Question of the month: following fashion?
September 6, 2009 by Cyndi Lavin
Filed under Beading, Question of the Month
Question of the month: Do you pay attention to trends and follow fashion? How much? To what extent do you allow trends to shape your work?
I happen to pay attention is a very general way. I’m actually much more interested in seasonal color palettes than I am in exact styles of clothing and jewelry that’s being shown, but I don’t rule out allowing current fashion to inspire some of my work.
Mostly, that’s the way it seems to work: it’s not really that I design pieces to suit the current trends or to slavishly follow what others are showing, but I do allow the current styles and colors to suggest ideas to me. I don’t want to be foolish about what I make, because I do want it to appeal to SOMEONE. But not necessarily to everyone. If earrings are all short one season, I’ll make some like that, but I’ll probably also make some that are long for the folks who like them long and who don’t care what fashion says 
Here are some longer earrings I made for myself back when the trend was towards teeny:
How about you? How does fashion connect with your work? If you’d like to share a piece of your work that either illustrates or anti-illustrates a trend, please feel free to email it to me along with your link and your explanation, and I’ll share it with everyone. Send it to cyndi @ b5Media.com (remove the spaces).
I agree with you, I too do not pay too much attention to trends, they are here today and gone tomorrow. I like my creations to be more timeless. I let the beads talk to me… I like it when the fashion pandits (is that what they are called?) say beads are in and chunky is in! I pay attention to seasonal colors and to what customers would want but still keeping it within what and how I like to make it. I am still learning… Enjoy your holiday weekend.
Thanks! Aren’t we *all* still learning? That’s where trends come into the picture for me…something to learn from, but not to be a slave to