Fashion Futures

Image of Fashion Futures
Author(s): 
Release Date: 
April 3, 2012
Publisher/Imprint: 
Merrell Publishers
Pages: 
240
Reviewed by: 

“Fashion Futures will provide much material for contemplation in the way it travels far beyond the frontiers of the processes and trends in designing clothes and getting them to retail. Fashion Futures proffers an entirely new way of looking at the world of fashion.”

The very first thing that must be noted about this book is that this is not your usual fashion coffee table book. Bradley Quinn transports the reader to a time in the future when technology and science will play as much of an important role  in fashion as inspiration.

This is, without question, a very intelligent assessment of how the business of fashion will evolve. The author takes an almost clinical approach to current fashion while providing incisive insights into the possible worlds of future fashion in which science and technology become integral parts of how fashion comes to life for the consumer. If you have no interest in this juxtaposition of subjects, then frankly this book is not for you.

Mr. Quinn will open your eyes to unimaginable qualities that might become part of the fashion vocabulary; think: wearable intelligence, sensory surfaces, tailoring technology. He opens up our eyes to the little known areas of power and performance when it comes to technologies germane to athletic gear and active wear; think: body armor and biomimetic safety devices such as shin guards. He then provides further data about new fabrics which are already in use by designers all over the world, and what effect all these technologies will have pn the future of fashion and fashion design.

As if all these scientific advancements are not enough to digest, Mr. Quinn then speaks to the future of fashion retailing, taking into account recyclable fashion and resale fashion—think: thrift stores—and then to currently available “tagging” innovations, think: scanning the item with your cell phone.

Lastly, he approaches the idea that the entire retail environment can reflect the design DNA of each designer, much like the Apple retail stores reflect Steve Jobs’ artistic sensibilities, his personal tastes, and his take on the effective marriage of engineering superefficiency and modern beauty.

In general, Fashion Futures will provide much material for contemplation in the way it travels far beyond the frontiers of the processes and trends in designing clothes and getting them to retail. Fashion Futures proffers an entirely new way of looking at the world of fashion.