The Four Stories that Define Fall/Winter 20/21 Color and Design Concepts
“Forget about consumer insights,” that was the advice from Kai Chow, creative director of fashion merchandising and consulting firm The Doneger Group, at the beginning of his trend presentation during Tuesday’s Texworld USA Virtual Edition. Instead, Chow took inspiration from the lens of art and nature to share what he called the four “stories” that will comprise design and color concepts for the Fall/Winter 20/21 fashion season.
These four stories are: Expression, Aggregation, Preservation and Illusory, each with two sets of colors that are typically used in the expected fashion design concepts. Expression showcases have “drawn” and “paint” color sets, Aggregation includes “gentle” and “harsh” colors, Preservation displays “land” and “soul” and Illusory designs contrast “dusk” with “dawn.”
“I think color is the most important tool for fashion at the moment,” said Chow during the presentation. “Everyone is looking for something a little bit more basic and a little bit more timeless. But then you’re offering a new color where they have more items to add into their wardrobe.”
The Expression story is inspired by art and artists, while Aggregation is based on using a modern approach to fabrication through multiple functional materials and softer “comfortable colors,” which are designed to create more “earthy” clothing. Preservation, Chow’s favorite story, focuses heavily on more authentic, handmade and artisanal fashion designs.
“It’s the idea of you feeling good by using pigment natural vegetable dyes and authentic grown material,” Chow told Sourcing Journal prior to the presentation. “At the same time, you’re preserving the wool.”
The final story, Illusory, is designed to give an “underwater” feel to fashion, sparked by “things we’ve never seen” in the natural world, such as fluorescent neon lights.
Although the presentation focused heavily on the abstract concepts related to design and color, Chow noted that the idea of fashion trends is still vital to the success of the industry in a post-COVID world.
“If there’s no trend, there’s no fashion,” Chow said during the presentation. “The meaning of fashion is that you’re creating something new for the consumer to consume something exciting for them to actually purchase. It definitely transports us coming from nowhere based on social culture creating all these trends by seeing what consumer movement is, to then creating the closest trends that you can develop or inspire for the coming season.”
On Thursday, the third and final day of the Texworld USA, Apparel Sourcing USA and Home Textiles Sourcing Virtual Edition, the show will lead off with a keynote from Mercedes Gonzales, director of Global Purchasing Group on the benefits of nearshoring. Additionally, three separate panels will tackle the themes “Understanding Sustainability’s Role in the Recovery,” “Why Brands Matter More Than Ever” and “Design in the Post-Pandemic Home Business.” The final “Changemakers” panel will include insights from execs at Supima, Cordura, Unifi and Dupont as they discuss how new-age fiber companies drive sustainability.