For their market research, forecasting and deep branding info, go to their site, What-next.com.
Below is a recent blog post from their site that we found interesting and visually mesmerizing as what we would interpret as the adult version of the tea party from Alice in Wonderland.
2017 Fashion Trends | An Extraordinary Madness
During my graduate study at Harvard University, I read and wrote extensively on the intersections between depth psychology, philosophy, religion, culture and gender. Today’s blog on 2017 fashion trends brings to mind some of that research, particularly a book called, The Far Side of Madness by John Weir Perry. Perry’s book explores different classifications of mental illness in the context of Jungian philosophy and mythology, and gives different and new meaning to the conscious and unconscious psychological underpinnings of schizophrenia.
I’ve been trying to put my finger on the how to explain why I chose the images for today’s post. It often begins as an intuitive leap – when my inner voice that says, “Aha! Yes. This image. Not that one. Etc.” It’s not always easy to put intuitive leaps into words. I’ve written before about madness and fashion, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t repeating myself. But perhaps it’s not so much repeating myself, as it is providing further evidence for the hows and whys of this particular aesthetic development.
In The Far Side of Madness, Perry writes:
Plato tells us that Socrates enumerated four kinds of madness that conveyed a wisdom higher than the wisdom of the world: that of prophecy, of initiation, of poets, and of lovers. […] Socrates was not merely quipping, for his praise of madness was part and parcel of his doctrine of “recollection”: when the soul is born into the world it is inclined to forget its previously acquired vision of the divine light of heaven and must enter into these extraordinary mad states in order to retrieve what has been lost.
There is a kind of madness to today’s constellation of images that’s important for those interested in tracking 2017 fashion trends. In some ways it’s a madness that mirrors those days when I feel like my brain has “too many tabs” open. There’s so much to track, so many interruptions, and the pace can be overwhelming. We’re constantly inundated with information from all sides. But rather than bemoan how fracturing this can feel, let’s look instead at the tremendous amount of energy that’s around us and what it’s really pointing toward. Fashion is an excellent mirror during these times and often points to answers before all the questions have been asked. Take a look below and tell me what you see.
