ITS 2016 Trends Report – The Seismographer. 15 years of tracing and recording creative waves 2002 – 2016.
23 February 2017
We’ve built our very own Seismographer at ITS, picking up any wave of creativity out there. Convergence of phenomena, events, even mutations in the world of young talents. This is the fifteenth time we turn the switch on and listen, collecting a myriad of data and unraleving a snapshot of the current situation void of the structures of conventional thinking. An invisible creativity thread comes to the surface, connecting Argentina to Zimbabwe passing through Australia, Belarus, China and linking Indonesia to Alaska, Japan to Iceland, South Africa to Malaysia, Brazil to New Zealand. Opposite cultural realities often conveying and reworking the same messages. A gender fluid approach, a futuristic imaginary, a quest for sustainability. Steadily decreasing boundaries between fashion, jewelry and accessories. This is what you are about to discover about the 2016 generation, including where they come from, their age, their use and relationship with the internet, their favourite fashion designers, brands and media and much, much more. Seeds that are about to germinate, spreading their roots to shape the present and the future of the fashion system. 934 applicants from 78 different nationalities, coming from 184 schools in 53 countries.
Come with us on this journey inside the most creative young minds.
Barbara Franchin
1. A GENDER FLUID APPROACH
Genderfluid, null gender, agenderflux: these are just a few of the definitions used now to describe what gender is and signifies.
The ITS seismographer registered this trend back in 2008, and wrote about it in our 2013 trend report.
In the ITS 2016 portfolios 31% of collections are defined by applicants as “agender”.
In 2015 the percentage was less than 1%.
There is no hint of femininity in womenswear, and no masculinity in menswear: we are seeing a completely new code and a fresh renegotiation of the gender identity.
Let’s break out of norms and rules (…)
Tatiana Lobanova, ITS JEWELRY FINALIST 2016
Isn’t it limiting to look at each other as one human race divided into two groups, men and women?
Aren’t we more diverse than that?
Aren’t we more interesting than just men and women, aren’t we all intermixture of everything and little bit of each other?
Aren’t we all characters, all unique, each one with their own story to tell?
1b. THIS NEW DIMENSION IS FULL OF COLORS
Within this new dimension, we have a world full of graphic elements, colors and layers.
There is no space for black anymore.
The need for communication is too strong and the ocean of images is pushing this color out of the creatives’ mindset.
A stunning firework of unstructured energy!
Carlo Giordanetti, Swatch Creative Director
I enjoyed the research of transparency and dynamism: everything moves, everything floats, everything vibrates and captures light.
Layering of experiences and visual inputs, as if signifying the absolute need to carry along all of one’s private history.
2. A FUTURISTIC IMAGINARY
Its 2016 applicants are looking for an aesthetic capable of embracing the newest advancements of technology and sensorial computing.
They are including in their collections electronic elements, already imagining their functions and future developments.
They feel they lack tools and a real interaction with different experts.
In the next few years experts on fashion design, computational design, computational simulation, concept design, design fabrication, biotechnology, material science, and interaction design will work together in laboratories.
3. SUSTAINABILITY
90% of ITS 2016 applicants declared an interest in fashion sustainability.
They are starting to analyze this issue with a non- superficial approach.
Needless to say, a real sustainable vision is far from being implemented, not just in fashion but in any of the productive and commercial sectors of our society. If our society will ever undergo this change, it will deeply impact every aspect of our life, from designing a project, to producing, commercializing and selling it.
4. BLENDING DISCIPLINES
Fashion, jewelry and accessories are progressing towards an integration/fusion.
5. A PRESENT-DAY, FULL OF YESTERDAY AND TOMORROW
In the its 2016 portfolios we have observed features which have returned on a regular basis from the first edition:
BIG VOLUMES – OVERSIZED SHAPES
DECONSTRUCTION AND RECONSTRUCTION
FUSIONS
HYBRIDIZATION
COLLISION – MASH UP
PATCHWORK
COVERED FACES
Yet these features, while unvaried, show a different meaning, recording the changes in society big volumes and oversized shapes now convey a new function:
THEY ALLOW GAINING MORE VITAL SPACE
THEY PROTECT
THEY BLUR THE SHAPES OF OUR BODY AND GENDER
Conceptual collections tend to disappear.
M. L. Poumaillou on ITS#THREE portfolios
At the same time we have clear directions: fusion, ethnical, mixed pieces with a strong research in textiles.
6. STRUCTURES, ROUNDNESS AND TRANSPARENCY
In ITS 2016 portfolios, we register a wide use of structures, roundness and transparency.
7. THREADS
Ropes, twists, twines. Threads presented in all way possibile. They try to stop our frail identity from fraying. They are wrapping us for keeping our personality together.
Threads seem to represent bonds we are tied to, leaving us in a sort of soft and suspended dimension we try to free ourselves from.
