As London Fashion Week commences we will no doubt all be in awe of the latest trends and fads we see strutting down the catwalk. And as soon as a dupe hits Topshop, we’ll all be queuing patiently to get our hands on the forecasted fashion essentials. But is anything ever really new? As ever, past era’s are regenerated for another year, this year being a strong nod to the 70’s.
Flares, platforms, double denim, and frills galore, have already made no doubt their 20th debut into pages of Vogues trend report. The newest element of any item simply being a shorter hem, pantone colour of the year, or an amalgamation of digitised floral prints.
2015 gets a 70s revival
It’s very rare that a piece is astonishingly new. Of course it’s fun to play with decades of fashion styles and encompassing an era, but when is anything fresh going to appear? Year after year we follow the form of years gone by rather than attempting to make something of our own. Can you imagine the excitement and the expense of living through some of fashion’s greatest times. Skipping from the mini swinging sixties into the clog hopping seventies, and then taking a power suit strut into the eighties. It was all new and innovative back then. Fashion represented the time and the feeling of the economy, but now it simply feels like we’re all stuck in a fashion rut with nothing new to inspire us or ignite our imagination. Rather than looking forward it seems like the fashpack are always looking back.
Stevie Nicks the original 70s style icon
Both Debbie Harry and Stevie Nick rocking double denim long before 2015
But with modern technology on our side is this year going to be different? If you’ve never heard of a 3D printer, I’d suggest you do your homework. Because this new piece of tech is going to be giving the traditional sewing machine a run for it’s money.
Iris Van Harpen 3D printed designs
There have already been entire collections created from this computer aided design system, with intricate detailing becoming more complexed and less time consuming, giving fashion designers a tool that can create styles and cuts that they never thought possible from the human hand. So with the only restriction being the imagination, who knows what future fashion designers will be placing on the runway. And maybe once we do find our feet in this era perhaps we’ll be coming around again in years to come.
Photos: Stylebistro