This document provides a trend forecast for the youth fashion market for the 2017/2018 season. It discusses trends in the youth market including growing online shopping and the influence of technology. It then examines two consumer types - "New Luxury Millennials" and "Identity Sharders". The main trend discussed is "Digital Medicine" and how advancing medical technologies are blurring lines between functionality and creativity. Three concepts within this trend are outlined - "Optimise", "Experiment", and "Integrate" along with example visuals and descriptions. Relevant illustrations are also listed.
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Brand Philosophy
The Youth Market
The Consumer
The Umbrella Trend: Digital Medicine
Optimise
Experiment
Integrate
List of Illustrations
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We aim to forecast fashion trends, which are
effected by rapidly advancing technologies, which
in turn, change our way of thinking and being.
DigiCast is a forecasting company that focuses on the ever-changing
effects and consequences of advancing technologies. We as a race are
advancing rapidly to the point where things that we saw in sci-fi films
in the 1980s, are now a reality, and more.
We are living in a digital world, where the real and the virtual
intertwine and leave us feeling disorientated, disconnected and ever-
seeking more. We expect more from everything around us, including our
own bodies. Technology is now our constant companion and source of
optimisation. With this, we are better humans.
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The Youth Fashion market size rose from £13 billion in 2009, to £14.7 billion in
2014. It is set to see an estimated 15% growth by 2019, to reach £16.9 billion.
This market underperformed the total clothing and footwear market, which grew by
4.8% to £62.3 billion.
Youth like efficiency and speed due to growing up with fast technology being readily
available for everyday use. Online shopping is popular in this market sector. 70%
of 15 - 24-year-olds purchased online in 2014, compared with 63% in 2013. Young
people are attracted to Amazon’s use of collection and delivery points, suggesting
they want to buy and wear trends immediately. 88% of 16-24-year-olds personally own
a smartphone, and use this for socialising, buying and browsing. They expect the
optimum service from retailers via their technology.
16 - 25-year-olds are most likely to be celebrating their new-found financial
independence, yet rising UK house prices has meant that the amount of youth
living with their families has increased to 35% in the last 8 years, to 5 million.
Entertainment in the form of gaming technology has risen, possibly because of this,
and this has mean that gaming technology is being developed to have medicinal and
academic uses, such as memory stimulation task simulation.
57% of US Millennials prefer Unisex stores, which perhaps suggests a want for an
ultimate shopping experience, where no time is wasted and they can just go to one
shop and purchase all clothing needs.
EST. £15.9 BILLION BY 2017
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The Youth Menswear sector has seen growth
due to young men being more likely to buy
things at full price than young women.
59% of male 15 - 24-year-olds buy new
clothes when their old clothes wear out.
They are also more likely to buy clothes
at full price than young women.
66% of male 15 - 24-year-olds purchased
clothes online in 2014 compared with 54%
in 2013.
Aggressive discounting on Youth Womenswear
has meant that this area has not seen much
growth.
23% of female 18 - 24-year-olds and 45% of
15 - 17-year-olds are most likely to buy
new clothes driven by a trend.
40% of female 15-24-year-olds use social
media for fashion inspiration.
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1NEW LUXURY MILLENNIALSThis consumer is used to the luxury, designer lifestyle, which comes
with a modern, minimalist aesthetic. They will grow up with advanced
technologies being available to them, at a price they can afford. They
like the new and the innovative.
They expect brands to come to them by way of location-enabled apps. They keep
in touch digitally with friends and brands alike. They buy into premium beauty
brands and eat at organic, high-class restaurants for optimum health and goodness.
They want the best and can afford it, and with an active online presence that
revolves around followers, their appearance is exceedingly important.
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2IDENTITY SHARDERSThis consumer is very concerned with their calculated
identity. They are very active with their many
online profiles, and are very aware that they must
keep up that appearance when out and about.
They have Elasticated Personas, meaning they shop
accordingly to suit each persona. Sharders swap uniforms
to maximise their ‘value’, or increase their high social
net worth. They are obsessed with the value that is
given to them by viewers online, so would be susceptible
to products and services that might help increase this
visual worth, if they became available.
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The world is moving fast enough that industries are blending and fusing
together to blur the lines between functionality and creativity. The medical
industry is advancing and in turn, advancing us as the human race. We will soon
be unstoppable, and use procedures that were once only used for necessity,
for optimisation, liberation and creation. Technology has helped surge the
medical industry forward, and made the impossible a reality. Mankind can
feel this happening, and will take advantage of what is offered to them, be
it performance enhancing drugs or procedures. The pressure of keeping up
with multiple identities and personas in life is too much to conquer without
a little help from the gift that advancing technology has enabled us to
produce and utilise; a form of technologically enhanced medicine.
Optimise is a word of power and tenacity. The Optimised human is one that never
seeks fulfillment, but continuously seeks improvement. The simplicity of absorbing
smart chemicals into your veins to momentarily sharpen your mind and body, leads to
humans that are visually astounding, yet teetering on the edge of destruction.
Experiment is a word of obsession and sacrifice. One must understand that seeking
perfection never comes without a price. Although the ease of pill popping makes
optimising possible, if abused, the lasting effects are intolerable. It leads to
humans that are unbearably self-aware, yet clouded in their minds; suffocating in self
loathing, but always craving more.
Integrate is a word of progress and victory. We outsmarted nature. We grew organs
to replace the faulty and the broken, and can now let man-made technology grow into
our tissues. We live longer and although the technology may not yet be perfect enough
to leave our bodies unscathed, the scars left remind us that we are still wonderfully
human, but better.
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OPTImise
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Optimise uses colours that look
almost organic but with the synthetic
quality of digitally created images.
Textures are hard, cold and slick to
the body to give the appearance of
a protective shield that visually
optimises appearance and shape.
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2 3EXPERIMENT
Experiment has a deeper palette to
evoke a feeling of sinking and feeling
clouded in the mind. The rusty, dirty
tones represent decay, erosion,
obsession and addiction.
Integrate uses a muted palette with
subtle tones that are the essence of
body tissues and organs that are grown
to replace anything damaged. Their
subtlety blends them with naturally
created tissues and textures.
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OPTImiseI am the Optimised Human. Advancement in medical technology
has given us medication that makes us faster, stronger,
more attractive; better. Coursing through my veins are
synthetically enhanced chemicals which enhance me and
my body, to the point where I no longer look organic. I
am a brand new human, who is hardened and prepared for
anything that nature tries to throw at me. Our race is
one step ahead of nature, and I am the best human I can
possibly be.
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CADSSilhouettes are slick and fitted with a
multi-tonal sheen. The shine varies from
subtle to bright chrome, capturing a
chemical, synthetic appearance. The forms
enhance and emphasise the body shape and
give the appearance of an advanced body,
one that cannot be harmed and one that is
optimised to beyond human levels.
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EXPERIMENTI am the Experimental Human. Alongside the
advancements in medical technology, there is a
problem. The availability of new medications creates
unbearable pressure to look and perform a certain
way. I know that my body can be healed through new
technologies, be it cyborg technology or synthetic
transplants, so do not fear the physical damage.
However, my mind cannot be healed so easily. There
are still no answers to mental health issues, no
cure for the feeling that I am drowning in my own
mind; suffocating and choking. I am an addict and
thousands like myself are now hooked on medicating
for perfection.
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Silhouettes are misshapen and dynamic,
giving the illusion of darkness clouding
the mind. Hoods and high necks represent
the feeling of suffocation that comes
with mental illness, enclosing the
head and neck area.
CADS
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I am the Integrated Human. Medication may now be a
solution to superficial problems, but there is now
the option to grow and replace any part of myself.
Any organ we can grow, in turn, can grow into us
and become part of us. It is unlikely nature will
kill me. Instead we understand it better than it
understands itself, and use this knowledge for
life. We are God.
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DS 19-9 - C
7520 - C
12-2901 TCX
DS 12-8 - C
9021 - C
DS 144-9 - C
METALLIC 8002 - C 5025 - U
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Silhouettes are padded and bulbous,
giving the illusion of something
biological that is affected in some
way. Textures are smooth and soft
like body tissues and skin.