A Knotted Waist

 

Four weeks ago we were put in a group and given the trend 'a knotted waist'. Our task was to research the forecasts of the trend, how it's been communicated through the media and in retail, and how the consumer is wearing it.

At first I was kind of excited; I returned home and went straight to my laptop to start researching - WGSN being my first point of call - but I quickly came to the realisation that this trend wasn't simple.. AT ALL. Forecasts had been made for S/S 2014 but nothing was obvious for A/W 2016, apart from the odd nod from the catwalk. We then went to London and the only shop that really stood out was Zara and not many people were wearing our trend either. Quickly, curiosity became panic.

What we should have realised though, is that we needed to read between the lines. The trend was having a resurgence after being popular a couple of years ago, therefore it was still in the early stages. On one hand, Zara are known for their two week turnaround of dupes after designers showcase their collections on the catwalk, which explains why Zara was the only retailer where the trend was prominent. On the other hand, retailers that did have the odd style or two were only presenting the garments on the hanger, where they look droopy and unflattering, rather than being put on a mannequin and shown how they look realistically, which is why not many people were willing to try it out.

So this brought us to today. The 27th October 2016. Our first FCP formative assessment. I was so nervous, I'm not going to lie, but I really shouldn't have been. After going over our research for four weeks, we did know what we were talking about and, despite our mood boards not looking like they belonged together (constructive criticism), our presentation went really well! And hopefully we can work on our feedback and improve for future assessments.

Long story short - never give up. Just because something isn't staring you in the face at first, it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. There is a solution for everything, and even when you do find a solution and you think people are going to disagree, everything is also justifiable. (And sounding confident about what you're saying rather than saying "we struggled" makes it sound that little bit more truthful!)

Georgia.xo