real, future and history, analogue and digital, technology and handicrafts. The visual vocabulary of the new era is formed by the seamless transfer of technology and crafts. Call it digital craft or, more accurately, crafted virtuality. A perfect 3-D print achieves seemingly hand-made effects or, rather, visibly hand-crafted design that, nevertheless, requires technology for its production.
BIOTOPIAN TRIALOGUE
Using this new visual vocabulary we enter into dialogue, or better, a trialogue of technology and crafts with the season’s sources of inspiration; this is how the trend stories are formulated. It is beautiful to see in this age that the season’s sources of inspiration are just like consumer motives; archetypical. We’ll be looking to the past into our rich history, looking forward with science, searching for contact with nature and cultivating what is unique in each individual.
Zooming out fur ther this season, you’ll see that these are precisely the four main sources of inspiration for fashion and design, food and retail, with different forms of expression for each source of inspiration; from the entirely literal to the more abstract. A choice can be made from this, depending on the brand, market position and the envisaged type of consumer. Because you don’t need everything…..
BY CHRISTINE BOLAND, TREND ANALYST (NOMINEE TREND FORECASTER OF THE YEAR)
This article is published in the book Second Sight #35 2014 and Beyond – Traveling Through Times.
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