Trends Catch Up With You (Sooner or Later)

I am suddenly, unexpectedly, inexplicably, having a Mod moment. Last fall, when everyone started buzzing about “Factory Girl”, Edie Sedgwick and all things Andy Warhol, my reaction to the fashion was, at best, a shrug of my shoulders and: “Eh, whatever.” Honestly, all those shift dresses, jumpers and jangly earrings did little more than make me think of Laurie Partridge at the keyboard.

In the months since, I’ve written about Mod fashion, I’ve seen its influences on the runways, and we did a major fashion shoot on Mod for the upcoming spring issue of JCKstyle magazine. And, somehow, during the course of all that, I went for “Eh” to “Ooo” and, suddenly, I have a wish list of Mod-ish clothes and accessories for this summer.

How does that happen? Laura and I were just talking about this. She had similar experiences with skinny jeans and yellow gold. Is it the simply the pack mentality? I mean, we both consider ourselves independent thinkers.

Sometimes, a fashion trend emerges that I instantly click with (for example, it took me roughly three seconds to covet a brooch on my waist when I first saw that look a couple years ago). But it is curious how we suddenly can turn onto trends months after seeing them. I guess it is partly the aesthetics I mentioned in an earlier blog. We become accustomed to seeing something and start recognizing it for what it represents.

Regardless of the reason, though, this whole experience reminds me of retailers who tell me that customers in their area aren’t interested the latest trends. But, as I usually reply (and personally illustrate with this whole Mod experience) strong trends do catch on eventually and, when they do, you want to have the merchandise at the ready when that first customer comes in asking about it.