The digital age and the rapid development of social media have had a huge impact on the fashion industry, and one of the most important points is to accelerate the formation and spread of the concept of "micro-trends". Driven by social media and short video platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, these subdivided styles and trends quickly "took root" to attract a small wave of audiences, and then began to influence a wider range of consumers with their distinctive features and popular items.
For example, Quiet Luxury, Gorpcore, Sporty Chic, etc., which have become hot spots in the past... If you don't keep up with the fashion, you will really be confused by these endless styles... But don't worry, as 2024 is a thing of the past, today's NOWRE editorial team has summarized all the micro-trends and fashion keywords you need to know about the past year so that you don't fall behind in the fashion trend...
Via W Magazine
Ten years ago, the popularity of Normcore may have been the first time that people had a concrete concept of minimalist style dressing, "pursuing ordinary and comfortable dressing style", and some adjectives even described it as "frigid". However, Normcore pays more attention to external visual simplicity, and the requirements for product quality are not so great.
Via THE ROW
Normcore faded out of fashion trends in the later years, and now it has returned to the public eye in another form, namely Quiet Luxury. The popularity of Quiet Luxury is inextricably linked to Normcore, but I personally feel that the bigger factor may be... Economic situation.
During the economic explosion, everyone had a strong desire to express themselves, so the pursuit of logos was even more inflated; In times of economic downturn, consumers pay more attention to the intrinsic value and enduring charm of products, hoping that long-term items can accompany them for many years. At the same time, because of the widening wealth gap, the rich also prefer to keep a low profile (everyone who knows), and their purchasing power is also leaning towards quiet luxury brands without logos.
Via Loro Piana
Quiet luxury emphasizes elegance, understatement and high quality. Designers pay attention to the intrinsic quality of the garment, such as delicate hand-sewing and high-quality fabrics. Consumers tend to choose clothes that reflect their personal taste and quality of life, and show elegance and style in their daily lives. The price of this kind of product is higher, but the difference brought by different wealth capabilities is nothing more than the difference in the number of starts, at least the coverage of the population is wide.
Via OUR LEGACY
From luxury brands without prominent logos such as THE ROW, Lemaire, Brunello Cucinelli, Loro Piana, BOTTEGA VENETA, ZEGNA, etc., to up-and-coming fashion brands such as OUR LEGACY AND AURALEE, these brands have shown growth this year in terms of financial performance and consumer feedback, while other brands are facing different difficulties to a greater or lesser extent.
Via ZEGNA
Back to the collocation itself, the quiet luxury style chooses more low-saturation colors, which is not only visually restrained and elegant, but also the low-saturation colors can more intuitively show the high-end sense of the material itself. Some friends will joke that when you sit in first class, you can't go back to economy class, in fact, quiet luxury items are also somewhat similar, after feeling the texture of top materials and tailoring, you will want to leave your spending power to them, in the past a certain budget wanted to buy more items, now I would rather buy less and hope to leave the budget for the best quality one.
I believe that the intensification of quiet luxury in 2024 will continue in 2025 and even for a long time to come. First, as mentioned above, the impact of the economic cycle is still there, and secondly, after feeling "good", no matter what your financial resources are, you will not forget its feelings. In addition, the most important point is that whether it is quiet luxury, old money or long-termism, we do not advocate that only the THE ROW and Loro Piana are counted, but choose high-quality items within the scope of our own purchasing power.
Via SOD
This year is supposed to have been a small wave of grunge, a kind of "youth uniform" subculture derived from the grunge music scene.
Rooted in the background of some typical Grunge bands represented by Nirvana, there are now brands in our country that specialize in this type of research and styling output, which is still very powerful, from single products to styling, in fact, there is the idea of extending design rooted in a certain cultural scene element.
Via VOGUE
In terms of the dressing phenomenon of Social Media, in fact, most of the Grunge styles we see now are not typical Kurt stereotypes: black and red striped sweater/second-hand store wool cardigan + tattered jeans + Converse, trapper hat + clout goggles glasses, etc., everyone just picks up its elements as a playability technique in dressing, and will intersperse various mixed & match items of their own preferences, There is even only one small detail, a small item with a bit of Grunge flavor, which becomes more flexible and diverse.
Via BEAMS
Digression: On the 40th anniversary of BEAMS, I actually did a retrospective feature on Tokyo's 40 years of dressing, which said that the Grunge that became popular in 1991 was a typical Kurt look, and the New Grunge did not explode again until 2003.
Via SOD
Now the times and habits are different, we can now experience the baptism of these "youth culture styles" in a week, the last screen may still be brushing "what is Grunge" posts, and the next screen will show you a variety of Grunge Mixed & Match outfits, and even more diverse images, very condensed and abstract.
If you can adapt to it, it's really good, and friends who like to dress can have more diverse and quick understanding space to increase the playability of dressing. At the same time, if you want to know a certain kind of information, as long as you know how to surf, you can actually absorb more in-depth information, which is more convenient in any case.