New technologies, the availability or scarcity of resources and the related price increases shape not only entire industries, but in fact, shape our very everyday life. We know that the world around us will change fundamentally in the next two decades. A consumer driven indicator of this new lifestyle are for example the Swishing parties that have emerged in all the big cities across the globe.
How this change may affect the fashion industry and the way we clothe ourselves, was at the centre of the Fashion Futures‘ report that the Forum for the Future developed in collaboration with over a hundred industry professionals.
By asking themselves questions such as ‘What do we know will change in the years to come?’ and ‘What things will become feasible?’, the designers delivered insights into changes already happening in the industry. And when thinking what these insights would mean 20+ years down the time line, 4 probable scenarios can be conjured up for the year 2025:
- Slow is beautiful: A world of political collaboration and global trade, where slow and sustainable fashion is beautiful. (Video Clip)
- Community Couture: Where high-tech systems deliver for the speed-obsessed global shopper. (Video Clip)
- Techno-Chic: Where resource crisis constrains consumption in a world focused on local communities. (Video Clip)
- Patchwork Planet: A world of fast consumption in global cultural blocks. (Video Clip)
Of course, the professionals did not support this research without clear self-interest: The changes will be drastic – and the results of the research help in turn them, to get prepared and their head around what could be waiting for them in an already not too distant future.
This said, the report one of the concept pitched in the Community Couture scenario is the idea of ‘clothing libraries’, whereby – like books – private or public entities would own clothing in storage, and individuals would be able to take out and borrow items during a pre-determined period for a set fee. Pretty much what is already happening in the main stream with wedding dresses – only much larger, and covering just about all items of a wardrobe imaginable: T-shirts, dresses, evening gowns, ski outfits, jeans, business suits, maternity wear, children’s clothing, work jump suits just to name but a few.
Interestingly, there is a UK start up company currently working on precisely realising the Clothing Library concept:
Opnuu (for reference see: trademark registration notice; preview glimpse of website) is schedule to launch in Spring 2011.
It is then: The future is the present already!
