Influencers and celebrities play a huge role in making these trends more accessible. They are the ones who have access to the exclusive designer pieces and bring them to the public attention. You may not think that you are taking style inspiration from high fashion, but if you’ve ever recreated an outfit that you saw on an influencer, then that's exactly what has happened.
Popular retailers take inspiration from what the influencers and celebrities are wearing, and then suddenly those become the trends that everyone follows. Even if you are not trying to follow the trends, its almost impossible not to, simply based off what is available to buy.
This series of events is perfectly summed up in Miranda Priestly’s iconic Devil Wears Prada monologue, where she describes how fashion works its way down from runways and magazines, into department stores and highstreets.
For example, maxi skirts dominated the spring 2023 runways, and over the next few months these became hugely popular, even continuing into summer 2024. Gucci has definitely inspired the trend of excessive logos and branding in clothing, and Vetements may be responsible for the extreme baggy silhouettes that were everywhere a few years ago. This series of events is perfectly summed up in Miranda Priestly’s iconic Devil Wears Prada monologue, where she describes how fashion works its way down from runways and magazines, into department stores and highstreets.
With the constantly increasing popularity of social media and fast fashion, this cycle has become much more rapid. People are exposed to a greater variety of trends, whilst clothing companies find ways to keep up with the increasing demand. Fast fashion giant, Shein, can take clothes from design to available for purchase in just 10 days, demonstrating how quickly these styles can make their ways into our wardrobes.
Another way in which high fashion influences what we all wear is through collaborations between fashion houses and popular retailers., for example, H&M X Balmain. These collaborations are always popular, as they give regular people a chance to own exclusive designer items. Due to the collaborative process, the designs are more wearable and affordable then what is displayed on the runway, but still fit the fashion houses image and branding.
Aside from making all your clothes entirely from scratch, with fabric that you wove yourself, there is really no way to avoid the impact that high fashion has on everything that we wear.