Trend Setters for Out Time
| August 16, 2009
Today’s trend setters may not be exactly where you think they might be. Take the fashion industry, for example.
Time was when the leaders of major design houses or publications set the trends…or, perhaps, celebrities. A look at two of today’s top fashion trend setters reminds us that times have changed, and changed all the more since the current economic crisis hit.
Exhibit One is Jenna Lyons, the brilliant creative director of not a couture fashion empire but rather J. Crew. Yes, Jenna Lyons isn’t designing Red Carpet gowns that are worn by a few and cost tens of thousands of dollars. She’s designing the kinds of clothes real people wear, and can afford. Sweaters for $78 and dresses for $88.
Lyons is enormously popular. Her monthly “Jenna Picks” report is scoured by style-conscious shoppers. And her keen design sense helped boost J. Crew stock up 18% in the first quarter, (which was not exactly a boom period in the world of apparel!). Sure it helps that the Obamas love J. Crew. But the popularity goes well beyond our First Family.
What’s so impressive about Lyons is her authenticity, as well as her creativity and her connection to what real people want. Credit J. Crew chief Mickey Drexler for tapping into it.? When Drexler took over, he fired most designers, promoted Lyons to the top position, and reportedly took a look at her and said, “Design what you’re wearing.” In other words, be true to what you believe in.
Exhibit Two is Scott Schuman, a guy with a decade and a half of solid work in the fashion industry as of 9/11. The shock of that moment made Schuman take a good hard look at his life. In his own words, he felt that, “There was a disconnect between what I was selling in the showroom and what I was seeing real people (really cool people) wearing in real life.”
So he took his digital camera to the streets and shot what he saw. The result became Schuman’s trend-setting blog, www.TheSartorialist.com. What you see is Schuman’s take on what looks cool.? The photos are real, as are his brief comments. An Australian paper wrote about what Schuman does with the headline: “Forget models. Real people rule.” And that, of course, is precisely what Schuman believes. His blog is a creative success, insofar as it has influenced major designers. And it is a commercial success with its advertising and collateral attention for Schuman who now has a monthly page in GQ, as well as videos for www.Style.com.
Both of these trend setters are grounded in authenticity. Both are connecting to real people. Both are keenly in touch with our time. Their power goes well beyond their respective positions. That says something – something very positive, I think – about?the meritocracy of trend setting. And it reminds us to”maintain a wide” and unprejudicial vision as we search to see what’s likely to inform our marketing initiatives.
