At a time when the economy is lacking the necessary confidence of customers the fashion industry has focused on nostalgia and serenity right now. How better to capture customers then with an emotional connection to the past. These emotional connections evoke feelings of serenity, comfort, and familiarity. Marc Jacobs is quoted as saying "It's the emotional connection that makes the sale these days".
The meaning of the trend is how a series of cultures can be inter-related without any full knowledge of the history of fashion or cultures. Knowing how cultures develop certain themes or patterns associated with their heritage can eliminate misunderstood fashion history.
Fair Isle is an island along the Shetland Islands in the north of Scotland. Fair Isle knitting gained popularity when the Prince of Wales, who became Prince Edward VIII, wore Fair Isle tank tops in public in 1921. Fair Isle is a traditional knitting technique used to create patterns with multiple colors. There is a palette of at least five colors and only two colors are used per row. Fair Isle knitwear is the islands heritage and it is named after Fair Isle. "Fair Isle" has been used as a generic brand to sell retail products that have nothing to do with the island.
Currently the islanders are seeking protection from patterns that have been knocked off. Retailers like Gucci and Prada can't keep up with the demand for the colorful knits. There are only a handful of knitters and they have more orders than they can fill. A genuine Fair Isle knit sweater must come from Fair Isle. The knitters who are seeking protection for their knit patterns will have a difficult time considering the fact that in the 16th Century a Spanish Armada galleon was shipwrecked on Fair Isle and the locals copied the Moorish designs on the sailor's garments. Fair Isle had been adopted as the generic name for colored stranded knitting. Does that mean you can only get jerseys in Jersey? Something to think about.
Today's fashion in patterned knits is still referred to as Fair Isle, however, Iceland, Switzerland, Norway, Tirol, and America also have traditional knitted fashion which can be easily mistaken for Fair Isle.
The current trend suggest wanderlust and a sense of adventure. The individual patterned pieces in mostly neutral colors make a strong statement, which makes them easy to pair with your favorite basics People love the retro print because of the nostalgic value. It evokes memories of mulled wine by the fire, skiing seasons and mittens on a string, snow covered mountains, hot chocolate, and winter snow sports. The Fair Isle prints are also associated with comfort, tradition, chunky without being showy, and is considered a recession-buster. The patterned knits today are trendy to the mainstream but with some variations. Celebrities, runway models, and fashion leaders help make it acceptable to more consumers.
The most popular way to style patterned knits is with skinny jeans or leggings to offset the bulkiness of the sweater. Besides the traditional sweater there are tunics, cardigans, sweater coats, skirts, bodysuits, shorts, vests, hoodies, leg warmers, scarves, and gloves.
The concept applied to visual merchandising a sore would be to display the merchandise in a meaningful way by telling a story. It would be important to include the setting and accessories for fur boots, skinny jeans, leggings, hoodies, gloves, and scarves. Having only one item in the store would lack appeal and not capture the true mood of the trend. The visuals should also include faux snowflakes, scenes of snow covered mountains, snow covered ski lodge, and hold a special event in the store and serve hot chocolate.
The fabrics used in this trend would be exquisite fine wool, wool blends, depending on the target market., authentic mongolian lamb fur, authentic shearlings, sturdy leather, alpaca wool, soft woolly patterned knits.
The colors used are soft neutrals, pale pastels, and the color accents are St Moritz Red, Fair Isle Green, Navajo Gray, Nordic Burgundy, Icelandic Ivory, and Tyrolean Pink.
The life style of the customer would be casual, sporty, enjoys, travel and adventure. The target customer covers a broad range of customers. Starting from infants to retirement and for both genders. Since patterned knits are still considered a classic today they appeal to a broad range of personalities who want to avoid unconventional or extreme ways of styling.
