Street style research

In todays lesson we spoke about street style research, where we could go round different areas and photograph the public in any outfits that we really liked or that caught our attention. This task would be very useful for our project, as it will help me understand the current fashion in other areas in London, and I would like to do a questionnaire so I can find out information about the trends the public are wearing, I want to find out how much money an average person spends on an outfit and how long it takes them to get ready etc, so I will ask all this questions on my questionnaire I will make and then take with me. We are going to go to 4/5 different areas in London which is known for fashion. I have made a plan for the day, and I have uploaded the plan below.

This is the handout we got in the lesson, which told me some information and a definition of 'street style research' and it tells me the things I need to take. I found this sheet very helpful to me, because before this lesson I didn't even know what 'street style' actually was.

'Street Style

Many forecasters use street style to inform their opinions of trends.  The key to carrying out street style observations comes through 3 processes:

Observations

Intuition

Interrogation

First chose an appropriate place to carry out the street watching.  Look at the streets façade (the retail business & leisure space it contains) look at the people walking by (their style & ethnicity) and define the streets purpose (for recreational use, retail, leisure, business).  If a street is located in a popular “Innovator zone” then note the technology people are using.

Always take a notebook to record your findings, intuitions about the scene & people & record any questions & answers when approaching public.  Take a camera to capture imagery of both the street scene and the people.

Be prepared with a list of questions you may ask the public.  Do not ask too many questions but be direct with relevant questions.

Ask to take their photo and advise them how you will use image – i.e in your own private work, on a blog, pinterest etc

Look at how to set out your findings.  Is this written up in the style of WGSN street style report, or a magazine article etc.'

In this lesson we also go a few handouts about Trends and Trend Forecasting, which made it really clear to me in what these words actually meant. There was also a handout called 'Diffusion of innovation' which I had never heard of before, I found this information very useful to me, as it really broke down the different stages of Trends, and how they come about.

'Definition of a Trend Forecaster

Trend forecasters are lifestyle detectives: men and women who spend their time detecting patterns or shifts in attitudes, mindsets, or lifestyle options, that run against current thinking or how people normally behave, live, dress, communicate, and trade.

Definition of a Trend

A trend can be emotional, intellectual, and even spiritual.  A trend can be defined as a direction which something tends to move and which has consequential impact on the culture, society, or business sector through which it moves.

The words “style” or “movement” are sometimes used to describe the changes taking place over a period of time.   Style is a distinctive manner, aesthetic, method, or way of expressing something “new”, while a trend is the “direction” in which something new or different moves.  So a style is about difference, while a trend is about difference and the direction along which that difference travels.

                                                 

 Martin Raymond – The Trend Forecasters Handbook'

'Diffusion of Innovation

The “Innovators are the individuals who are responsible for the development of an innovation or the introduction of a new idea.  The Innovators may not have created the original idea but they are the people who articulate it in a way that makes sense to other members of their tribe or group.

The” Early Adapters” are connected to the Innovators, either close friends or colleagues and are happy to be exposed to new ideas as they trust and respect the Innovators.  The early Adapters usually have a high degree of interconnections or involvement with other groups and are essential for spreading the trends.  Forecasters use the term “critical mass” to describe the point at which a trend becomes infectious few people can resist it.  This is also known as the “tipping point”, or the point at which a trend tips over from being a minority concern to a majority one that is highly visible and influential.

The “Early Majority” respects the Early Adapters and therefore take on the trends.  These are usually highly sociable people, usually active on-line.  Making up a large percentage of the public they are followers but will follow opinions of those they trust.  These people will stay with a trend for quite some time which will filter through to the “Late Majority”.

The” Late Majority” are conservative by nature and require high levels of reassurance and explanation about how a new idea will work and how they can benefit from it before they buy into it.  They are a large percentage of the population.  Quite often the trend would have been adopted by this crowd in a watered down format.  This crowd are easier to target and their tastes easier to define therefore many companies concentrate their efforts servicing this group because it is easier to imitate than it is to innovate

“Laggards” are the slowest to adopt new ideas.  They are usually conservative and traditionalists, and would need a lot of reassurance to try something new.  When a trend has been adopted by the Laggards trend forecasters refer to it as being “flat-lined”, the end of a trend being useful to a forecaster.

 Diffusion of Innovations – Everett M. Rogers”

                                                     

After reading these two sheets as a class, we then picked a product and then discussed the different stages of the 'diffusion of innovation' we wrote on the board and took turns in coming up with something to say about the stages the products trend goes through. I took a picture of the information we gathered and uploaded it.