When it comes to fashion trends, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to look into a crystal ball and predict them. A lot is happening at once and the culture of the world is making unexpected leaps. In order to take a look at the 2024 autumn/winter season, we knocked on the door of trend researcher Hilde Franqc. From her Antwerp studio, she follows what fashion is all about season after season. It begins with a piece of sociology: What is on the minds of fashion wearers?
The common thread running through Franqc’s predictions is the artificial intelligence (AI) buzzword, or rather resistance to it. We’ll be talking about it in Fall 2025 as the fashion industry embraces the discussion.
An earth to share and carry
Sustainability in 2024/25, not far from Europe’s ambitious climate targets, means looking for big solutions. For the fashion industry, this is a fact that has little to do with trends, but more to do with the visual implementation of fashion, which is gradually changing. After a season of vociferous, activist messages, themes are now becoming more subtle, turning to admiration for nature.
Earlier references to galaxies, sun, moon and flower arrangements give way to a purer depiction of the elements. We now turn to the planet we share, and the earth becomes the inspiration for architecture and fashion. This is made tangible through organic shapes, crocheted flowers and imperfect earth tones of bio-based paints. Biomaterials are on the rise, becoming mainstream and spreading. Catwalks morph into alien worlds and surreal backdrops with imaginary plants and trees, providing a much-needed escape from reality.
superhuman
There are fears that ChatGTP will replace jobs – and with good reason. There’s no denying that AI processes will change the world, but it’s hard to imagine exactly how futuristic it will become. Fashion’s job is to dramatize that, with Matrix-esque greens and Windows blues. Latex is making a comeback, and designers are experimenting with the “glitch” effect, a nod to the big computer crash we sometimes secretly long for.
Even if AI becomes the standard, human work remains important. A counter-movement is therefore based on humanity, which lies in unique talents, emotional intelligence and social contacts. The computer doesn’t win here. The colorful promise of humanity also gets a place in the FW 2024 season. ‘Keep calm’ is the message of the pastels and cosy, gender-neutral purple. The beauty of such an everyday palette is that it blends well; like humans and AI in an ideal world. Tactility is also very important with this topic. The materials are transparent and the shapes fluid, with the resurgence of applied folds.
Happiness is taken to the extreme
The younger generations no longer see happiness as long-term as their (grand)parents did. Entry at the bottom of the career ladder or a job for life in exchange for security and loyalty no longer satisfies them. Rather, they seek their happiness in the now. But if every encounter has to be meaningful and every visit to a restaurant has to trigger an aha moment, such a lifestyle also brings a lot of stress with it.
You don’t see that from the outside, by the way, and fashion is embracing this clean look by throwing in color blocking and shiny fabrics like satin. The benchmark is the new Barbie film that tests the line between dream and reality. Saturated colors exude a positive vibe that resonates immediately. The combinations are not immediately logical, but expressive and interesting. In order to learn the art of living abstraction, master painters like Cézanne and Gauguin are brought out again. Maxmalist prints perfectly reflect the dilemma of YOLO and FOMO. To maintain balance, purple, the color of mental well-being, is once again essential. If you transfer the phenomenon to a business tuxedo, it falls under “bleasure”: business with pleasure.
This article originally appeared on FashionUnited.nl. Translated and edited by Simone Preuss.