TREND: WELL FASHION
A More Inclusive Fashion Industry
The most vocal discussions about creating a more “well” fashion industry have been around the critical issue of more sustainable fashion. But the movement for a more inclusive fashion market is really heating up—getting beyond the size 4, six-foot-tall, white teen supermodels that have dominated runways—to create fashion that represents all sizes, body types, races, ages and gender identities. It will continue to shake up brands, new collections and the language/imagery used.
The fashion of the future will continue to interrogate the constricting, arbitrary boxes we get shoved into such as petite versus plus-sized, dresses versus suits, pretty versus masculine, and young and hip versus age-appropriate.
This is an excerpt from “Well Fashion” in the 2019 Global Wellness Trends Report.
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Fashion’s Long Road to Inclusivity – Business of Fashion
In the last year, fashion brands have been called out for everything from cultural appropriation to racism, and this article looks at fashion’s long, non-inclusive history.
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Why Major Brands Are Becoming More Size Inclusive – Knowledge @Wharton School
Clothing retailers are dramatically expanding their lines: No more stopping at size 12, they go up to size 28 and beyond—with a whole bonanza of new cool, size-inclusive labels and options.
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Forecasting the Future
- Inclusivity is millennial and Gen Z consumers’ loudest demand, and young generations will continue to push fashion brands (most intensely on social media) to create fashion that caters to every kind of body, gender identity and cultural background—and in every market, whether activewear or lingerie or fashion for pregnant women or the disabled. Labels that are creating clothing for the spectrum of sizes and identities in the real world are being richly rewarded.
- A new era of AI and 3D design technologies means brands could break the spray-and-pray model of overproducing cookie-cutter clothes and start delivering on-demand, made-to-order clothes that actually fit your exact body (and with the colors/features you want). It’s not only radically more sustainable but also technology that enables true inclusivity.
- The trend will impact the worlds where wellness meets fashion: everything from more inclusively-sized activewear to the language and visuals used to market wellness products/experiences to re-thinking the size of spa robes or those disposable massage panties that only fit a chihuahua.
- The future: slower, more personally expressive forms of dressing, where each item has some unique meaning and value—whether because it was handcrafted, refashioned from something in your mother’s closet, or your own more thoughtful experimentation in capturing through your clothes what makes you, you.
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