Walk down Fifth Avenue (or through Battery Park, or around Williamsburg), and you’re likely to notice that a lot of the bodies rushing back and forth are clothed or accessorized in one of this year’s hottest trends: designs inspired by the diverse origins of global culture. Ikat prints, Madras fabrics, and African-inspired textiles and shapes add interest to every woman’s (and man’s) wardrobe, and it seems that clothing, shoe, handbag, jewelry, and even lingerie designers, manufacturers, and retailers at price points ranging from haute couture to bargain basement have caught wind of this in the past twenty months or so. Dresses and sandals reflecting this trend can be seen on the sales floors of Banana Republic stores nationwide, as well as at the chain’s lower-end fast fashion sibling, Old Navy. It seems appropriate that a look that can claim so many geographically and culturally diverse influences can also be had at diverse price points, and the influences of global culture have accordingly filtered into the fashion water supply of Everytown, USA just as effectively as they have into that of Hollywood or Manhattan.
This summer’s hot print, spotted on everything from Land’s End swim separates to Burberry cocktail dresses, seems to be the Ikat. Ikat (also spelled Ikkat) prints are traditionally created by dying warp or weft portions of thread, and then weaving that thread into a two-dimensional fabric on a loom. Ikat textiles have been woven in cultures the world over: Agrentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, India, Japan, Thailand, and Bali have all been home to generations of Ikat weavers. The print even derives its name from somewhere most of the print’s current wearers would likely consider exotic: Malaysia, where ikat means “to tie” or “to bind” in the Malay language. Once used to adorn Buddhist monks’ robes, Ikat now decorates both Topshop bras and pieces from the Fall 2007 Balenciaga and Armani collections.
Madras fabric, too, seems to be experiencing something of a fashion Renaissance. Once the exclusive province of the country-club set and an icon of classic prepster style, this light-colored plaid print is now appearing on everything from miniskirts, shorts, and sundresses to neckties and Converse All-Star sneakers. The lightweight, textured cotton fabric takes its appellation from the nineteenth-century English name for the city of Chennai, India. More recently, Madras has been given a new twist by designers like Vivienne Westwood and Rei Kawakubo, and Madras-patterned pieces can be found everywhere from mall-based retailer American Eagle to J. Crew, the decades-old purveyor of all things pearls and pinstripes.
African-inspired shapes, colors, and textiles are having their moment in the sun, too. A summer-preview issue of T Magazine, the New York Times’s weekend fashion supplement, ran a story highlighting the African design motifs that are cropping up on this season’s dresses, shoes, and jackets. In the past few months, Louis Vuitton, Missoni, and Oscar de La Renta have all produced designs that are a nod to traditional African art and textiles. The works of designers who themselves hail from the continent have become highly popular, too: Azzedina Alaia of Tunisia, Oswald Boateng of Ghana, Deola Sagoe of Nigeria, and Marc Bouwer of South Africa have all made their marks on the fashion landscape in recent years. Opening Ceremony, one of Manhattan’s hippest boutiques, featured the wares of African designers during the Spring 2009 season. Global culture’s influence has clearly taken the fashion world by storm, and isn’t letting go anytime soon.
So is your closet craving a dose of the exotic? No need to book a flight to Zimbabwe or Chennai; the subway to Bloomingdale’s will do just fine.
The key to making strategic use of these observations about globally-influenced fashion trends may be to consider what implications Madras-adorned Chuck Taylors and Ikat-printed lingerie might have for other product categories. Since consumers have effectively told us—by speaking with their wallets, that is!—that they are craving that which is exotic, unusually-geographically-sourced, and originates from a cultural tradition different from their own respective ones, there’s no reason to limit our efforts to provide them with products that fit these descriptors to the clothes-and-accessories category. Market analysts and retailers can work together to sate this thirst for globally-influenced product by, say, stocking supermarket shelves with more Thai peanut and Japanese carrot-ginger salad dressings and fewer bottles of Ranch and Vinaigrette varieties. If taking steps such as these could lead to happier (and less tight-fisted) consumers in the food product category, imagine what increasing exotic and globally-influenced offerings could do for the home décor and art markets. Making Scandinavian-style furniture and room accents available to consumers at all price points, as Ikea has done, or providing every shopper, no matter what his or her yearly income, with the opportunity to purchase Indian-style embellished placemats and pottery, at Pier 1 has, could be all it takes to convince homeowners and apartment-dwellers alike to part with a little more cash or to make an unplanned purchase during a weekend stroll around town.
In the same vein, maybe performing arts centers could fill more seats and sell more premium tickets by more frequently booking the likes of Ballet Hispanico or Dayton Contemporary Dance Company (a troupe whose repertory includes lots of African- and Latin-influenced works). Since the trend landscape in the music category is tightly liked to that of the fashion category, perhaps record labels should consider allocating even greater portions of their advertising budgets to the promotion of artists such as Shakira and Enrique Inglesias, since consumers’ craving for the globally-influenced means that the potential for a lucrative return on this type of investment is enormous. Even market analysts and brand managers in the perfume and cosmetics categories would do well to include more exotic-themed fragrances and personal care products on shelves everywhere from Sephora locations to Target stores. Since neuroscientists have known for decades that humans instinctively crave novelty, all of us in the marketing community can put this knowledge to savvy use by assuming a global perspective when designing and selecting the products that we will promote during upcoming seasons—the choice to provide consumers at every price point with products influenced by global culture represents a great opportunity to positively impact the bottom lines of myriad product categories, increase consumer satisfaction, and even boost brand loyalty.