Conclusion:

The medium fuelling the trends has changed over the course of time. What used to be magazines in the 80s and 90s has long since been replaced by the internet and Tiktok has ushered in a new era. This democratisation of the fashion industry can be seen as positive. But my personal opinion is that the trends are still being worn by good-looking, mostly wealthy girls. Of course I think "Pretty Privilege" is part of the trend cycle. You could get the feeling that today it's more the boys themselves who have the influence on what's cool, it's not the magazines like it used to be. Nevertheless, certain niche magazines are still in vogue and have almost reached a new peak. Using the example of 032c, I also recognise the trend in my generation away from digital and back to analogue. To take the theory a little further, when layering came back in 2000 with skirts over jeans, digital cameras came along. I think this whole layering trend is strongly connected to the lifestyle of the analogue world of print, digital cameras and clothes from earlier times are back in the mainstream. Clearly fuelled by young women and sometimes men, who, as soon as it has completely caught on with everyone again, chase after the next trend with the aim of being just a little bit different from everyone else.

The Influence of The Magazines on Trends and How Visual Representation changed over time

Magazines

During the 1950s and 1960s was a notable development in a special market for Magazines. Especially Avantgarde Magazines. The main reason why it shifted to Print was the huge competition against Television. The new Technologies like Computer reduced the production costs and with that the Print media got cheaper and more popular. Fashion Magazines peaked in the 1980s and 1990s. Editors had huge Influence to Designers Careers and were well known and respected. This is also Showcased in the Pop culture like in the movie The devil wears Prada. The Editors Decided the Trends, they have chosen what was cool and which brands are important.

The Downfall of Fashion Magazines

With the rising popularity of the Internet the downfall begun. Thru the Internet everyone got the chance to raise his own voice and was able to say whatever they think. Now the Mainstream was able to say what they found cool and what not. The complete power of the Editors vanished. So that was the beginning of the democratization of the Fashion Industry. “Insistence on the status quo even Womanhood changed dramatically led the magazines to irrelevance” Quote Harriet Brown.  And with the pace changing the Print tried to follow the pace but that made the quality worse and so most of the Magazines closed.

But Somehow there’s always a countermovement. Like some Niche Magazine like 032c was for instance launched as a biannual limited edition newspaper around 2000, it was supposed to be the advertisement for their website said Jörg Koch, the cofounder of 032c. However they shortly realized that print magazines are so much more efficient in terms of budget and recognition than doing a streaming media website, which they aspired back then. Ironically the Website is now used to share their Archive of the print magazines.[1]  This Particular Insight Underlines my personal feeling and understanding of the recent times even the Article is older then 10 years. I have the feeling Thru the digitalization now we want more permanent things like physical magazines. It gives you something to hold on. I noticed that Aswell in my own friend group print has a kind of revival. You don’t need print for news anymore said Koch, But for long, visual-driven stories, it can offer a business model and an immersive focused quality digital cannot offer yet.[2]

Critical Addition 032c also launched their own fashion Streetwear brand and now the Website is a combined Webstore.

That statement also resembles with my personal observation. I think Print has its little comeback with artbook especially those with strong visuals. I myself collect or say it more have a small collection of fashion books or Magazines. Do I read them most likely not. I Look at the photographs and read some lines. But in the end most of us can agree a Collection of Books/Magazine look really nice in a bookshelf. Maybe that’s also a reason some of us came back to Print?

Also an Personal observation is that most of the Mainstream Magazines had an evolution from good journalism to more kind of reality tv and full of advertisement. Celebrity’s all over the front pages. And then you open them and see Advertisement all over the place. No wonder only the luxurious Magazines with well shot editorials are surviving and respected. The other stuff is to similar to Social media. So theres also good sides to the democratisation of fashion and the influence of social media.

Visual Representation

The Layering Trend was popular during late 90s and 2000s and has recently had its comeback especially skirt over pants. My point on view on the trend is that the Trend came back in a more polished way and more grown up. The targeted audience also shiftet a bit but not that much. Like In the 90s Represented in Movies Like Clueless the Layering was done by Rich girls. Mostly they were white. However i would say today its still the “cool girls” but also with the genderless clothing trend some males hopped on the trend.

Personal observation:

Layering is done by the “cool girls” most likely they had aswell rich parents. Thats the image I got from certain Movies from the 2000s. In my personal opinion Layering was never out in High Fashion because there was always some shows were certain designers played with multiple layers. But of course in the past 2 – 3 years the whole Layering Trend came back and was represented by alot of Celebrity’s, “tiktok girlys” and Influencers. That changed alot what was shown in Magazines in the 90s can now be seen almost live when a new trend emerges the streets and Tiktok has also a huge impact on that. What also changed is that the genderless Trend got bigger and now layering for men also implements skirts. I personally really like some of the Skirt over Pants of The Peter Do.

Why are they wearing it?

My personal feeling tells me out of the Movies and Articles where Layering was present, that during the 90s and 2000s people whore it to be different. To set a statement. For me it resembles contrasts and depth and think it was was that girl group feeling. You saw it in Magazines on Pop Stars and thought I also want to be that cool. Basically the same thing like today but its not the magazines anymore more Social media like TikTok or Instagram.

Trickle Down Theory

The trickle-down effect in fashion refers to the phenomenon where styles, trends, and designs initially introduced by high-end designers or luxury fashion houses gradually filter down to the mass market and become more accessible to the general public. It's essentially a process of diffusion where trends start at the top of the fashion hierarchy and eventually reach broader audiences at lower price points.

The theory is separated in four stages,

Stage 1: High Fashion and Couture

The Innovation of fashion most of the time happens in that area. Prestigious fashion houses display their collection during fashion weeks. From the Runway into high-end fashion magazines fashion in its purest form of creativity gets presented to the consumers.

From there it goes to stage 2: Fashion Influencers and Celebrities

Common since the beginning of the fashion world that we know today celebrities wear the contemporary trends and are used as marketing for the Brand and big houses. In this stage the trends often get super popular thru social media to the Mainstream. They see their Favorite celebrities and want to have the same clothing.

In Stage 3: Mass Market Retailers

The demand is now high, and the mass market retailers want to get the money out of the trends so the produce cheaper alternatives. With the price point lower than the high fashion products they achieve a broader range of consumers.

At the final stage: Mainstream Adoption

Now the trend has become so widely available and accessible its on his peak. With that the exclusivity of the beginning was lost through out the entire process and all want something new to be exclusive again. Doesn’t matter if you are into High fashion or shopping in the bigger Fast fashion markets it may starts to bore you.