Industrialized inspiration: reassessing the osmosis between fashion and art through the work of trend forecasters

Abstract

This chapter investigates the controversial relationship between fashion and art in the light of research practices of fashion creators. It is shown how the practice of “trend research,” born as fashion forecasting in the 1960/70s and evolving in the 1990s into the generally applied practice of coolhunting, “industrializes” inspiration, systematizing contexts and detection methods, moving it away from the idea of a supernatural intervention fertilizing human ingenuity. Trend research is analyzed as a relevant issue for fashion studies not only as a professional practice and methodology for the production of innovation, but above all from a cultural point of view, as a meeting ground between fashion and art.

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