It is not a coincidence that we suddenly see the same clothing trends all around us, on celebrities, models, fashion bloggers and everywhere on social media. The forces behind the fashion industry design it that way, so the customers feel an urgent urge to buy a certain piece of clothing. New York Fashion Week saw the most recent clothing trend almost omnipresent: off shoulder clothing. Blogger/author Leandra Medine, stylist Rachael Wang, blogger Vanessa Hong, creative director at J.Crew Jenna Lyons and a lot of runway models were seen embracing the off shoulder trend.
Jaclyn Jones senior womenswear editor at WGSN believes that the behind the scenes forces of fashion align everything in a manner that the end user is forced to buy certain trends. “In order to create buzz, you have to be able to design into trends ” she says. WGSN is a trend forecasting giant that predicts moods, colors, and shapes of the forthcoming trends to 6,000 companies worldwide. Companies like WGSN can predict trends years before they reach the final end user. The off shoulder dress, for example, had appeared on a show by Ralph Lauren, and then on actress Lupita Nyong’o when she attended Golden Globes few months later. The efforts of the fashion minds are paying off as the demand for off shoulder clothing has increased by 108%, according to eCommerce aggregator Lyst.