We’ve had our say about trends we don’t wish to see in 2017, so in a turn of positivity, here’s a list of trends we’d like to see in the coming year.
By Tira Lee
A constant need to fill our closets with the hottest brands and latest drops don’t go hand in hand with a shaky economy. And in 2017, we’re going to have to think long and hard about dropping cash on the latest flex-able fit. One way to stretch your dollar is to repurpose accessories.
We can thank Off-White for giving us the idea. After all, its industrial belt was all the rage in fashion week streetwear circuits.
Street photographer Christina Paik repurposed her Fendi bag with the belt:
And Mae Tan rocked it as a strap of sorts:
Those who can’t fork out a cool 200 bucks for the real deal, fret not, there’s always a way to work around budget constraints with creativity. Take cues from this pic sent in by our reader, Leona:
And just like that, an industrial belt or a measuring tape can become more than what it is. Multi-purposing your accessories is one way to to combat the sluggish economy, and we hope this takes off in 2017.
We’re tired of SJWs taking it to Facebook to call for change, but not actually doing much about anything. In recent months, though, some brands have taken a stand on an issue, and put their wide reach to good use.
During the US Presidential Elections, Supreme leveraged its huge Instagram following of 3.3 million to publicly endorse Hilary Clinton. Streetwear brand NOAH chose to close its store on Black Friday, going against the grain of mass consumerism and drawing attention to the need for ethical manufacturing. We’re hoping that in 2017 more brands stand by their values and put them to practice.
We may have done a round-up of our favorite music fashion crossovers for 2016, but that list is certainly non-exhaustive. There have been so many artiste sneaker collaborations, we’ve nearly lost count.
For one, there was The Weeknd fronting PUMA’s IGNITE evoKNIT and there’s also Kendrick Lamar’s collaboration with Reebok, which some say is of top-notch quality.
We love the idea of an artiste sneaker collab, because that means seeing the artiste’s creative boundaries stretched not just across musical horizons.
With the non-stop release of collab or limited edition sneakers, general releases (also known as GRs) have inadvertently faded into the background. We think it’s time brands stop relying on collabs (how many can there be in a year?) and start putting out general releases that can do just as well as collaboration sneakers.
The Nike Special Field Air Force 1, for one, was a great GR. A throwback to the original Air Force 1 silhouette back in 1983, the utilitarian shoe even comes with a hidden tongue storage to keep cash and keys.
PUMA also put out a dope GR for the ladies in the form of the Puma Basket Heart that got us all ooh-ing and aah-ing at how goshdarn cute it is.
Moral of the story, dope GRs are possible. We hope that becomes a thing in 2017.
This past year has been a 90s throwbacks, especially in the streetwear scene. Popularized by Gosha Rubchinskiy, other brands such as Fila, Reebok and Champion have followed suit by re-introducing classic cuts.
The blast from the past wasn’t limited to fashion alone. Netflix series Stranger Things and The Get Down were heavy on the throwbacks. A quick scroll through our 5 Tracks tag will prove that many artistes injected the ol’ school vibe into their music all this year.
We’d love to see more of this in 2017, since nostalgia makes us happy and it’s always nice to take a walk down memory lane in our Reebok Classic leather trainers.