What is the Nature of a Trend?

"This is for now, it's not forever." -Marc Jacobs, Creative Director for Loius Vuitton

Louis Vuitton and Marc Jacobs recently opened a new flagship store in London, and the opening display is a collection from the LV archives. They are looks that were collaborations between LV and modern artists over the past 12 years- and all the looks are still relevant, despite their past classification as "trend". This begs the question; what is the nature of the trend? We all remember with a shudder certain looks from our high school days, but is that because the clothes were truly awful or because everyone in high school is truly awful?

Perhaps it is more a question of quality than timeliness. My big plastic beads and clunky heels from high school are no longer cute (if they ever were) because they are cheap, not because they were trends that died. A well made, high fashion item that is aesthetically pleasing in the basic sense of fit, color, and print will remain relevant long past its trendy status. That is how items from high fashion houses become vintage instead of passe. No one but the snobbiest of fashion lovers is ashamed to be seen in something preppy from the Balenciaga 2007 Fall ready to wear collection because those items are still applicable to today's fashion world. The trends they inspired- Oxford shoes, mixed tribal prints, skinnier pants- are all very commercial, and so trendy as to be almost ubiquitous. The originality of the idea is lost.

So if high fashion concepts remain relevant long past the time when their cheaper equivalents are no longer acceptable, what is the nature of a trend? Perhaps it is simply in the knocked-off-ness of the idea. When a new platform is seen on the Prada runway, it isn't in the copy cat stores for a few months after the more expensive version. Higher fashion customers may have already moved on to the next new thing, but those shoes won't be leaving their closet. They're valuable, they represent a moment, and in a few years, they'll be vintage. When we buy knock-offs in our local H&M or Forever 21, they're only in for a season. They are not valuable, they don't represent a moment artistically, and they won't be worth a hill of beans in a vintage store. Then, trends are simply stolen art.