The Knotted Waist

Over the past couple of weeks I have been working with my seminar group looking at the 'knotted Waist Trend'. In recent years we have really seen the trend develop and grow, as more designers and retailers include it in their products, looking back at the origins of the trend in the 90's it was first seen on celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston and Kate Moss where they simply knotted/ tied a plaid shirt around the waist and in recent years it has been developed, we are now seeing it incorporated into the pieces themselves.

After researching into the trend I found that Celine in there Fall 2013 collection included 2 pieces, of what is now known as the knotted waist, they really took on this trend giving it a new appearance by redeveloping it for todays modern consumer (giving it a new lease of life from the tired/dated plaid shirt). From this it has been repeatedly featured in numerous catwalk; including recent collections for S/S 17 where Vivetta, Fendi and See by Chloe have put their own twist on this trend.

Although this trend is being adopted by designers and the high street, consumers are still not buying into it. There are a number of reason as to why this is not being seen on a daily basis but one of the main factors that I feel is the cause of this is that it is quite a bulky trend; it's not that flattering, women like to show off their waist and natural curves (which has been a key trend in the past 12 months when you look at the development of the 'waist trainer' which has been promoted widely). Women want to feel confident in the clothes that they wear and in my personal opinion this is a hit and miss trend where you have to really commit to it. Another factor which I think is hugely affecting this trend is the manufacturing of the garments. When Celine showcased it in 2013 they used a thick wool material giving the pieces structure but in order for high street brands to adopt the trend they have to use cheaper materials that are more polyester based in order for the normal consumer to be able to afford it.

Which can be seen from the two images below; The piece of the left is a jumper that was found in liberty (unknown of brand) and the piece on the right is a shirt from Zara

Even the way that the two pieces fall on the hanger are completely different, showing the budget that both brands had to produce them. Zara is known for its fast turn around of seeing a trend on the cat walk to it being in there shops so the manufacturing of the shirt was probably quite a quick process, where as the jumper still holds its shape and structure, with it most likely being in development for the best part of 6 months.

Looking a promotional point of view when as a group we were carrying out retail research in Nottingham but mainly on are London trip we noticed that the trend is not being featured when compared to other current trends and if the stores were trying to highlight the trend they used the shirt tied around the waist.

Retailers, stylists and the designer themselves aren't really talking about or communicating the trend that much. As part of my research I looked through a number of magazines in the university archives, and what I noticed was that there hasn't really been much coverage of the trend, instead the 'shirt tied' around the waist is still widely being seen, this could be as it is a comfortable trend that hasn't really gone out of fashion and especially with the seasonal weather people like to layer their outfits and this is easily achieved through this.

Over all there hasn't been that much promotion of the trend which is why it was;t been seen much on the consumer, however when you look at the majority of the pieces that incorporate this trend they are more spring/ summer so many in a couple of months time it will be vastly seen on the consumer.

#knottedwaist #trend