🌎 Is it possible to ignore fashion?

Is it possible to ignore fashion?

I am Nycka Nunes, a personal style consultant and visual artist. I have worked in the fashion industry since 1981. In this blog, I talk about my work related to style consulting.

What would happen if everyone in the world stopped following fashion (fashion in the broad sense, not just clothing)?

This would be impossible because following trends is associated with people's level of self-knowledge and personality. It is not something imposed on them; it is a behavior that is part of everyone's life.

For someone to follow fashion, someone needs to create the trends. The cycle has five distinct groups of people, and this applies to ANY type of product (the concept of product in marketing also includes services and concepts):

Innovators launch trends. Early adopters like the idea/product and adopt it. The early majority sees that the early adopters are using it and wants to use it too. The late majority group sees that the early majority are wearing them and decides to wear them (the late majority is the group that buys at Zara, Shein, H&M, etc., to limit myself to examples of clothing). The laggards are those who “don’t care about fashion”. People who still use fax machines, who use cell phones only to make and receive calls, who have typewriters, tube TVs, VCRs, landline phones with cords… wear clothes because they can’t go out naked (and not because they’re interested in self-expression/style), and they only stop wearing something when there’s no other way.

This cycle has different rhythms in different industries. And the same person can be an early adopter in electronics and home appliances and a late majority in clothing, for example. And it also occurs in relation to behaviors, it’s not just about consumption. So-and-so sees that everyone he knows doesn’t have the habit of reading, and instead of looking for friends to talk to about books, he starts reading less because he has no one to talk to about the books he’s read, for example.

Everything in this life has a lot to do with references. Few people (only true innovators) don't need external references to evolve and improve. Everyone else in society does. And since almost all groups also have worse examples to follow, some people stagnate and others get worse because they don't see, don't look for, or don't value the examples that can lead them to improve. With the internet, access to examples of improvement exists for almost everyone, and even without it, it's usually possible to find positive examples out there.

Fashion exists because human beings have the need to evolve, to improve, to mature, and so what was good last year may not be so good this year for the same person. Although there are exceptions, people who don't evolve, don't mature, don't improve, I believe that such exceptions arise from an overly repressive upbringing, where having opinions is seen as an affront. It's not just countries that have dictators. Some families do too. How we deal with this is very important.

To know how to dress with personality, hire me as your stylist.

Nycka Nunes