Past Trends
HAUTE COUTURE
Around the 1900s a trend in fashion started rising in Paris, the one of Haute Couture. Women of the upper classes were the target audience of this trend. The target group would be explained as a group of upper-class women, located mostly in Paris, who were particularly married and older then 18 years. Haute couture was a fashion line that was completely constructed by hand. (Wikipedia) In the beginning it mostly involved corsets, big long skirts and elegant hats.
"Haute Couture is defined as intricately hand sewn creations that use very expensive fabrics and trimmings. Each garment is custom made and usually requires many fittings. Haute Couture designs inspire a certain fantasy world for its clients." (Yow, 2013)
The magazine 'Vogue' informed the entire western world on this trend.
(Vogue - 1900-08-16, 2014)
The trend of Haute Couture is a trend that focused on products, which means it is a micro-trend. When we look at the trend in other western countries than France the right pyramid order could be: Globalisation, French influences in culture, French clothing, Haute Couture outfits.
A lot of times you also see a trend pyramid with three levels. In this pyramid the midi-trend is left behind. On the bottom you still have the societal trend,then the consumer trend, and finally the product trend. In the pyramid above it is hard to see what needs lay behind wearing Haute Couture. The Maxi-trend
should express needs of people and in the pyramid stated above this would then be the need for French influence in culture. But what was the actual need for the French to start wearing Haute Couture? To indicate these needs we could use the pyramid of Maslow, which indicates all people's needs and their order.
(Factoryjoe, 2009)
Wearing Haute Couture caused women to have confidence and to be respected by others. The need for esteem laid at the core of wearing Haute Couture. According to Maslow you need to fulfil the needs underneath one level in order to fulfil it. Simply said, this means that women that wore Haute Couture already fulfilled the physiological, safety and love and belonging needs. This is actually very logical; to buy the Haute Couture clothes you needed money, but you would first spent your money on food and drinks and on your safety, so a house for example, before buying expansive clothing. But when Haute Couture is at the top of the trend pyramid and the need for esteem, respect and confidence is in the middle, then what trend is on the bottom?
Before the trend of Haute Couture started rising there was a big development in people's thoughts about women. In the 19th century feminism started to rise. (Cochrane, 2013) Women became more and more important and independent. I believe this is the reason that women also felt the need to be confident about themselves and to be respected by others, mostly by men. I believe that feminism is the bottom trend in our pyramid. We can now create a final pyramid for Haute Couture.
THE WALKMAN
The second past trend I will be talking about is the one of the Walkman. This trend originates from 1979. The trend started in japan, where Sony created the first one. The Walkman is a device that can play cassettes and therefore music. It was the first invention that made people able to bring their music with them and to listen to it everywhere without bothering others. After the first Walkman was created by Sony all sorts of other companies started developing
portable cassette players, also known as Walkmans. (Wikipedia) The target audience was mostly young adults in the age category of 16 to 30. The people who bought Walkmans had a reasonable amount of money to spent, because the devices were not cheap.
(Wikipedia)
The trend of Walkmans is definitely a micro-trend, because it focusses on a product. Now the following question would be: What are the needs behind buying a Walkman? If we look at Maslow's pyramid again we can say that people most likely did not buy a Walkman to satisfy the physiological needs, the safety needs or the love and belonging needs. I believe people bought Walkmans because it gave them self-esteem and it caused other people to respect them. You were definitely cool if you had a Walkman. Of course, a big reason to buy a Walkman was simple for entertainment. It was a completely new form of entertainment and people love to be entertained. Because the needs represent the maxi-trend we already have got 2/3 of the trend pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid we can find digitalization:
"Integration of digital technologies into
everyday life by the digitization of everything that can be digitized." (Business Dictionary)
In conclusion, young adults bought Walkmans because they had the need for self-esteem, respect from others and entertainment. The people who bought the Walkman had already satisfied the physiological, safety and love and belonging needs. This is due to the fact that Maslow says you need to satisfy a lower need to be able to satisfy the next. In this case we can therefore conclude that people who had enough food and drinks, a house and family and friends were able to buy a Walkman. (McLeod, 2007)