What Goes Around Comes Around: Fashion Design Inspiration from the Past

By Karen Lawson
Fashion Design School Review Columnist

Fashion wisdom may suggest that if you’re old enough to remember fashion trends the first time they were popular, you may be too old to wear them the second time around. No matter. Past decades continue to influence new offerings on fashion runways. How do designers keep their collections fresh when they’re influenced by decades past?

Living in the Past, or Back to the Future?

Multimedia innovations such as music videos and the internet have brought the importance of celebrity fashion into our lives in a very big way. Celebrity fashion designers create a total look for singers, actors, and musicians. They use new textiles, manufacturing techniques, and current trends to create new looks that may also reflect past fashion statements.

Last year, rock and roll fashion inspired by 1970’s band logo tops and studded jeans were popular. Designers added new twists using machine embroidery and gothic touches of black and skull motifs.

Jeans are a fashion standard, but each season brings new ‘washes” and textures, along with a variety of “rises” and leg widths. You can find anything from wide 60’s inspired flares to 50’s era “boy” jeans, or the slim-legged styles of the 80’s. If the there’s nothing new under the sun, the key to fashion design success is to create new treatments of timeless themes.

Giving a Contemporary Edge to Fashion Favorites

As a fashion designer, you’ll probably be inspired by your favorite fashion trends, but will add your signature touches to create fresh looks. Fashion designs often reflect edgy trends, but for ready-to-wear lines, designs must be interpreted in ways that provide fresh but functional clothing. Your fashion design career can also depend on how you combine past trends with current influences on fashion design.

If you love fashion and are creative, a fashion design career can be yours. A fashion design degree can help you prepare to create your own fashion statements.

About the Author

Karen Lawson is a freelance writer whose interests include topics in postsecondary education and the arts. She holds BA and MA degrees in English from the University of Nevada, Reno.

Posted on May 23, 2007 at 03:28 PM