Like all fashion or trend changes event décor fashion is hard to pin-down to one particular phenomenon: there is something organic and zeitgeisty about how film, fashion, interiors, music and youth culture meld together and inform how we in the event industry decide what is a key ‘look’ each year.
A great example of this style soup was the 2006/07 event trend for flock prints on bars and screens, theatrical chandeliers, velvet and Victoriana bird cages. You might remember that you couldn’t go to a party in 2007 without seeing this style interpreted in a myriad of rich purples and reds. It became so ubiquitous that even the Conservative party caught onto the trend and used the flock design and velvet drapes for their winter ball.
For most event companies it would be ideal to catch a trend just before it emerges so we can make sure that we deliver a cutting edge concept to our clients and not simply following a well path trodden. To figure out what trends are about to emerge is one part detective work, one part instinct and a little bit of luck, but anyone can do it. To illustrate how I have tried to trace the germination of the flock/birdcage/velvet look from what I recall at the time:
In 2005 British Vogue had a series of shoots which had a distinctly Vintage Boudoir edge: all bird cages and turn of the century French style. For Autumn/Winter that year the catwalks were filled with Victorian boots, capes and velvet dresses and lots of films and theatre shows were in production that had a distinctly Fin de Siecle theatrical feel to them. In Autumn 2006 Dita Von Teese appeared at New Year Fashion week and performed a fan dance inside a giant gilded birdcage. By mid 2005 Living Etc and Elle Decoration had started to highlight the return of bold wallpaper prints and luxurious fabrics (after years of white painted floor boards and walls).
Mask was tracking this trend throughout 2005(along with countless other apparently emerging trends, some of which never really made it big) and building a mood board and collecting snippets from magazines. In the end we launched La Belle Epoque as a theme in early 2006 for Christmas at Old Billingsgate: a riot of gold, velvets, flock prints, feathers and those (now ubiquitous) birdcages safe in the knowledge that the trend would hit at the right time (see pics below)
So the the key to predicting what will be hot in events by the end of 2009/10 is to take an educated guess about what is happening in all kinds of popular culture: take a look at IMDB to see what films are in pre-production, look at on-line synopsis of each season’s fashion shows and read Vogue as it is always ahead of the game. Check out street fashion too as often it leads and influences the catwalk designers and if you only have a few minutes a week, then flick through a couple of interiors magazines and the Sunday supplement style sections.
Check out our new header at the top: a bit of a fun hyper-reality, I am betting that this look will run and run for 09/10.
Dita performs inside a gilded birdcage in 2006
Amy Winehouses' 2007 stage set had a really vintage boudoir look
Mask's 2006 installation at Old Billingsgate: 'Belle Epoque'
The flock print that inspired a thousand events
