Streetwear, street culture, “the culture”, whatever you wanna call it, the movement that birthed Highsnobiety is massive now, and as this publication has grown over the years, the scene has become a commercial beast. In 2018, streetwear is well and truly mainstream.
Our commitment to dopeness outweighs our commitment to traffic, and there’s a lot of stuff that we post just cos we love it, but broadly speaking, we owe it to our readership to talk about the stuff that they’re into (personally, anything with BAPE camo on it has me reaching for the sickbag, but HS readers love it).
Every year, we take a step back from the world we cover, and have a think about the things we would really like to see the back of — even if we know we’ll still be writing about them 365 days later.
Welcome to the sixth installment of the ever-divisive comment-magnet that is Highsnobiety’s The Trends We Want to Die Next Year roundup. Here’s five things we’d like to throw in the hype dustbin in 2019.
All-Ugly Everything
"I can't wait to see the trend for ugly aesthetics go away. Ugly sneakers, ugly pattern and color combinations, ugly Instagram posts — this the-dirtier-the-better approach has to stop. It's great to have diverse aesthetics around, and ugly can be inspirational, but not if it becomes a movement which feels forced.
There's brands like Prada who have it in their DNA to handle weirdness unexpected mixes in a refined way — they can make it work. Many others try hard and fail."
— Herbert Hofmann, Creative Director of Commerce
Plastic Fashion
"This year saw the rapid rise of PVC and plastic materials on the men's and women's runways, which trickled all the way down to the high street. For an industry that puts out so much waste already, the promotion of PVC seems unethical. Brands preach that they are striving to be more environmentally conscious, yet by making "plastic, fantastic" it shows their true colours."
— Christopher Morency, Editor-at-Large
Drip Drip Drip
"First, it was "swag," then came "sauce," and now it's all about the "drip." I'm literally TIRED of hearing the word nowadays, and it's arguably one of the most overused phrases of 2018, along with "keep the same energy" and the like. It seems like every rap song nowadays has the word drip — from Cardi B's "Drip" and Offset's "Ric Flair Drip" to Lil Baby and Gunna's "Drip Too Hard" — and every IG caption has to include the word somewhere. While it's pretty safe to assume that we've all used the word at some point, we probably can all agree that the word is played out, old, tired, and just needs to retire. It was fun while it lasted. Now, can we please leave "Drip" in 2018?"
— Feleg Tesema, Associate Shopping Editor
Aggressive Sales Pitches
"This might be a long shot but I would like to see a less aggressive way of people selling stuff on IG. Whether it is a subtle add for the latest sneaker, clothing collection or food supplements. Most memes aren't even memes anymore but more or less clever put together ads (yes I'm talking about you Fashion Nova!). Some are easy to spot, others less. This also extends onto other social media channels and sponsored content on your favorite publication (yes, we do it too, everybody's gotta pay bills). But what I would like to see is an increase in organic content and maybe a picture without a tagged brand once in a while."
— Nigel Minani, Commerce Content Curator
Influencers
"To be honest, I thought the influencer bubble would have popped a long time ago. If you don’t have a real craft, and you’re just wearing cool clothes on the internet, you need to re-asses. Most influencer feeds are just an endless and soulless cycle of products, which the influencers themselves don’t really care about. I'm sick and tired of obsessive and incessant tagging of @brands and #events, and I definitely don’t care about your discount code. I’m not on Instagram to see that. Brands are partly to blame too, because influencers are inauthentic, ineffective, and they’re not even loyal to the brands and products they flaunt. Brands, please stop working with influencers, because they don’t even influence anyone. To quote Holden Caulfield, it’s all a bit phony. I’m not tagging anyone in 2019."
— Chris Danforth, Footwear Editor
In other style news, Kanye West fans are misinterpreting the latest hoodie from Cactus Flea Market
