Trendspotting Part One: Homage to My Stylish Mother

Every month, you receive a women's fashion magazine featuring "20 Must-Have It Items," or "268 New Looks for This Season." What does this all mean?

If you ferret out 264 looks out of 268, you could probably spot a pattern in the upcoming trend. This is what they formally call trendspotting in the industry. I've read countless articles and books on this subject matter and I briefly worked at a place where this ability to spot trends was not only a great skill to have as a fashionista but a job requirement. Foreseeing what's to come next in fashion demands a careful examination of the following: what's happening in the streets around the globe (especially the places named as fashion meccas, namely New York, Paris and Milan), runway shows for that season and recent showings from the past years, celebrity attires and the repeated elements in editorials of different magazines.

As you can tell from previous posts, much of my personal style is inspired by mom's looks. If I were to identify my personal style with certain regions, it'd be a cross between New York, New England, and Italy. The first two come from where I spent most of my time in the recent years and it makes a perfect sense that my looks were influenced by the culture and people of these places. The part about my Italian dressing - love for things that are made out of leather, well-tailored jackets/coats/trousers, rich color pigments in garments, or the way of mixing prints - was adopted from my mom's personal style.

Prints and colors: subdued fuscia pashimina wrap, Tory Burch marmalade flipflops for traveling, statement pants in an Etro print

She dresses like an Italian in the way she expertly mixes different textures and prints. She is a woman who wears colors. In fact, lots of colors: salmon, lilac, seafoam, dove grey, honey mustard, hunter grey. She experiments with these pretty - and often saturated - hues by varying garment materials - usually silk, cotton, and cashmere. When it comes to her personal style, she's an incredibly fascinating subject. She's never lived in UK, but knows how to sport a herringbone jacket and actually looks for an elbow patch. She's never lived in Milan, but appreciates the beauty of Etro and Missoni and wears these prints with lots of colors that seems confusing at first but makes sense when you consider her outfit as a whole. She understands how clothes work and more importantly, she moves in the direction of where the rest of the industry is heading towards, only a few steps ahead. To sum it all up, she sets the trend without realizing it.

Textures and color palette: layered cashmere sweaters,
herringbone trousers, suede trim on her handbag


One of my favorite winter looks of my mom: a reformed mink cape in her own design (love the scalloped edges), Theory trousers with subtle pink stripes that match her salmon pink sweater, seafoam earrings paired with a turtle-neck in the same color tone

It was my mom who bought me leggings my sophomore year in high school. No one at the time wore leggings as an outerwear. She introduced me to the world of comfort and lean bottom look with leggings. I still love them as much as I did when I first started pairing them with dress shirts for the contrast (sportswear with classic oxford button-downs), but they lost their initial appeal after they were trendspotted somewhere and became a fashion fad in 2008 spring/summer.

Same thing happened with a tailored white blazer in boyfriend cut. I discovered my respect for Helmut Lang design quite recently, and was debating between this white blazer and a black moto jacket. Both items were investment pieces, but I was leaning towards the black jacket as they were gaining popularity among the fashion crowd. My mom stepped in. She suggested that classic white blazers are always in and that everyone should own one. It had beautiful thin arms and equally slim but handsome lapels. I loved this blazer even more after I purchased it as it became an extremeley versatile item that can make any outfit look more pulled together. A year and a half later, I see this "white blazer" being categorized as a must-have for the season. Then I see celebrities sporting one over printed silk chiffon dresses or simple body con numbers. How did she know?

Whenever something like this happens, I'm pleasantly surprised with the effect. It was beginning of my high school days - my mom bought me a pair of ballerina flats. Flats had been around for decades, but no one was picking up on them. Given the geography, people wore crittered flip-flops, tassled loafers or winter boots to survive snow storms. I started collecting flats after the first pair although I had to actively search for them. By the end of my high school education, others were wearing them. To my surprise, stores finally started carrying them.

I can name several occasions like this with military-inspired jackets and big brass buttons, or with big statement earrings. Could these have been a result of pure coincedence? Or did she have a hunch? I believe in the latter. It may be a cliche to say this but style cannot be bought with money like the way you can with clothes. You have to build your own personal style around what's around you - things that inspired you in readings and films or from people and culture that surround you. That first step teaches you how to appropriately mold these influences in a unique way that both flatters your body and complements your character.

I think once you know how to do this - by having an innate ability or through years of practice - you can sort of predict what's to come next. You may not be able to nail every single one of them, but you may get pretty close to it by foreseeing the ones that kept popping up in your outfits without you realizing it. That's the pattern in trendspotting. If you could spot this pattern in your own well-cultivated style, why would it be difficult to spot trends that share similar elements in other fashionable people's dressing?